"Together, the rise of active and knowledgeable customers, the growth of online consumer networks, the development of personalised and experience-based forms of customer value and issues of declining trust are challenging the traditional concept of the market as well as established marketing and brand management practices. In the emerging view of markets, where the focus is on consumer-company interaction, the roles of the company and the consumer converge. The firm and the customer are both collaborators and competitors in co-creating value. As a result, the market becomes a “forum where dialogue among the consumer, the firm, consumer communities and networks of firms takes place” (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004: 122). In such markets, the ability of company-created and managed brands and advertising to communicate a consistent corporate or product image is steadily declining in effectiveness and relevance. As traditional mass media is overtaken by word-of-mouth and peer review dialogue as the primary driver of consumer attitude and brand choice, consumers are more able to challenge a company’s marketing claims as well as seek out alternatives (Urban, 2004)."
The image below is work-in-progress of a research question mind-map that explores the problem, core influences, responses, barriers, methods, tools and options for the the firm-customer co-creation of brands. (An Xplane version without bullet points would be better!)
Click on the image to view the full-size map. Then download, steal, critique, add bits, make a paper airplane - do as you wish.
Any problems, here is a .pdf version.
The above passage is an extract from a draft academic paper which I am refining and will post-up soon.
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