Co-creation: An effort to blend values

Many companies are looking at co-creation of products and services. But will customers like their Cadbury chocolate as coffee beverage or their Starbucks coffee as cola drink?

Cadbury recently announced a co-creation initiative with Cafe Coffee Day. As part of the new initiative, the Cafe Coffee Day will serve drinks at its outlet that use Cadbury chocolates as primary ingredients and brand these drinks on the lines of Cadbury's brands like Dairy Milk, Five Star and so on. Sanjay Purohit, director marketing, Cadbury, said, "This is an effort to reach out to chocolate lovers with something novel. It is also an opportunity to enthuse teenagers by adding to their joyful moments."

Cadbury has also used these unique combinations with its internal product portfolio. For example, its malted beverage drink Bournvita and chocolate bar Five Star were combined to create the Caramel Bournvita beverage mix.

But do these co-creation efforts boost sales in the long term? Sunil Alagh, chairman, SKA advisors said, "Co-creation is an innovation on co-branding and the market is flooded with co-branded products. Companies should look at two essential benefits in case of co-creations. "First, the brands should fit into each other and then the brands should be market leaders in their category."

He added that co-creation was a tool used by marketers in mature and developed markets. Internationally, companies have been creating innovative products to excite customers. Pepsi had a tie-up with Starbucks to introduce Frappuccino Double Shot.

Recently Nestle and the Coca-Cola announced that Beverage Partners Worldwide (BPW), a 50:50 joint venture between the two company, will be introducing ready-to-drink black tea functional drink. BPW also launched Enviga "" a green tea-based drink, in the US and scheduled for rollout in Europe next year.

But, it is too early to expect more companies going in for co-created products. Analysts predict that co-created products will increase trials but need not result in repeat purchases.

In India, Pepsi tried a coffee-cola combination, when it introduced the coffee-based soft drink, Cafechino. But the blend of coffee and cola was solely created by Pepsi as it wanted to provide the customer with more variety. Also, the communication for Cafechino was more spirited and youthful. But experts say this was only to create excitement in the category and not to ensure sustained sales.