Internet marketing piafaulseit_final

By embracing new rules of (Internet) marketing and utilizing crowdsourcing a firm can become truly

customer oriented

BUSN32 Internet Marketing, Branding, Consumers

2012-‐02-‐29

Individual Assignment

Written by

Pia Faulseit (840125-‐T247)

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Table of Content

1 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 2

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK........................................................................................................... 3 2.1 NEW RULES OF INTERNET MARKETING .....................................................................................................3 2.2 CUSTOMER ORIENTATION......................................................................................................................3 2.3 CROWDSOURCING................................................................................................................................4

3 CASE EXAMPLES ............................................................................................................................. 6 3.1 MY STARBUCKS IDEA ............................................................................................................................6 3.2 TCHIBO IDEAS......................................................................................................................................7

4 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................... 9

5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................11

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................................12

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1 Introduction

The rapid development and use of Information and Communication Technology within recent decades has brought about several changes for the business and marketing environments (Wind 2008, p. 23; Lutz,

2011, p. 225). The Internet has created new rules and possibilities for companies and their marketing operations as well as the potential to enhance customer orientation. Marketing is now characterized by a high degree of interaction and collaboration between companies and their customers and this

relationship shift has created a customer that is increasingly empowered. (Winer, 2009, p. 109f.; Wind 2008, p. 21; Pires et al., 2006, p. 939)

As empowered customers becoming co-‐inventors, co-‐creators and co-‐marketers, the strict borders

between companies and customers dilute (Wind 2008, p. 22) and some companies even seek to leverage this by deliberately ceding “…power to the collective for specific brand decisions and tasks.” (Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 196) One way in which companies are tapping into the collective for idea generation,

advertising or to inform the product pipeline is crowdsourcing (Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 196).

The implementation of collaborative approaches like crowdsourcing within business and marketing practice is a growing trend. However, there is a lack of academic contribution, especially from marketing research, to this growing field. (Lutz, 2011, p. 225; Bonabeau, 2009, p. 46, 50; Zheng et al., 2011, p. 58)

According to Lutz (2011, p. 233), academic research in marketing tends to follow rather than lead marketing practice with regards to collaborative approaches. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to address this gap by exploring crowdsourcing from a marketing perspective and investigating its potential

as a vehicle for companies to become truly customer oriented. To explore this, three concepts – Internet marketing, customer orientation and crowdsourcing – are outlined based on a literature review. With the lack of academic literature on crowdsourcing from a marketing perspective, journal articles from the

adjacent fields of Research and Development (R&D), Innovation Management and Design are consulted. Two case examples are provided that show how crowdsourcing can be used by companies for customer orientation. Finally, a conclusion is drawn and suggestions for future research are given.

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2 Theoretical framework

The following theoretical framework outlines and defines the three concepts – Internet marketing, customer orientation and crowdsourcing.

2.1 New rules of Internet marketing

With the advent of the Internet, a new digital medium arose which has significantly changed marketing operations (Wind 2008, p. 23; Lutz, 2011, p. 225) from a linear, one-‐way flow of information from

organizations to customers to instead, an exchange of information which increasingly takes place in the form of a dialogue on a one-‐to-‐one, many-‐to-‐many or multi-‐modal level (Rowley, 2004, p. 26; Winer, 2009, p. 108; Muñiz, Schau, 2011, p. 209). Through this new communication model that enables users to

generate and continuously modify content (User Generated Content) (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010, p. 61), organizations now have the possibility to interact with customers and engage them in a collaborative and participatory way (Winer, 2009, p. 108f.; Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010, p. 61) facilitating new customer

relationships and mutual value creation (Rowley, 2004, p. 24; Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 195). Additionally, the Internet marketing environment has hailed new rules of authenticity and transparency, which organizations need to keep in mind when operating online (Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 198; Weinberg,

Pehlivan, 2011, p. 276). Internet marketing can be defined as “Applying digital technologies which form online channels to market […] to contribute to marketing activities aimed at achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers […] to improve customer knowledge […], then delivering

integrated targeted communications and online services that match their individual needs.” (IDM in Chaffey, 2008, p. 19) Social Media sites are increasingly where this new Internet marketing takes place and it is crucial to remember, “it’s all about participation, sharing, and collaboration, rather than

straightforward advertising and selling.” (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010, p. 65)

The above discussion outlines how the digital era has changed the rules of marketing but it is important to note that the role of customers has also changed. Customers are no longer passive recipients of

marketing messages but rather, they take an active role by developing and disseminating marketing messages, co-‐creating marketing content, and becoming increasingly in control of what is said about brands or products. This power shift has fundamentally changed the relationship between companies

and customers. (Wind 2008, p. 21f.; Winer, 2009, p. 112; Rowley, 2004, p. 26f.; Muñiz, Schau, 2011, p. 210) The concept of ‘consumer empowerment’ is widely discussed in the literature (e.g. Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 193; Pires et al., 2006, 938 f.; Muñiz, Schau, 2011, p. 210; Wind, 2008, p. 21).

2.2 Customer orientation

The concept of customer orientation is part of the theory of market orientation, which is primarily addressed by two major groups of authors within academic literature.

Slater and Narver (1990, p. 21; 1994, p. 22) conceptualize customer orientation as one of three major

components of market orientation and state that, “A business is market-‐oriented when its culture is systematically and entirely committed to the continuous creation of superior customer value. Specifically, this entails collecting and coordinating information on customers, competitors, and other significant

market influencers […] to use in building that value.” (Slater, Narver, 1994, p. 22) While Narver and Slater incorporate customer orientation as one component within their theory of market orientation, Kohli and Jaworski (the second group of authors) conceptualize market orientation differently and refer to

customer orientation in connection with the broader concept of market intelligence (Kohli, Jaworski, 1990, p. 3f.; Jaworski, Kohli, 1993, p. 54). “Market orientation is the organization-‐wide generation of

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market intelligence pertaining to current and future customer needs, dissemination of the intelligence

across departments, and organization wide responsiveness to it.” (Kohli, Jaworski, 1990, p. 6)

While both groups of authors conceptualize customer orientation differently within their theories of market orientation, the understanding of customer orientation as such is overlapping (Nwankwo, 1995, p. 6). They commonly state that customer orientation is a central element of market orientation and that it

entails acquisition, assessment and superior understanding of information about customers’ current and future needs, expectations and preferences (Narver, Slater, 1990, p. 21; Kohli, Jaworski, 1990, p. 3f.). This model of information gathering goes beyond traditional customer research to identify not only

expressed but also latent customer needs (Slater, Narver, 1998, p. 1002; Kohli, Jaworski, 1990, p. 4). Through an understanding of and responsiveness to customer needs, organizations can create superior customer value and enhance customer satisfaction and relationships (Narver, Slater, 1990, p. 21; Slater,

Narver, 1994, p. 22f.; Jaworski, Kohli, 1993, p. 53; Kohli, Jaworski, 1990, p. 6; Aziz, Yasin, 2004, p. 5f.). Moreover, by embedding market orientation into their business cultures, organizations can gain sustainable competitive advantages and are likely to increase business performance and profitability

(Kohli, Jaworski, 1990, p. 13, Jaworski, Kohli, 1993, p. 64; Narver, Slater 1990, p. 21f.; Slater, Narver, 1994, p. 26).

The theory of market orientation has since been refined and built upon (Slater, Narver, 1998, p. 1001) with the terms ‘market orientation’ and ‘customer orientation’ now used almost interchangeably and

associated with terms like ‘marketing concept’ and ‘customer first’ (Nwankwo, 1995, p. 6). However, most authors addressing this topic still refer back to the initial theories of market orientation by Kohli & Jaworski and Slater & Narver (e.g. Nwankwo, 1995; Yan, 2011; Aziz, Yasin, 2004, Luo, Seyedian, 2004).

2.3 Crowdsourcing

The term crowdsourcing initially appeared in a 2006 article, “The rise of crowdsourcing,” written by Jeff

Howe and published in the online magazine, Wired (Busarovs, 2011, p. 54; Howe, 2006a, p. 1). According to Howe (2006b), crowdsourcing can be defined as “…the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of

people in the form of an open call.” Although the concept as such existed before 2006 (Busarovs, 2011, p. 54), Howe’s definition of crowdsourcing is generally accepted and commonly used in current literature by authors such as Miziolek (2011, p. 16), Lutz (2011, p. 225) or Poetz and Schreier (2012, p. 246). With

the advancement of the Internet to Web 2.0, companies are now able to “…tap into ‘the collective’ on a greater scale than ever before” (Bonabeau, 2009, p. 46). The concept of crowdsourcing leverages these new possibilities and strives to solve problems with the help of the masses (Busarovs, 2011, p. 54; Zheng

et al., 2011, p. 57). This can take place on companies’ websites, social networks or on special crowdsourcing platforms (e.g. InnoCentive) which all connect companies with individuals (Busarovs, 2011, p. 57; Zheng et al., 2011, p. 59; Doan et al., 2011, p. 88).

Since the concept of crowdsourcing is relatively new, there is limited literature available, especially from

a marketing perspective. Therefore the consulted academic literature originates from adjacent fields and approaches crowdsourcing in terms of different areas of application, such as user-‐driven innovation (Busarovs, 2011), new product development (Poetz, Schreier, 2012), decision-‐making (Bonabeau, 2009),

or packaging and design (Miziolek, 2011). Crowdsourcing has its roots in the idea of open source solutions (OSS) but is applied outside the field of software development (Howe, 2006b; Poetz, Schreier, 2012, p. 246). The concept of crowdsourcing was initially implemented in the field of R&D projects, such

as Innovation Management and New Product Development (Miziolek, 2011, p. 16; Albors et al., 2007, p.

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197). Traditionally, these projects were solely performed company-‐internal by the responsible

departments (e.g. R&D, Marketing, Engineering), but with the growing need to be innovative in today’s business landscape, there is an increasing tendency to look for innovation and ideas to emerge from outside of the company. (Busarovs, 2011, p. 53; Poetz, Schreier, 2012, p. 245; Ebner et al., 2009, p. 243)

Based on this, Busarovs (2011, p. 53) refers to crowdsourcing as a business philosophy for user-‐driven innovation oriented towards true customer needs.

Crowdsourcing’s collaborative model is a growing trend and besides R&D projects, it is increasingly used to address business problems and challenges in marketing and its adjacent fields such as branding,

advertising, market research and design (Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 196; Miziolek, 2011, p. 16; Lutz, 2011, p. 225; Bonabeau, 2009, p. 50f.). Regardless of the area of application, the concept of crowdsourcing directs a task towards a large, undefined group of people via the Internet to make use of collective

intelligence (Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 196; Busarovs, 2011, p. 54; Bonabeau, 2009, p. 46). The mechanism relies on a self-‐selection process among participants who are willing and able to respond to the given task (Poetz, Schreier, 2012, p. 246), which can range from routine to complex to creative

(Busarovs, 2011, p. 54). According to Zheng et al. (2011, p. 59), crowdsourcing can implicate a contest where tasks, requirements, duration and rewards are defined by a company who then evaluates the participants’ proposed solutions. However, the motivation to participate in crowdsourcing does not

necessarily need to be based on monetary rewards, it can also be based on other intrinsic or extrinsic factors such as value driven incentives, recognition or the pleasure of solving a task (Zheng et al., 2011, p. 76f.; Bonabeau, 2009, p. 49). Besides solution generation, crowdsourcing is increasingly used to evaluate

proposed ideas and is often implemented for both reasons in successive steps so that idea creation and voting for selection are part of the process (Bonabeau, 2009, p. 47; Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 196).

There are a number of advantages and risks of using crowdsourcing, but for the purpose of this paper, only certain aspects are relevant and will be discussed. Crowdsourcing can be an alternative to or

complement traditional, internal problem-‐solving approaches by generating more ideas from a diverse and impartial crowd instead of relying solely on internal expertise (Poetz, Schreier, 2012, p. 248; Busarovs, 2011, p. 59; Miziolek, 2011, p. 17; Ebner et al., 2009, p. 243). It can be used to overcome a

divergence between an expert’s attempt to find a solution and real customer needs (Busarovs, 2011, p. 53) or to identify valuable consumer insights (Miziolek, 2011, p. 17). Concurrently, there exists the threat of not reaching a critical mass of participants or engaging a group that does not represent the target

group or consumer base and therewith, their real needs (Miziolek, 2011, p. 17, Busarovs, 2011, p. 57; Poetz, Schreier, 2012, p. 255). Moreover, quantity does not necessarily equal quality, thus, the generated

ideas may not be appropriate for the problem or may lead to undesirable outcomes (Miziolek, 2011, p. 17; Bonabeau, 2009, p. 48; Poetz, Schreier, 2012, p. 245; Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 202).

There are a number of key issues to remember when considering crowdsourcing. Control is one crucial factor – finding the right balance between ceding control to the crowd and keeping the management and

overall strategic direction in the hands of the company (Miziolek, 2011, p. 17; Bonabeau, 2009, p. 48; Poetz, Schreier, 2012, p. 248). Furthermore, companies need to balance the need for a diversity of ideas with the level of expertise to ensure quality (Bonabeau, 2009, p. 48). Turning to the crowd can reveal

contrary interests, misbehaviour and critiques which would then need to be addressed (Bonabeau, 2009, p. 48). Every case should be carefully considered, weighing the potential benefits and downfalls of crowdsourcing with the particular task/problem in mind (Busarovs, 2011, p. 58; Miziolek, 2011, p. 17).

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3 Case examples

There are a number of companies and brands that implement crowdsourcing as a tool to generate ideas or solutions for a given problem (Lutz, 2011, p. 225). MyStarbucksIdeas.com and Tchibo-‐Ideas.de are two interactive platforms that are examples of crowdsourcing being used for customer orientation from a

marketing angle. Due to limited academic literature dealing with the selected cases, the descriptive outlines below are based mainly on an analysis of the platforms.

3.1 My Starbucks Idea

One mentioned crowdsourcing platform in the marketing literature is MyStarbucksIdea.com by the U.S. coffee chain Starbucks (Fournier, Avery, 2011, p. 196; Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010, p. 66). The company

describes MyStarbucksIdea.com as “…an online community dedicated to sharing and discussing ideas and allowing you to see how Starbucks is putting top ideas into action.” (Starbucks Corporations, 2010a)

MyStarbucksIdea.com invites individuals to share ideas on how Starbucks can create better customer experiences in order to improve its business (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010, p. 66; Starbucks Corporation,

2010a). Users register online and upload ideas into three main categories – products, experiences and involvement – which are then divided into sub-‐categories with ideas ranging from small improvements to revolutionary changes (Starbucks Corporation, 2010a; Starbucks Corporations, 2010b).

Figure 1: MyStarbucksIdea.com

The uploaded ideas can be discussed and voted on by other users and they can also be posted to other social media sites, like Facebook. The most popular or innovative ideas and suggestions are subsequently

considered by Starbucks for implementation (independent of the voting process) (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010, p. 66; Starbucks Corporations, 2010a). The company appoints employees from different departments as ‘idea partners’ to join and host the on-‐going discussions and advocate ideas and suggestions within the

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company (Jarvis, 2008; Starbucks Corporations, 2010a). In the Idea partners’ blog, ‘Ideas in Action’,

customers receive information about the status of the ideas – under review, reviewed, in the works, launched – and are able to comment on the process (Starbucks Corporations, 2010a; Starbucks Corporations, 2010b; Starbucks Corporations, 2010c). Overall, the mechanism of Starbucks’

crowdsourcing platform does not involve any monetary or tangible rewards for the proposed customer ideas regardless of whether they are implemented or not. Customers are engaging just for the purpose of participating (Starbucks Corporations, 2010a; Jarvis, 2008).

MyStarbucksIdea.com is a good example of crowdsourcing as a tool to engage consumers in a well-‐

structured process, while sending them the message that their input matters and is taken seriously.

3.2 Tchibo Ideas

The German coffee company, Tchibo, successfully expanded their business beyond coffee sales by developing a weekly, rotating product range that is theme-‐based (e.g. household goods, sports equipment) and sold at shops or online (Tchibo, 2012a; Tchibo, 2012b). To interact with its customers

and generate ideas for their product ranges, Tchibo implemented a crowdsourcing platform called Tchibo-‐Ideas.de (Tchibo Ideas, 2012a; Schögel, Mrkwicka, 2011, p. 9; Evans, McKee, 2010, p. 335).

Users register, create a profile and interact on the platform in three ways. First, they can submit their own everyday problems in the form of tasks which are then directed toward other users for input.

Second, users can propose solutions in the form of concrete, tangible products to the uploaded tasks submitted by other users or themselves. (Tchibo Ideas, 2012b; Tchibo Ideas, 2012c; Tchibo Ideas, 2012d) The different tasks and proposed solutions are divided into categories (e.g. kitchen, health) and

correlated with other, similar tasks or solutions. The platform allows interaction in the form of task and solution generation, comments and discussion but users are not able to vote for proposed solutions. (Tchibo Ideas, 2012e; Tchibo Ideas, 2012f)

The final way in which users can use the platform is to propose an innovative, market-‐ready product

design for cooperation in producing and selling with Tchibo. The product design must fit Tchibo’s product line, be new, legally defendable and producible. If a cooperation is achieved, the resulting product will be produced and marketed by Tchibo with the trademark rights remaining with the user who also receives

part of the profit. (Tchibo Ideas, 2012g) However, Tchibo reserves the right to utilize proposed tasks and/or generated solutions from the first two interaction categories without involving users in the realization of the idea and the profit (Tchibo Ideas, 2012h).

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Figure 2: Tchibo-‐Ideas.de

Tchibo does not offer monetary rewards for proposed tasks and solutions, but, tasks and solutions submitted by participants can be selected as ‘tasks of the month’, ‘solution of the month’ or ‘solution of the year’, winning between €1.200 and €10.000 for the accolade (Tchibo Ideas, 2012i, Tchibo Ideas,

2012j).

Like Starbucks, Tchibo classifies their crowdsourcing platform as a form of a community where users can interact not only with Tchibo, but with each others’ problems and ideas taking customer orientation and engagement to a whole new level (Tchibo Ideas, 2012a). So far, the platform has 10.305 registered users,

1.191 proposed tasks, 718 submitted solutions, 8.576 comments, 177 winners and 19 resulting products (Tchibo Ideas, 2012k). Tchibo-‐Ideas.de illustrates the different possibilities of using crowdsourcing as a tool to identify customer needs, generate solutions and new product ideas, and engage the customer on

an entirely new level.

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4 Discussion

As outlined above, the Internet’s impact on marketing operations has changed the relationship between companies and customers resulting in more reciprocal interaction and increased collaboration. This discussion addresses the question – can companies use a crowdsourcing platform as a vehicle to become

truly customer oriented?

Crowdsourcing embraces the new rules of Internet marketing, enabling companies to interact with their customers and engage them in the generation and evaluation of ideas and solutions for improved

customer experiences and more innovative products. This concept embraces consumer empowerment and deliberately cedes power and control from the company to the customer. Crowdsourcing is based on Web 2.0 technologies and like other Social Media platforms, amplifies a dialogue between companies

and customers. Both case examples use their crowdsourcing platforms to foster an ongoing dialogue between customers and employees initiated by the idea contributions and maintained through discussions/comments. These platforms provide a high degree of transparency since all suggestions and

discussions are disclosed and in the case of MyStarbucksIdea.com, transparency is reinforced by posting the ‘implementation status’ of each idea on the company’s blog. The fact that the ideas and solutions generated have the potential to be realized in the form of new or improved products, gives these

crowdsourcing platforms a high degree of authenticity.

By relating the case examples to the theoretical discussion of crowdsourcing, it is apparent that the consulted literature does not cover all facets of crowdsourcing, especially with reference to marketing. For example, neither case uses crowdsourcing to address specific, pre-‐defined tasks with a time limit as

described in the literature. Rather, the open call for idea generation takes place continuously and invites customers to submit ideas and suggestions based on their own interests and needs. The main purpose of both platforms is to leverage collective intelligence in order to address business challenges and to

improve products and services. MyStarbucksIdea.com works without monetary rewards while Tchibo-‐Ideas.de offers no fixed rewards for submitted tasks and solutions but rewards outstanding ideas on a monthly or annual basis. Furthermore, there is the possibility to enter into a cooperation with Tchibo

which could result in profitable earnings. Both companies utilize the platform to crowdsource ideas and generate solutions while Starbucks extends this to evaluate the ideas generated. In both cases, the companies have the ultimate decision on whether an idea will be incorporated into the business or not.

The analysis of MyStarbucksIdea.com and Tchibo-‐Ideas.de reveals that the companies have taken the

concept of crowdsourcing one step further by including not only idea generation and evaluation features, but also aspects of brand-‐communities by empowering customers with a shared interest to create profiles and interact. Only a few authors, such as Ebner et al. (2009) and Zheng et al. (2011), address this

integration of crowdsourcing and community building in academic literature. With regards to the identified rules of Internet marketing, the chosen examples of crowdsourcing incorporate key characteristics such as interaction, dialogue and transparency to an even larger extent than the literature

describes.

The crowdsourcing platforms enable Starbucks and Tchibo to capture valuable information about customer needs through the direct evaluation of ideas and tasks uploaded by the consumers and through engaging in and monitoring on-‐going conversations, demonstrating the powerful link between

crowdsourcing and customer orientation. Customer orientation strategically focuses on customers and their current and future needs in order to offer superior value and enhance satisfaction. Besides gathering information about customers and their needs, Starbucks and Tchibo engage in a discourse with

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customers and collaborate with them to implement ideas that are based on true customer demands. As

a response to the generated ideas and suggestions, new products developed are more likely to fulfil real customer needs and create superior customer value. Another requirement of customer orientation is the dissemination of customer needs throughout the organization. The Starbucks example demonstrates this

cross-‐functional coordination as the ‘Idea Partners’ who interact with, monitor, and guide ideas and discussions represent different departments. Tchibo’s crowdsourcing platform goes one step further than Starbucks’ as it invites customers not only to submit ideas relating to the company, but also offers

them a platform for finding solutions to their own, everyday problems. With this move, the company places its customers and their needs as a main focus of their crowdsourcing platform. Through crowdsourcing, both companies give their customers the feeling that their input matters, is taken

seriously and that they are part of the organization. Being truly customer oriented fosters customer satisfaction and customer relationships and as Yan (2011, p. 692) addressed in the concept of market orientation with relation to Internet and Social Media, these emerging channels enable organizations to

be more responsive to customers and their demands and grasp their prevailing mood. (Yan, 2011, p. 692) The outlined case examples support this with regards to crowdsourcing.

There are also possible downsides to crowdsourcing with regards to customer orientation as it is difficult to know if the participants represent the actual customer base. This implies that gathered information

and generated ideas could not necessarily mirror the needs of actual customers. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the submitted ideas are in line with the companies’ objectives, so companies should consider carefully if crowdsourcing activities are strategic for their overall business strategy. Companies

should not rely solely on crowdsourcing as a means to gather information about customer needs, rather it should complement traditional approaches and when successfully utilized, can foster a stronger customer orientation.

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5 Conclusion

This paper examines crowdsourcing from a marketing perspective and looks at its potential for customer orientation. After outlining the three concepts – Internet marketing, customer orientation and crowdsourcing – and describing and analysing the online platforms, MyStarbucksIdea.com and Tchibo-‐

Ideas.de, several things become apparent. First, the concept of crowdsourcing embraces new rules of Internet Marketing such as interaction, consumer empowerment and transparency. Second, the current

literature does not cover all facets of crowdsourcing that were identified in the case examples underlining that theory is still lagging behind practice. Third, based on the findings of this paper, the research question can be validated – by embracing new rules of Internet marketing, crowdsourcing can

be a vehicle for companies to become truly customer oriented. With the help of crowdsourcing, both companies gathered meaningful information about customer needs which can lead to creating superior customer value and satisfaction.

There is a lack of academic literature addressing collective approaches, such as crowdsourcing, especially

from a marketing perspective. Therefore, this paper contributes to current literature by taking a step to fill this gap, relating the new rules of Internet marketing to the concept of crowdsourcing and investigating whether crowdsourcing facilitates customer orientation. However, limitations did exist

since this paper only analyses two case examples which use crowdsourcing as a tool to understand customer needs, create superior customer value and enhance customer satisfaction. Future research needs to be conducted in order to validate the research question beyond the scope of this paper.

Moreover, the correlation between the concepts of crowdsourcing and community building should be further investigated since a connection was identified in both case examples and is not addressed in-‐depth by the literature thus far.

It is clear that crowdsourcing – when integrated properly – is a new and positive way to approach

business and marketing challenges, interact with customers, gain deeper insights and create stronger bonds by reaching out to customers actively and empowering them to participate in the business.

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