When customers get clever: managerial approaches to dealing with creative consumers

By Pierre R. Berthon, Leyland F. Pitt, Ian Paul McCarthy, S. Kates. Strategic Direction, 2007

365 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Creative consumers (defined as customers who adapt, modify, or transform a proprietary offering) represent an intriguing paradox for business. On one hand, they can signify a black hole for future revenue, with breach of copyright and intellectual property. On the other hand, they represent a gold mine of ideas and business opportunities. Central to business is the need to create and capture value, and creative consumers demand a shift in the mindsets and business models of how firms accomplish both. Based upon their attitude and action toward customer innovation, we develop a typology of firms' stances toward creative consumers. We then consider the implications of the stances model for corporate strategy and examine a three-step approach to dealing with creative consumers: awareness, analysis, and response.

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Citations in the corpus

Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy (2012, background): “Creative consumers represent an enthralling contradiction for firms (Berthon et al., 2007).”
The Value of Crowdsourcing: Can Users Really Compete with Professionals in Generating New Product Ideas? (2012, result): “Similar initiatives have been reported for companies across various industries, including Adidas, BBC, BMW, Boeing, Ducati, and Muji (Berthon et al. 2007, Ogawa and Piller 2006, Piller and Walcher 2006, Sawhney and Prandelli 2000, Sawhney, Verona, and Prandelli 2005).”
The open innovation research landscape: established perspectives and emerging themes across different levels of analysis (2016, unknown): “Such users are motivated to produce innovations because they enjoy the process of doing so (West and Gallagher 2006), can benefit from using the solution (Von Hippel 1982), or gain symbolic capital in the form of thanks and peer recognition (Berthon et al. 2007).”
Wikinomics and its discontents: a critical analysis of Web 2.0 business manifestos (2009, background): “2 There are several other books, besides Wikinomics and ‘We-Think’, that illustrate this widespread trend of business books and articles heralding collaborative culture and co-creation.”