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Crowdsourcing and Product Design Essay

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CROWDSOURCING IN PRODUCT DESIGN FROM A MARKETING PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT
Crowdsourcing is the practice of outsourcing tasks including a form of compensation to a wide external group of people. It is a newly used term which refers to the process of obtaining services, ideas, or content by seeking contributions from a large group of people particularly from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. Multiple types of businesses nowadays are using crowdsourcing for a diverse range of tasks that they find can be better completed by members of a crowd rather than by their own employees. This paper examines this new terminology “crowdsourcing” and its relation to marketing in general. It presents as a primary …show more content…

Increasing numbers of companies are realising the potential of tapping into crowdsourcing because it fulfils the marketing concept. Even companies which would not normally be associated with opening up their strategy processes such as Procter & Gamble, are beginning to see the value of relinquishing some control over its strategy in order to tap into open innovation in product design.

In the following sections we will explore the ways in which crowdsourcing can be implemented towards fulfilling the marketing concept in product design. We will also explore its advantages through examples of successful implementation strategies, and its limitations as crowdsourcing may not be suitable for all types of products or types of businesses.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Product Design using crowdsourcing
The conventional method of product design revolves around identifying new opportunities, gaps in the current market place and possible enhancements to existing products using market research. This is then fed back into professional product design teams, which then come up with possible solutions.

Recently, companies have also tapped into ‘user innovation’ by involving users and customers in the design process. This has been made possible by a cumulative change in the

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