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Adam Fletcher – Do consumers want to design unique product on the internet.20061
“Do consumers want to design unique products on theinternet? A study of the online Virtual Community of Threadless.com and their attitudes to MassCustomisation, Mass Production and CollaborativeDesign”.
Adam Fletcher This Dissertation is submitted in part-fulfillment of the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Business Information Systems Nottingham Trent University, 2006
Adam Fletcher – Do consumers want to design unique product on the internet.20062This is the public version of the dissertation made available athttp://www.hiphipuk.co.uk
About the Author
Adam Fletcher – adamfletcher@gmail.com Founder of http://www.hiphipuk.co.uk Age: 23Based: Leipzig/LondonTel: + 49 163 453 9016I would be interested in participating in further research topics in this field of interest.I'd be really happy to offer (mostly bad) advice to anyone undertaking research in asimilar area.Copyright: This research is offered under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (basically just cite me if you use any of this).Thanks!
Adam Fletcher – Do consumers want to design unique product on the internet.20063
Abstract
Mass Customisation has been portrayed as the ultimate form of marketing and the“business opportunity of the next millennium”. However implementing a businessapproach which balances the mass with customisation is difficult with few successstories. This thesis presents the results of a case study undertaken with the online t-shirt manufacturer Threadless and its Virtual Community. The literary assumptionthat consumers want unique products, following recent renewed interest in MassCustomisation has prompted this research. The aim of this study was to look at anindustry where it is technically possible to deliver a “pure” Mass Customisationexperience. Threadless’ business model instead aggregates user’s opinions of user submitted designs and manufacturers the most popular. This studies looks at why thismodel is an attractive proposition for customers and for Threadless. The secondaryfocus of this study was to see how much collaboration occurred within Threadless’Virtual Community, relating this back to the broader User Innovation & MassCustomisation literature.Research was conducted using an online questionnaire completed by members of theThreadless Virtual Community and a participant observation of messageboard postsand replies conducted over a seven day period. The Threadless community werefound to (not as the literature would have predicted) willing purchase a product whichwas not unique even when other companies offered the opportunity to create a unique product. This was because of the innovative nature of the products design. Thecommunity valued this innovation over involvement in the design process. This thesis proposes that as the literature suggests the Internet eases the process for receivinginformation from customers on their wants and needs. This supports the 1-1 customer and supplier relationship needed for Mass Customisation. However it proposes thatthis same technology also facilitates communication between customers andaggregation of their needs. This can help overcome some manufacturer inefficienciesin Mass Customisation, however, it also suggests that a model combining theindividualisation of Mass Customisation and the personalisation of Mass or NicheProduction with high customer involvement may better suit both parties.
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