By now it’s fair to say most of us have heard the term “crowdsourcing.” Wikipedia defines crowdsourcing as: “the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call.”
One of the ways small and large businesses alike have been harnessing the power of the crowd is in the area of branding and marketing. Companies are now realizing that customers are often more than happy to tell them exactly what customers want and, at times, even willing to build it for them, too!
Crowdsourcing - Everybody’s Doing It
Companies large and small are turning to the crowdsourcing process to help shape their brand, position their services and even to design their products. Popdeck is a company that lets its customers design, and then buy, their own custom skateboards. Redesignme lets companies post projects so they can ask their customers to help design and refine their products. In fact, even large companies like Starbucks and Dell have started crowdsourcing projects to throw open the doors of innovation by letting customers have input on everything from store and product design to marketing messages.
Hundreds of Heads Are Better Than One
The reason this method is building steam is the simple premise that two heads (or hundreds, as the case may be) are better than one.
Author: Ross Kimbarovsky
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