My Starbucks Idea and the Value of Business Crowdsourcing

7/30/2019 My Starbucks Idea and the Value of Business Crowdsourcing

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MY STARBUCKS IDEA AND THE VALUEOF BUSINESS CROWDSOURCINGBY MIKE SCHOULTZ 7 CO MM EN TS

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My Starbucks Idea

Within five years, if youre in the same business you are in now, youre going

to be out of business.

- Peter Drucker

The My Starbucks Idea website, where Starbucks does its business crowdsourcing, has been

actively engaging customers for over 3 years now. It encourages customers to submit ideas for

better products, improving the customer experience, and defining new community involvement,

among other categories. Clearly, Starbucks has seen and believes what Peter Drucker has to say

about business adaptability.

Customers can submit, view, and discuss submitted ideas along with employees from various

Starbucks departments Idea Partners. The company regularly polls its customers for their

favorite products and has a leaderboard to track which customers are the most active in

submitting ideas, comments, and poll participation.
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The site is at once a crowdsourcing tool, a market research method that brings customer priorities

to light, an on-line community, and an effective internet marketing tool.

Why is Starbucks business crowdsourcing so effective?

because they have combined the concepts of change, experimentation, social media, customer

engagement and market research and made the results key components of their dominant brand.

Have you given My Starbucks Idea a try? What did you think?

Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated which ones do you feel could benefit your

business? How could you improve the My Starbucks Idea concept for your business

More related reading from Digital Spark Marketings blog library:

The Story of Two Roads

Are You Aware of These Surprising Facts on Innovation?

Do You Practice These Habits of the Highly Creative

Digital Spark Marketing is skillful in creative marketing and customer service/experience

design. Call us today for a free consultation we do our homework prior to meeting!

For more reading on creative marketing, click here.
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Crowdsourcing Risk and Reward How to Evaluate

Options for Success

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To be upfront about where we stand, yes we are great supporters of tapping into the wisdom of

the crowd for many pursuits for citizen engagement, open innovation, or crowdfunding. That

said, we realize that its important to be aware of the fact that there are risks to consider. This

article is a response to the concerns raised by people we meet along an organizations path of

considering crowdsourcing to fulfill a particular need for their organization or their constituents.3 COMMENTS AND 0 REACTIONS

IN:STRATEGIES

To start, its important to get a few definitions out of the way in case you are new to the topic. For those withexperience with these concepts, please bear with us.

What is Crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is one of those concepts that have competing definitions. On one hand, crowdsourcing is an

engagement method whereby organizations (such as cities, brands and entrepreneurs) seek input from
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communities of people. These communities can be open or closed, homogenous or diverse. Participants are

invited to contribute ideas, solutions, or support in an open process whereby the elements of creativity,

competition and campaigning are reinforced through social media to come up with more powerful ideas or

solutions than could be obtained through other means. Ideation is also used to as a term to describe this

concept or process. Citizen engagement, open innovation and ideation are terms that are also used.

Crowdsourcing can also be defined as the division of labour by a distributed, multi-dimensional workforce,

(sometimes paid sometimes volunteer), motivated to accomplish a set of tasks that combined together to

achieve an overall goal or solve a problem. This motivation can be financial, reputation building, or part of

being a good citizen of a particular community (ie. computer programmer).

In a Bloomberg Businessweek article, Crowdsourcing: Consumers as Creators, Paul Boutin writes:

Crowdsourcing is a subset of what Eric von Hippel calls user-centered innovation, in which manufacturersrely on customers not just to define their needs, but to define the products or enhancements to meet them. But

unlike the bottom-up, ad-hoc communities that develop open-source software or better windsurfing gear,

crowdsourced work is managed and owned by a single company that sells the results.

To paraphrase von Hippel, it relies on would-be customers willingness to hand over their ideas to the company,

either cheaply or for free, in order to see them go into production for the benefit of themselves and other

customers.

Risk and perspective

Risk, always, is viewed from two perspectives: those running a crowdsourcing initiative, and those participating

in one. While this article is written for those thinking of running a crowdsourcing initiative, we thought we

should address the fact that risk is also something participants think of as well.

Participant risk

The risks participants should be aware of include:

Privacy Make sure your information is secure and used by the intended party only. This includes

personal and financial information. Checking to make sure the site you are visiting has SSL certificates active,

does not redirect you to unknown URLs (web addresses), and is not asking for information that you dont feel

comfortable giving.


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Reputation Make sure you are dealing with authentic and transparent organizations. You wouldnt

want to be involved with an organization that is up to no good away from the Internet; so being aware of who

is running an online engagement makes sense.

Intellectual Property If you participate in a crowdsourcing or open innovation initiative, make

sure the ideas or comments you contribute are your own and not taken from someone else that might be upset

you were passing them off as yours. Ideas are open for everyone to contribute but some sites allow you to

contribute product ideas that might have a financial reward associated to them and misrepresentation can get

you into trouble.

Organizer risk

As someone who is looking at using crowdsourcing, the first thing to keep in mind is that whether you are a

brand, a city, or other organization your crowd is already talking about you. A quick search of social media

properties and traditional forums will give you the sense that for good or bad, people are talking about you

behind your back. The risk of providing a place for this conversation to happen where you can monitor and

benefit from it outweighs the risk of not doing so.

Understanding Crowdsourcing risks

Most social and business practices arent risk-free, and neither is crowdsourcing. It can be a useful tool that can

be used by individuals, citizens, or any organization or company in any industry. However, before diving into a

crowdsourcing initiative, you should evaluate and address certain risks to protect your brand and the integrity

of your organization. As with all endeavours, risk is measured on the Risk Reward continuum that is inherentfor each organization.

Evaluating risk tolerance

Successfully engaging the crowd means opening up your doors to new people, perspectives, ideas, and solutions

to problems and other things they want to share with your organization. To start, ask yourself a few simple

questions to help you set the strategy:

Question 1:What am I trying to achieve with this initiative and what is the reward?

Question 2: Is the crowd I am trying to attract external (open) or internal (closed)?

Question 3: Am I able to trust a vendor to take care of this risk or does my organization prefer to

manage it directly?


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For many organizations, crowdsourcing may seem too risky. This perceived risk can often get in the way of open

innovation and crowdsourcing. In the article 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation Risk: Convert the Naysayers

and Bring on the Seasoned Veterans,Jackie Hutter, IPStrategist, writes:

In order to be successful (and not only have a single chance to try Open Innovation), one must be able to

navigate the corporate politics that would stop the process, as well being able to minimize the risk associated

with going outside for new product ideas. I think I have a solution to each of these concerns.

The Risks

As we discussed, crowdsourcing risks should be looked at with perspective in mind. The following table lists

risk to all parties for two types of crowdsourcing initiatives.

The first type of crowdsourcing is that focused on open innovation the aspect that is the most commonly used

in industry and is the basis for the first instances of using the crowd to complete tasks and come up with

solutions to problems that are technical in nature. The second type focuses on using this methodology for

engaging citizens whether it be a city, a province or state or country to not only solve problems, but also

gauge support and refine solutions for a particular community based challenge. This could be policies,

programs, etc.

Table: The risks of Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcingfor OpenInnovation Crowdsourcingfor CitizenEngagement

Reduced internal capacity for

innovation

Lack of resources for proper

management of campaign

Gamification by special interest

groups or individuals

Gamification by special interest

groups or individuals trying to rig

the voting

Controversy over IP ownership

after idea is submitted

Confusion by the crowd caused by

lack of clarity in campaign

Confusion by the crowd caused

by lack of clarity in campaign

Participation is low due to lack ofawareness of the engagement

initiative

Originality of idea (relates to

ownership mentioned above)

Distrust among community caused

by past experiences lack of follow-

through by those running the
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campaign in the past.

Campaign for innovation is not

set-up to allow the organization to

respond in a timely manner

Low participation due to lack of

awareness of open innovation

initiative

The crowd stops participating due

to the perception the organization

is non-responsive to their input

Risk: Crowdsourcing does not solve your organizations problem

Some of the biggest companies in the world rely on crowdsourcing. Starbucks, Nokia, Dell, IBM, Netflix and

many, many more organizations have successfully used crowdsourcing in a number of ways. Some of the

greatest innovations at these organizations have come from the ideas brought forward by the crowd. However,

in order for crowdsourcing to work, the crowd needs to know what you expect from them and the project needs

to be very focused. Your organizations culture plays a major role in the success of crowdsourcing. In a New

York Times article by Steve Lohr, The Crowd is Wise (When its Focused), Lohr wrote about the importance of

corporate culture:

Opening the corporate doors to ideas and inspiration from the collective crowd holds great potential, but there

are pitfalls, warns Henry Chesbrough, executive director of the Center for Open Innovation at the University of

California, Berkeley. To succeed, Mr. Chesbrough said, a company must have a culture open to outside ideas

and a system for vetting and acting on them.

In business, its not how many ideas you have, he observed. What matters is how many ideas you translate

into products and services.

Risk: The crowd doesnt have the answer

Many organizations dont feel that the ideas offered by the crowd will actually solve the problem at hand or lead

to innovation suitable for investment. The solution to your problem isnt always going to be found within the

walls of your organization. Organizations are expected to do more with less, and that often means fewer


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employees. In the article 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation Risk: Convert the Naysayers and Bring on the

Seasoned Veterans, Hutter writes:

Because of this extreme downsizing, however, the experienced coaches and seasoned players are not on the

usual playing fields; that is, they are not in the corporations where they learned their crafts (on someone elses

dime). Moreover, many of thempresumably the best and most entrepreneurial of themare not sitting on the

sidelines after being cut from the corporate teams for which they have been playing for many years.

Risk: Failure to participate

Some people worry that crowdsourcing is that shiny new thing that everyone wants to be part of at the

beginning, and the hype will die down a few campaigns in. Crowdsourcing isnt new. The term itself has been

around for six years or so, but organizations had been using various forms of crowdsourcing before then. Look

at the longevity of crowdsourcing projects like My Starbucks Idea, Dells Ideastorm and Nokias IdeasProject.

These projects continue to receive widespread support from their crowds and they have all been around (and

producing results) for many years. One of the things each of these organizations does well is communicate with

their crowd. These groups promote ideas that have become a reality and the crowd that they are listening and

that their ideas do have value. Simple tasks such as commenting on ideas and getting in on the conversation

help to build deeper relationships. These relationships help build loyal crowd members, who in turn get

involved in more projects and share projects with their own crowds.

Risk: Crowdsourcing takes too much time

People worry that projects will take too much time to complete if crowdsourcing introduced to the process

because of the large number of people involved and the number of submissions received. In many

organizations, they think that it will just be easier to limit participation to a team in the company or the

company as a whole because there are fewer ideas to deal with and decisions can be made faster. However, just

because you can move through a process faster, doesnt mean the solution is going to be the best one. There are

two ways to address the time issue:

Different projects require different response times

Create contest type projects that have time deadlines attached to them.

In addition to these options, youll also want to develop a plan for handling submissions so that they are all

reviewed in a timely manner. If needed, set deadlines and work backwards to figure out which activities you

need to complete and when. This will help you stay organized and keep the crowdsourcing project on track.


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For time-sensitive projects, crowdsourcing can be used to bring large groups of people and information

together in a short period of time. Using social media to leverage your crowdsourcing project allows you to cast

a wide net, reaching your crowd to solve a problem/find an answer.

Crowdsourcing focuses on small asks, where people often have an easier time of relating to the project or

getting their head around it in order to support it to the level they wish. Reaching a wider range of people

through crowdsourcing and social media often means that projects can be funded on time.

Risk: Idea theft

Another thing organizations often worry about is idea theft. Ideas are only ideas until they are executed.

Sometimes an organization may not have the resources to execute the ideas. While some companies will modify

ideas to put their own spin on them in order to make them a reality.

Risk: Maintaining privacy

Many of the crowdsourcing platforms use technical security measures such as SSL certificates when they

develop their platforms to protect the privacy of those that participate in the campaigns run by our clients.

Because platforms often closely integrate with clients websites, making sure they are developed properly in

order protect privacy is taken seriously from the start.

Risk: Gaming the system

There are many ways to try and prevent gaming of the system but there it can be a balancing act. Restricting

access to people you know (ie. log in to access a campaign) is one option, but the problem with this is that you

risk narrow your crowd, which isnt not always desired for the campaign you are running. The crowd also does a

fairly good job of preventing people from trying to gain the system by reporting abuse, etc. Any platform that

you would consider should have security features in place that prevent gaming of the voting functionality, for

example, to ensure integrity of the system around voting and ranking.

Crowdsourcing best practices

There are a number of crowdsourcing best practices, whether for open innovation or citizen engagement that

should be considered as a way to reduce risk for your organization. Since these endeavours require

commitment to execute successfully, there are a few questions youll want to answer and research youll want to

do as a starting point.


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In conclusion, asking whether crowdsourcing is right for you after evaluating the risks and benefits is the

natural question. You need to think about the main objective and ask if crowdsourcing is right for your

organization. Here are some questions youll want to give some thought to:

Is your organization culturally open to input from outside there is no sense going down the

crowdsourcing or open innovation path if your team is closed minded or will feel threatened?

Do you have the resources to investigate the ideas and innovation that come from the crowdsourcing

process?

Does the presence, or not, of a reward for the winning idea change things? What is the risk associated

with this?

Do you want to use internal development resources to create something from scatch or use an existing

platform? If you choose to use a platform that exists, have you considered the criteria you might use to evaluate

crowdsourcing platforms to make sure they contain the functionality you require?

Crowdsourcing risks shouldnt get in the way of enabling open innovation or citizen engagement at your

organization. Using your crowd to solve problems is a great way to make your crowd feel included and

empowered, helping boost brand loyalty. Crowdsourcing risks cannot go ignored, as wrong turns can have a

negative impact on the success of your crowdsourcing or crowdfunding project.

By Paul Dombowsky

[1]Lohr, Steve New York Times 07/19/2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/internet/19unboxed.html/

[2]Hutter, 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation http://ipassetmaximizerblog.com/?p=1092

[3]Boutin, Paul BloombergBusinessweek Crowdsourcing: Consumers as Creators

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2006/id20060713_755844.htm

[4]Jackie Hutter,IP Strategist 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation Risk: Convert the Naysayers and Bring on

the Seasoned Veterans http://ipassetmaximizerblog.com/?p=1092
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About the author

Paul Dombowsky is the founder and CEO ofIdeavibes and the charity crowdfunding

initiative Fundchange. Paul started Ideavibes after over fifteen years in marketing roles at various technology or

related firms. His expertise with web marketing, social media, and marketing automation, as well as keen

interest in how social networks are now influencing all aspects of product development and marketing, laid the

foundation for building a lean web app company. Paul developed a particular interest in open innovation and

crowdsourcing through his work with TELUS Communications and his experience supporting various non-

profits since graduating from Acadia University in 1990. Ideavibes as a company, and the platform, have been

built though Pauls intent on collaborating with the best and brightest from all aspects of business, government,

and the non-profit sector.
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CROWDSOURCE WHEN TIMES

ARE GOOD

Posted by Neil

Lets talk crowdsourcing for a minute. In very generic terms, crowdsourcing describes work or funding thats gathered

from a network of connected online participants. Think Wikipedia or Kickstarter.

When applied specifically to marketing, crowdsourcing can evolve in any number of ways. It has the power to turn

traditional product development and marketing concept development methods on their heads. Crowdsourcing lets

consumers and aspiring ideators assume the role of the R&D expert. It even empowers brand fans to develop a

products identity and marketing message. Crowdsourcing is a dynamic tactic for tapping into the strength of the

masses.

While generally used for consumer goods and rolled out to younger demographics, crowdsourcing is being leveraged

by more emerging businesses and enterprises to tackle marketplace challenges. Organizations riding the wave of

crowdsourcing are seeing shortened product and strategy development cycles, while spending less on traditional

R&D and marketing resources.

As case studies are analyzed and best practices continue to develop, Trellist has discovered a common

misconceptionthat crowdsourced ideas are a last resort, culled only when theres a problem the insiders cant

solve. Because we believe in the vast potential of crowdsourcing, we think its best used in the best of times.

Rather than falling into the trap of reactive crowdsourcing, consider crowdsourced ideas as key elements of your

overall communications and marketing strategy. Unleash crowdsourcing challenges when youre experiencing

unprecedented sales or growth. Let crowdsourcing follow your brand or products aggressive growth arc and soon


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youll see a bump in your social clout. After all, crowdsourcing participants are social influencers with large networks.

The more ownership theyre extended in a crowdsourced action, the more likely theyll be to rapidly spread the good

word about what youre up to.

For a practical example of proactive crowdsourcing, take a look at Starbucks. Theyve created a crowdsourced

community appropriately named My Starbucks Idea. To date, Starbucks has collected 85,184 product ideas and

30,776 experience ideas. Over 500 have been put into action. My Starbucks Idea is a caffeine-fueled think tank

where like-minded members submit their thoughts, gain points for participating and use their status to influence

others. By involving the crowd, the Starbucks brand grows even stronger and is positioned for long-term success.

My Starbucks Idea is just one of many examples of enterprise crowdsourcing at work. Major players like General

Electric, Amazon, EBay, Xerox and Panasonic are all experiencing success through crowdsourcing.

Before jumping into the crowdsourcing pool, remember that consumers are savvier than ever these days. Theyre

aware and theyre seriously connected. They know the difference between the spirit of collaboration and the scent of

desperation. Whether youre trying to increase general brand engagement or fine tune a product or service offering,

involve the crowd early, often and under sunny skies for ideal participation and results.

In the end, knowing when to launch a crowdsourced action is only part of the success equation. Knowing what to ask

your crowd for is just as important. Ill discuss that in my next blog post.

My Starbucks Idea and the Value of Business Crowdsourcing

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