Co Creating Brands

An essential guide to contemporary marketing that demonstrates, via case studies, the move towards marketing techniques that better reflect consumer needs. Brand management and development has traditionally been regarded as the responsibility of the organization – they design, produce and sell the brand, before delivering it to customers. Yet this approach can be needlessly restrictive, as the connective power of the internet and the desire of consumers to focus on experiences has reshaped branding. In this digital age, development occurs beyond the limits of the organization so that, in many ways, brands are effectively co-created by consumers. Rather than lead, manage and control, contemporary managers have taken on the new tasks of listening, connecting and participating in brand development. The focus of this process has shifted to the intersection between the organization and its stakeholders, leading to a new paradigm of brand management: the 'co-creation perspective'. Co-Creating Brands is an accessible exploration of how co-created brands produce value and how the success of this approach can be measured and assured. The authors draw upon a wide array of international case studies and strategic models, which clearly demonstrate how to both effectively deliver this method and how to deal with the situational challenges and obstacles that can occur. If organizational leaders are willing to relinquish complete control of their brand and recognize the supportive culture of employees, customers and stake-holders, their brand can become an unstoppable marketing force.

Presenting the basics of brand management, the book provides both a theoretical and practical guide to brands, placing emphasis on the theory that the consumer is a co-creator in a brand′s identity. In a world in which social media and inclusive digital platforms have increased customer engagement, the role of brands and branding has changed. The line between the producer and the consumer has become blurred; consumers are no longer the recipients of brand identity, but the co-creators, playing a significant role in shaping new products and systems. To help students better understand the basics of brand management, and the co-creation theory, the book includes a collection of geographically diverse case studies, including: Burger King, Lego, Lynx, Maserati, HSBC and Vegemite. The book is complemented by online resources for lecturers and students, including PowerPoint slides, journal articles, web and video links, and a selection of exclusive videos with a professional brand consultant. Suitable reading for students of branding and brand management modules.

Presenting the basics of brand management, the book provides both a theoretical and practical guide to brands, placing emphasis on the theory that the consumer is a co-creator in a brand′s identity. In a world in which social media and inclusive digital platforms have increased customer engagement, the role of brands and branding has changed. The line between the producer and the consumer has become blurred; consumers are no longer the recipients of brand identity, but the co-creators, playing a significant role in shaping new products and systems. Case studies include the Canterbury Crusaders, KVD Beauty, Kodak, Yamaha, Ottobock and Holland′s rebrand as The Netherlands.

Any business that wants to continue growing has to consider new ways of developing and engaging with customers and clients. Innovation and co-creation have emerged as the key topics in the post-recession business environment. Brand Together will show you how to involve all stakeholders in the process of creativity - providing inspiration on how to revitalize brands and enable them to succeed in the new world of customer engagement and participation. Brand Together demonstrates how to truly intertwine innovation with brand strategy, with expert guidance on how to co-create with customers from a brand perspective. Drawing on case studies including Barclays, Mozilla, [yellow tail], Kraft Foods, Virgin Media and Danone, it provides valuable insights for marketing and branding professionals, and for anyone who wants to grow their business and brand.

Today’s consumers are more knowledgeable, networked, and vocal. For them consumption is not merely an act of buying products and services, but an expression of their creative potential. Consequently, they are demanding a say and a voice in how companies conceive, develop, and deliver value to them. It is not surprising, therefore, to hear that a large number of companies are transforming how they innovate—not only in terms of developing new products and services, but in how they are created, delivered, and supported to customers. Open Innovation thinking, where companies collaborate with suppliers, distributors, and customers to co-create unique value, is fast replacing traditional thinking that viewed innovation as a proprietary activity and marketing as a static, one-way broadcast. However, while there is significant advocacy and buy-in for collaborating with customers, there is little guidance for companies on how to undertake the journey from applause and appreciation to execution. Only reading about others’ success stories – Nike, Hallmark, P&G, Mozilla, etc. – is not sufficient for helping a company develop a blueprint for themselves. In Customer Driven Innovation, strategy and branding consultant Gaurav Bhalla presents a concrete framework to help companies systematically and effectively design and implement collaborative innovation programs with their customers that can be applied in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts. The authors describe how today’s technologies allow companies to create dynamic dialogues with their customers through shared networks, virtual marketing techniques, and blogs to develop deeper relationships that reinforce brand loyalty and ultimately drive growth. They challenge traditional approaches to market research that measure "customer satisfaction" from a rear-window perspective, and help companies and their customers look forward instead.P>

Apple embraced co-creation to enhance the speed and scope of its innovation, generat­ing over $1 billion for its App-Store partner-developers in two years, even as it overtook Microsoft in market value. Starbucks launched its online platform MyStarbucksIdea.com to tap into ideas from customers and turbocharged a turnaround. Unilever turned to co-creation for redesigning prod­uct lines such as Sunsilk shampoo and revitalized growth. Nike achieved remarkable success with its Nike+ co-creation initiative, which enables a com­munity of over a million runners to interact with one another and the company, increasing its market share by 10 percent in the first year. Co-creation involves redefining the way organizations engage individuals—customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and other stake­holders—bringing them into the process of value creation and engaging them in enriched experi­ences, in order to —formulate new breakthrough strategies —design compelling new products and services —transform management processes —lower risks and costs —increase market share, loyalty, and returns In this pathbreaking book, Venkat Ramaswamy (who coined the term co-creation with C. K. Prahalad) and Francis Gouillart, pioneers in working with com­panies to develop co-creation practices, show how every organization—from large corporation to small firm, and government agency to not-for-profit—can achieve “win more–win more” results with these methods. Based on extraordinary research and the authors’ hands-on experiences with successful projects in co-creation at dozens of the world’s most exciting organizations, The Power of Co-Creation illustrates with detailed examples from leading firms such as those above, as well as from Cisco, GlaxoSmithKline, Ama­zon, Jabil, Predica, Wacoal, Caja Navarra, and many others, how enterprises have used a wide range of “engagement platforms”—and how they have even restructured internal management processes—in order to harness the power of co-creation. As the authors’ wealth of examples make vividly clear, enterprises can no longer afford to view custom­ers and other stakeholders as passive recipients of their products and services but must learn to engage them in defining and delivering enhanced value. Co-creation goes beyond the conventional “process view” of qual­ity, re-engineering, and lean thinking, and is the essential new mind-set and practice for boosting sus­tainable growth, productivity, and profits in the future.

This companion is a prestige reference work that offers students and researchers a comprehensive overview of the emerging co-created, multi-stakeholder, and sustainable approach to corporate brand management, representing a paradigm shift in the literature. The volume contains 30 chapters, organised into 6 thematic sections. The first section is an introductory one, which underscores the evolution of brand management thinking over time, presenting the corporate brand management field, introducing the current debates in the literature, and discussing the key dimensions of the emerging corporate brand management paradigm. The next five sections focus in turn on one of the key dimensions that characterize the emerging approach to corporate brand management: co-creation, sustainability, polysemic corporate narratives, transformation (history and future) and corporate culture. Every chapter provides a deep reflection on current knowledge, highlighting the most relevant debates and tensions, and offers a roadmap for future research avenues. The final chapter of each section is a commentary on the section, written by a senior leading scholar in the corporate brand management field. This wide-ranging reference work is primarily for students, scholars, and researchers in management, marketing, and brand management, offering a single repository on the current state of knowledge, current debates, and relevant literature. Written by an international selection of leading authors from the USA, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, it provides a balanced, authoritative overview of the field and convenient access to an emerging perspective on corporate brand management.

Increasing disruption, diminishing returns, and demanding customers require business leaders to create more value, remain relevant, and stay ahead of competition. CEOs must evolve a "value creation" culture for the company in order to properly balance the interests of customers, employees, investors, and the marketplace. People who succeed, succeed because they create value, but they do so unconsciously. Creating value consciously makes you create more value and destroy less value. Doing something good or improving the well-being of someone creates value. You buy and re-buy a product on a value basis. Value dominant logic is relevant to all of us. Value creation is used in all fields, but is not well understood. This book takes value creation to the next level, showing how value is basic to human endeavor and is not focused on enough even when we try to create value. Most books on value creation focus on creating monetary value for companies. This book suggests that value is greatly created and enhanced by creating value for others. To create value for customers, one must first create value for the providers, including employees, suppliers, and the society at large. The goal is to improve the quality of life and well-being. This book provides ways of implementing these thoughts and educates readers about value and how to create it.