Arvind Singhal: Customer-Made

MARKET-MIND

"Customer-Made" is the title of a rather insightful and thought-provoking briefing from a consumer trends-oriented firm named trendwatching.com. In this briefing, the authors have forcefully made an argument for businesses to go beyond the stereotyped routine of taking unimaginative consumer feedback through bland questionnaires on a product or service that has already been created, and instead, make a serious effort to enlist the creativity of countless potential customers and innovators in coming out with ideas to create new products and services.

It seems that there are many progressive organisations already reaping benefits from this effort, and the authors have given several examples including initiatives from firms like Nokia, Lego, Electrolux, Muji, Nestle, Honda, P&G, etc. While going through this list, it struck me that it was ironical that the most creative and successful companies are at the forefront of taking help and direction from many others outside their own product development and marketing departments. The laggards, perhaps not so surprisingly, continue to be very inward-looking.

In India's context, I cannot think of too many examples where companies have made any serious effort in reaching out to their customers""current and prospective""and making them part of the evolutionary process. Sure, many companies in India do extensive consumer and market research, using techniques such as focus group discussions, to get some insight into the consumers' minds and latent needs and desires. However, almost invariably, this kind of research is more directed towards proving or refining pre-conceived hypotheses rather than trying to develop new options.

For instance, leading modern retailers like Shoppers Stop and Pantaloon can actually create an interactive website (or facilitate a physical presence) wherein their key customers (perhaps selected on the basis of their loyalty programmes) can participate in actual merchandising decisions, thereby helping the retailers develop a more focused assortment for their targeted customer groups. These retailers can also invite customers to give ideas in myriad other areas such as store design, store layout, selections of product and service sub-categories to be offered from each location, etc.

Packaged food companies like ITC Foods can perhaps routinely encourage their customers to have an option of giving their suggestions""all the time""on product introductions, product recipes and flavours, product packaging in terms of design and quantity, etc. As the consumer preference rapidly moves towards processed food on account of various demographic and lifestyle changes, getting a real time insight into the evolving consumer needs can give a big competitive edge to serious players in the game.

India, unfortunately, is yet not known for its prowess in design, though raw talent is abundant. Till the time this raw talent hones its practical skills and matures, a wide range of companies engaged in the business of clothing and footwear fashion, jewellery, furniture, kitchen gadgets and cookware, luggage and the like can easily institute design competitions to invite talented professionals (and amateurs) from anywhere in the world to participate in creating new products and rewarding them in some way or another on the basis of whatever creations are selected by the host of such competitions. Many years ago, I had the opportunity of visiting the design studio of one of the largest European textile and clothing companies that still remains a global leader in the product categories it competes in. I was surprised to learn that in the quest of their getting new design ideas all the time, they had set up a system that budding designers and freelancers could actually use this company's design facilities for a limited period of time provided they gave the first right to the host company to use any of their creations. Market leaders such as Titan, Tanishq, Madura Garments, Bata, Usha, Blowplast, Godrej and others could look at creating such opportunities to invite design input not only from India but from anywhere in the world.

Even service providers like hotels, airlines, banks and other consumer-oriented financial services providers can benefit from involving their current and potential customers in identifying new business opportunities and structure service offerings in different ways so as to benefit both the user and the service provider (for instance, can hotels take some guidance from their regular guests on the amenities they would really like to have in their rooms, and the menu they would really like to see on offer in the restaurants and room-service?).

The power of technology""through the Internet and otherwise""enables linking thousands and tens of thousands of individuals across the globe to come together for a common cause, and thereby allowing companies to harness the brain power as well as creative talent of many others beyond those in direct employment of such companies. Yes, this could be seen as leading to erosion of some of the power of those currently in charge of such functions within such companies. However, the more enlightened would see this process as enhancing their effectiveness and hence would be open to such experimenting. I hope that many Indian companies will reflect on this opportunity and make a serious effort to have their customers become their collaborators.

arvind.singhal@technopak.com