Crowd Sourcing
Crowdsourcing is using large groups of people outside of a company, mainly their customers, to help in creating ideas or new products. Views from someone who uses their products gives an insight on what they can do to improve the products or to put into action recommendations from the consumer to create something new. This has been around for years. They would ask through surveys or other means for input on how to make something better. “With the use of the internet companies invite the community to help in creating content or software. Many times they offer prize money or a moment of glory as an incentive or reward” (Kotler & Keller, 2012. P. 575).
An advantage to crowdsourcing is it can help customers feel connected to a company or product and can be a form of free advertising through word of mouth. A drawback to that would be getting the right customer at the right time. A customer may not know what they want and can lead a company astray by giving a wrong insight to what is possible. Customers are not the only source. A wider range of information can come from distributors or retailers not closely related to the product or service. Another advantage is crowdsourcing can reach a larger mass of people. “It may not always lead to the creation of a product or service, but it could also help in decision making or getting projects funded” (Sloan, 2011). More creative ideas can come from a diverse group. It can be time consuming. There will be a lot of time identifying the ideas that will work and to develop those ideas. Crowdsourcing tasks should be small, simple and fun to keep an individual interested.
McDonalds has used crowdsourcing successfully. They have utilized contests to get their customers involved. One contest was to put their customer’s faces on cups and bags. They were able to choose 24 faces to be used worldwide. In France a contest was run to change their logo to represent sustainability. In Germany they developed a site to develop new burger ideas. Customers could visually design a burger and it would be voted on to see is people liked that idea. In the United States, McDonalds “On the go” promotion of chicken bites enabled people to come up with an illustrated version of expressions. McDonalds uses the consumer wisely all over the world. It helps with their advertising and in the creation of new food products.
Crowdsourcing is a way company’s can use the consumer for betterment of their product or services. Not every crowdsourcing idea will be successful. They could be total