Co-creation communication

Abstract

In the following I will present a quantitative research paper that is based on the evaluation of the extent to which people appreciate co-creation communication as well as their willingness to participate in the co-creation communication process. Co-creation communication is the process of involving consumers in the external communication process with the help of three steps. The first step is bringing the message to them. The second step is letting the consumers respond followed by the third step in which this input is used to design the final external communication practice. Next to the quantitative research, a qualitative research will be presented which contains the discussion of an unsuccessful and a successful campaign. In addition, the opinion of marketing managers and senior managers on the topic of co-creation communication will be presented in order to shed some more light on some of the more notable results from the quantitative research. Co-creation is still a hardly touched area. The concept has been scientifically imbedded, but it is not clear if the consumer really wants to be reached with co-creation. This paper is intended as a first careful step in order to determine what the consumer thinks about ‘co-creation communication’. The key question of this research is therefore: ‘To what extend do people appreciate co-creation communication and are they willing to participate?’ To determine if consumers want to take part in the co-creation communication process, we first define what ‘co-creation communication’ is, starting by sketching the history of social changes and the role of communication with reference to the theories of Cornelis (1988) and Thijssen (2004). Then we explore the origin of the word ‘experience economy’ with the help of Pine and Gillmore (1999). This is followed by the definition of the concept and principles of co-creation itself and a discussion of co-creation as a tool in external communication with reference to the theory of Prahalad & Ramaswamy (2004). Finally, we touch on the importance of media choice within the context of the three steps of co-creation that were used in the definition of co-creation communication. The results from the online quantitative questionnaire are gathered from a survey involving 305 participants that formed a representative sample of the Dutch population. The result of the quantitative research shows that people appreciate co-creation with a majority being open to the concept. However, most of them are not sure if they are willing to participate. This willingness to participate differs with respect to the chosen media in every step, the product category and the age of the consumer. The qualitative research shows that besides the factors age, product category and media there are also some other important factors, such as the level of control, environment and bonding with a brand, which influence the success of the co-creation campaign. The remarkable results obtained in the quantitative part are also explained with these factors.