I love the Simpsons. It’s one of the longest running shows on TV because it somehow remains relevant, funny, timely, and simple. Lately it seems you can’t open up a link without hearing, “consumers are in control” and “let the consumer decide.” I’m finding it tougher and tougher to swallow these statements. It’s almost gotten as bad as “stimulus package” messaging advertisers are flocking to. This isn’t the time or place to get into a lengthy debate on whether consumers are in control and if we should simply let them decide what products are launched, in addition to controlling the messaging/marketing used to support the product. I’ll make time in a future post to discuss this in detail.
Coming back to the Simpsons…there’s an episode called “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” The Wikipedia entry does a great job of providing details of the episode. In short here’s what happens:
- Homer learns about his half brother Herb
- Herb owns a car company, called Powell Motors
- Herb and his team are working on a new car
- Herb decides to let Homer, the average consumer, have full control over the development of the new car
- Homer leads the development and names the car, The Homer
- The Homer is unveiled and is a complete failure – not only is it ugly, but it’s insanely expensive
- Herb’s company goes bankrupt
Here’s a video showing what The Homer looked like:
Consumer input is one thing. Marketers have been doing that for years through product testing, ethnographic studies, focus groups, and more. The methods for how we engage these consumers for feedback has changed; it’s evolved. That’s a good thing. But, to think that we can blindly shirk our responsibilities and simply do whatever the consumer wants is potential recipe for business suicide.
Herb, learned this the hard way. Let him be a lesson.
Interactive marketer, innovator, boat rocker, continuous learner, movie lover, risk taker, dad and all around good guy. I'm always up for a spirited conversation. These are my thoughts and ramblings, not those of my employer.
This point really needs to be hammered home, especially to those social media ninjas whose background is in areas outside of marketing.
It’s one thing to let customers design t-shirts (e.g. Threadless), quite another to turn over control of your whole R&D cycle to them.
but seriously alan, do you know any examples of companies that have handed over the R&D cycle to customers? i always hear that as where not to go (and i 100% agree), but i’ve never heard of anyone that has actually done that. i’m not saying b/c i don’t know of any it doesn’t happen, just don’t know any examples.
otherwise, i’m with you and adam on this.
What if the car design had been crowdsourced, rather than handed over to a single maniac. E.g. some sort of “linux” approach to car design?
I’d look forward to a second post on this, because to me it’s all about managing the input and then using it to help make the products better, or at least the marketing and communications of those products.
Many times, people confuse control with perceived control. As Alan points out, Threadless does not give people control over the product (T-shirts), only control over the value that’s added to it.
@Alan – amen on the R&D cycle. I do feel like, on some level, this is what people are taking away from the concept of “your consumers are in control.” Companies like General Mills and Kraft have initiatives focused on letting consumers drive new product development. Listening to consumers is one thing, turning the keys over to them is another.
@Michael M. – Haven’t seen the keys completely turned over…yet. But, is it a matter of time?
@Simon – I think it could work with something that isn’t a car. When you listen to focus groups for cars you always hear the same thing – X feature, Y Feature, Z Feature, etc. + Low Cost
They want it all and they want it free.
@Micheal L. – could not agree more. managing and weighting the input is critical. But, I get the feeling many people are taking the concept/statement literally.
@Michael M – I do not know of any- doubt it’s actually happened, but I do hear it mentioned all the time by the Ninja-ocracy as the way to go – they often cite Threadless, which is not really the best example (design your own t-shirt).
But as per Adam, it may just be a matter of time before someone actually tries this. Which may well work as a PR stunt, but long-term it’s not a good idea.