What's the value of crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing, defined as “requesting ideas from the public
to inform a new creative project”, or “open innovation”, has become
increasingly fashionable with crowdsourcing site businesses operating in their
own right, acting solely as a platform for other businesses wishing to connect
with the public through open innovation projects.
The toy company Mattel has just launched a collaboration
with platform Genius Crowds in the hope of cultivating new design ideas for its
branded Barbie and Hot Wheels products.
Volvo has announced its plans to crowdsource new car
designs. Their “You Inside” Facebook app calls for customers to upload pictures
and information about how they use their cars, including what they keep inside
them, to inform the company’s new product development.
Crowdsourcing is also being utilised in the public sector.
The UK government has recently revealed plans to host a competition to get
people involved in designing new housing in their local areas. Backed by Sir
Terence Conran, who will be one of the judges, the scheme aims to stimulate new
house building and change people’s attitudes toward what have been considered
“homes from hell”.
While all these initiatives seem valuable in getting closer
to consumers at the research stage, using crowdsourcing for design competitions
is unpopular with design and marketing agencies, with many industry
professionals feeling that it is a threat to the traditional creative process
and exacerbates the free pitching problem on a massive scale. Businesses can go
online, input a few details, post a brief and hundreds of designers from around
the world will send their proposals, from which you can choose one for around
£195.
“The design process should be in-depth and rigorous,” says Tim Holmes, Managing Director of Parenthesis Design Consultancy,
“At Parenthesis we have long-standing client relationships, where our clients come to us for a professional and considered creative approach which provides measurable results for their businesses. Unfortunately there will always be businesses out there who do not appreciate the value of quality design and are willing to pay peanuts for bad design and this is what the crowdsourcing competitions are capitalising on.
"Crowdsourcing is fine as a way for businesses to engage customers in the developmental stages of a new product, and it can be a useful tool in gathering information about them, but companies should approach with caution using it as a cheap way to commission design, as there’s no opportunity to fully understand the brand values and develop a brand identity”.
A complete rebrand appears to be exactly what cheese company
Wyke Farms used crowdsourcing for. Design Week reported last week that the
company initially asked for unpaid creative work from design agencies to be
submitted before asking Facebook fans to choose among them. Commentators have
criticised the move, suggesting that it shows the company lacked the confidence
and clout to engage in the traditional design process and choose the new
identity itself.
So the exercise backfired for Wyke Farms attracting
considerable negative publicity for the company and reflecting badly on its
weak brand values.
In conclusion then, we believe that crowdsourcing can be
valuable as part of the initial research process however in the case of
developing and building a brand, it has a detrimental effect and devalues the
creative process leading to ‘churn it out’ budget logos and the recycling of
ideas.
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