313
Ozzy Osbourne’s official website
hosted a poll for fans to vote for the next
single from his 2007 album Black Rain.
They were offered three tracks to choose
from—the title song “Black Rain” won.See also: Finding a profitable niche 22–23 ■ Understanding the market 234–41 ■ Make your customers love you 264–67 ■
Why advertise? 272–73 ■ Applying and testing ideas 310–11 ■ Benefitting from “big data” 316–17
DELIVERING THE GOODS
ratings and reviews allow companies
to see what their customers like
and dislike about a product.
In the IT industry, companies
such as Apple and Microsoft use
beta testing to enhance the quality
of their new products. This process
involves the software developer
prereleasing copies of new software
via the Internet. Members of the
public who are interested in
software and programing have the
opportunity to road test the new
product. They might point out bugs
they encounter and offer possible
solutions to the problems they have
identified. The developer has the
opportunity to improve the software
before it is released, increasing the
probability of the new product
succeeding in the marketplace.
Crowdsourcing
The belief that companies can, and
should, learn from their customers is
growing. One example is the rise of
crowdsourcing—a practice where
companies get ideas, or even finance
for a new product (crowd funding),
from the public. There are different
types of crowdsourcing. For
example, some independent
filmmakers finance their movies as
crowdsourcing projects. Carmakers
such as Citroën and Nissan have
used crowdsourcing to enable car
buyers to contribute ideas for the
kind of product features that should
be built into new vehicles. Citroën
ran its crowdsourcing project via a
Facebook app. Members of the
general public were free to join the
Facebook group—called C1
Connexion—and add their thoughts
on six key aspects of the new car’s
design, including the number of
doors, the color of the interior, and
the equipment specification. Citroën
kept its promise to build the car in
line with the preferences expressed
via the Connexion Facebook app.
There are several advantages to
incorporating positive and negative
feedback from members of the public
and customers into the product-
development process. The most
obvious is that it is very cheap. In
many cases companies do not pay
for the ideas and opinions of
crowdsourcers; interested volunteersoffer the information free of charge.
If cash is offered in exchange for
feedback, the amounts tend to be
small. Those who use crowdsourcing
as part of the product-development
process also recognize that there will
be experts outside the company who
are not on the payroll, but who have
valuable ideas and knowledge that
should be harnessed. ■Wikipedia
The online encyclopedia,
Wikipedia, was set up in 2001
by Larry Sanger and Jimmy
Wales as a crowdsourcing
project. Rather than hiring paid
writers and editors, the founders
of Wikipedia asked members of
the public to create the product
themselves by submitting their
articles electronically.
By July 2013 Wikipedia
comprised over 22 million
articles, written in 285
languages by 77,000, largely
anonymous and unpaid, authors.Wikipedia is an open-source
project, meaning that everyone
with access to the Internet is
able to write or make changes to
it. Wikipedia does not charge its
customers for using its product.
Instead, the project is financed
by donations from supporters.
Many of these supporters argue
that Wikipedia is superior to
conventional encyclopedias
because, unlike them, articles
can be updated quickly and
easily. Wikipedia has taken the
concept of crowdsourcing to the
limit—the entire product has
been created by consumers.The more you engage
with customers the
clearer things become
and the easier it is to
determine what you
should be doing.
John Russell
Harley Davidson president (1950 –)