Consumers keen on co-creation, says Gongos survey

The firm conducted a survey of 1,000 US adults to find out whether they would be be willing to play a bigger part in the creation of new products and their packaging and marketing, to which 92% said they would be interested in playing a part.

Gongos said that the categories consumers most wanted to have a hand in included snacks and beverages, consumer electronics and health and wellness.

The survey found that while consumers “do not necessarily expect recognition or direct compensation” for their contribution, 73% would expect to receive a sample product. Seventy-six percent said that they would be willing to forgo acknowledgement or creative license for their ideas, protecting the company from claims based on intellectual property rights of royalty expectations.

Michael Alioto, vice president of analytics at Gongos Research, said: “Companies are looking for new ways to bring consumers to the table. Engaging consumers in the pre-planning stages stages or early in the design phase will account for critical ‘wants’ and ‘needs’, lowering the risk of new product failure in the marketplace.”

“While this is our initial study focused on ‘co-creation’, it indicates that there is no real downside to integrating consumers into the full product creation mix, unless of course product designers and marketers see it as a threat to their livelihood, which they should not,” he added.

The firm drew its sample from its 20,000-strong Consumer Village online research community.