According to people who study trends, globalization and the growth of the Internet have made the world’s 6 billion consumers more aware of choices across the planet. They are demanding to put their stamp on what they use and wear.
Interesting, right?
The problem for most companies is though that they don’t now how to involve the consumer - as I see it.
Read more.
5 comments so far
Perhaps it is not exactly the same, but we regularly ask our readers for ideas for stories, and implement them in Lucire. It is not hard: just a mere PHP forum. And a genuine involvement of senior team members who can implement the feedback.
BusinessWeek (as usual 
has their latest cover story on “The Power of Us” on this very topic. Issue dated June 20th. Some interesting case studies on leveraging your customer base to expand your business. They’ve covered companies like Skype; I tried their service today and am very impressed. Talked for one hour to the UK from the US for one Euro.
I had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Malte Sigurdsen - The Brand Manager at Skype as part of the reboot conference.
Fantastic company!!
I’ve been using skype my self for almost 2 years now. I agree, it’s pretty amazing….;-)
All the best
Hans Henrik
Hi,
I’m a Dutch design student and this post took my attention. I really feel this is an issue at the moment, but I’m trying to find out what it really will mean for the future of design. On my weblog you’ll find some interesting links on this subject. Hope you’ll share your ideas with me.
Regarding your remark that a lot of companies don’t know how to involve their customers, there was an overview given in the issue of http://www.trendwatching.com of May, called ‘Customer Made’.
Hans,
I think you’ve pointed to a key question - what are the ways in which companies can involve the consumer? One of the things that I’m interested in is exploring how we might outline and organize the various ways, and further, how one might go about choosing which ones to use in a given situation.
Awhile back I wrote an entry ( http://www.designisinbeta.com/mt/archives/000055.html ) and provided an example of an outline - but it was really rough and I was simply thinking out loud. Maybe we can find or create some others…