4 ways to improve engagement with your customers using marketing co-creation

What makes a food brand truly successful? Customers. But, what is the best way to engage them and deliver a successful customer experience that converts into repeated custom? By using marketing co-creation. Let’s explore what co-creation means, and how you can use it to improve engagement with your customers.

What is co-creation?

Put simply, co-creation is a product or service design process, in which input from consumers plays a central role from beginning to end. As a food business, you’re already halfway there. What could be more tempting than food? By involving consumers to participate in what you produce, you’ll not only gain insight into what they want, you’ll give those consumers a sense of empowerment, as you encourage them to use their voice and utilise their input.

Customer involvement

When using marketing co-creation, customer involvement is key. After all, if you know what customers want, they’ll buy what you have to offer. It’s no secret that around 80% of new products fail when they’re launched, but perhaps this could have been reduced had they carried out thorough market research. By understanding and addressing the specific needs of your customers, you’ll stand out above competitors.

Target a specific consumer challenge

Letting the consumers decide what they liked and what they didn’t, gave global brand, Coca Cola, the chance to create new products that were influenced by real consumers’ thoughts and opinions, tackling head-on consumer challenges and building a loyal customer base they could rely on.

Coca Cola tapped into marketing co-creation to inspire product innovation. They understood that tastes around the globe differ, and wanted their products to appeal to a wider audience. The global beverages giant opted for a co-creation experiment with an innovative product strategy that focused specifically on reflecting the true tastes of Southeast Asia, an often underrepresented target audience. Renting a popular local café, the team came prepared with a “kit of things that they can play with” while real consumers tried the products and gave their feedback on what they liked and what they didn’t.

Be transparent with customers

Bring transparent is a great way to build customer trust and strengthen your customer brand relationship.

Plant-based milk brand, Oatly, created a clever spin to the banality of FAQ pages with their ‘Infrequently Asked Questions’ campaign. This page was dedicated to clarifying questions that never crossed your mind in the first place. From questions such as ‘Does drinking oat milk change the sound of your voice?’ to ‘Do I need a permit to carry oat milk?’. These questions may seem strange, but they are a very clear and lighthearted way of being open and honest with customers about their products. From these types of questions, the consumer is made aware that oat milk has a positive effect on the environment and ourselves. Oatly also emphasise that their oat milk doesn’t require drinkers to switch habits and that their product is cruelty-free – but in a fun and unique way that allows their customers to openly understand what their brand stands for without it feeling too informative.

This twist on marketing co-creation gives consumers an insight into Oatly’s key USPs, whilst also reflecting their fun and quirky brand personality. In turn, making more people consider trying the plant-based milk alternative, if they haven’t already.

Create an immersive experience with the right channels

It’s true that consumers have much more influence then ever before on a products’ success or failure on the market. This influence has only grown with the explosion of social media over the last decade. Social media allows customers and consumers to openly and honestly share their experience and opinions about your brand, whether that be your service or a particular product. Due to the visibility that social media allows, these comments and opinions are available for all to see and can have a positive or negative impact on the brand image and reputation.

Whilst some might shy away from this very cut-throat form of marketing co-creation, others are embracing it to add value to their brand as seen with world-renowned coffeehouse chain, Starbucks. They put their consumers at the heart of their brand by giving them most of the control over the brand voice and allowing them to both produce and consume the product at the same time. That’s why Starbucks prioritises the customer experience in their coffee shops all over the world, the content created by Starbucks is made by a community of consumers and popular shows such as Sex in the City showcase their cups which successfully promotes the brand.

Involve customers and build a community

Co-creation is a great way to build a strong community of consumers and encourage greater brand loyalty.

Fried chicken brand, KFC, opened their own pub in London to celebrate the World Cup. By giving fans a chance to come together, enjoy their food and the momentous sporting occasion, they created a strong community and loyal customer base that could bond over the special pop-up pub.

The marketing co-creation event went down a treat with tickets selling out on the first day of sale and customers sitting back with some finger lickin’ good chicken and a pint or two, surrounded by like-minded individuals.

As a food business, you can also use co-creation to get the right results. Everything from the process of creating new menus and recipes, to designing a new food brand, can be applied. Co-creation allows you to understand the benefits to customers, be transparent about the process and incorporate co-creation into your overall content strategy to inspire trust, interest and rewards for both your consumers and your food business.

Image Sources: 1) www.wsj.com 2) www.famouscampaigns.com