One book which really got me thinking earlier this year was Wikinomics. Although this book, in my view, perhaps exaggerated the situation a bit, there is a really clear movement, through use of new technology, to including the consumer or end customer more fully in decisions about future products they might like. The whole topic of consumer co-creation is beginning to attract players such as Starbuck, Pepsi and even Chrysler. However, according to a very interesting article in Business Week a software company called Daptiv are taking things a bit further with a new package called Greenhouse. The Greenhouse package is provided free to Daptiv clients and allows product improvement suggestions from users to be logged, voted on and tracked. Users of the package can explore various sections such as “plant”, “cultivate”, “germinated”, “watered” and finally when the idea is implemented, “harvested”. Customers can track their ideas and vote on ideas which they really like. To date, well over 200 ideas have been planted and 6 have been implemented. The overall goal, says Tim Low, vice-president of marketing at Daptiv, is for Greenhouse to drive the company’s innovation process “by creating a closer, more intimate dialogue with customers.”

OK so this is a software product, so it’s easier to implement some of the suggestions than say for an FMCG company or another company with large capital investments. I would seriously challenge this sort of thinking. Why can’t you change the way you engage with the consumer just as deeply for an FMCG product? After all, a large part of your product offer, whatever product it is you sell, doesn’t directly relate to the product at all, remember the impact of the diamond shreddies campaign, for example. Why not start there and engage your consumers in co-creating your message?

Incidentally the Wikinomics Blog is worth a look