Consumer co-creation and new

product development: a case

study in the food industry
Raffaele Filieri

Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne,

UK
Abstract
Purpose The ever changing needs of customers require companies to speed up the new product
development process. Thus, the web and social media enable companies to interact and to share
knowledge with customers, and to cocreate new products with them. The purpose of this study is to
analyze the innovation outputs companies can achieve by involving customers at the fuzzy front
end of the new product development (NPD) process.
Design/methodology/approach A case study method has been adopted because the phenomenon
under investigation is new, it is hard to find similar researches, and the study attempts to increase
researchers understanding of such phenomenon. The case study method has enabled the exploration
of the strategies used and the results achieved by an international food company, which has involved
ordinary customers at early stages of its NPD process, namely at the idea generation and screening
stages.
Findings The case study shows that customers freely provide valuable, original, new, and feasible
ideas that can foster product and service innovation, and may also trigger process innovation. Thus,
the case study shows how the company has outsourced to customers the idea generation and
screening stages of the NPD. The case illustrates how the food company has used the ideas
gathered from customers to develop new products and new services. Increasingly, it shows also how
the company has gathered strategic information about consumers needs and desires (marketing
intelligence). Finally, this research discusses the importance of knowledge codification facilitators
and of informal, peer-to- peer, and transparent communication as enablers of consumers ideas
sharing.
Research limitations/implications The single case study approach may prevent the
generalization of results.
Originality/value In marketing and innovation research, there is a dearth of studies on how
companies are involving customers through the web at early stages of their NPD process. In addition,
there is a lack of in-depth discussion about the innovation outputs generated through cocreation
activities.
Keywords Open innovation, Customer co-creation, New product development, Idea generation,
Idea screening, Case study analysis, Innovation, Product development, Marketing intelligence
Paper type Case study

Introduction
Unpredictable transformations have introduced complexity in the business
environment. In most industries, continuous and effective innovation is widely
recognized as a major source of sustained competitive advantage. However, leading
innovation is more onerous than in the past due to the ever changing customers needs
and to an increased quality and quantity of knowledge required to innovate. Both
multinationals and small- and medium-sized enterprises are unable to sustain the costs
of innovation by themselves; therefore, they are increasingly collaborating with other
companies in order to share the costs, the knowledge, and the technologies needed to

The author thanks the food company for their help, Professor Pierpaolo Andriani, Salma
Alguezaui for their inspiration.

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innovate effectively (Chesbrough, 2003). The need to collaborate with external

partners has fostered the emergence of a new way of generating innovations, namely
the open innovation model (Chesbrough, 2003). Accordingly, the open innovation
model assumes that good ideas are not only produced in internal R&D departments
(Chesbrough, 2003), rather they are increasingly produced outside the companys
boundaries, and increasingly by customers. The open innovation model links with
the concept of customers co-creation (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004), and with
past industrial marketing research on lead-users (von Hippel, 1986, 1988).
The advances in web technology are enabling bidirectional communication flows
and different forms of collaboration and cooperation among customers, and between
customers and businesses. This transformation is affecting the way in which
companies are communicating with customers; enabling businesses to tap customers
ides and knowledge.
Through the web and social media, marketers are enhancing customers to share
their ideas and knowledge, which were difficult to gather through traditional
marketing research methods (Mahr, 2011; von Hippel, 2005; Hamel and Prahalad,
1994). Knowledge is a source of competitive advantage since it fosters innovation
(Grant, 1996; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Thus the knowledge provided by
customers may help companies to adequately assess and fulfill customers needs, and
reduce the risks of products failure (Ogawa and Piller, 2006). However, to harness
customers knowledge through social media and other web applications, businesses
need to know how to create a virtual environment that fosters customers to propose
new ideas, honestly state their desires and needs, and share their ideas with the
business.
In marketing research, there is a dearth of studies exploring how companies are
involving ordinary customers in their innovation process (Hoyer et al., 2010). Existing
marketing and innovation studies on co-creation focus on customer relationship
management and ignore innovation and new product development (NPD) (Hoyer et
al., 2010), with a few exceptions (Pru gl and Schreier, 2006; Rowley et al.,
2007; Fu ller and Matzler, 2007; Kohler et al., 2009; Kristensson and Magnusson,
2010; Fu ller et al., 2011). Besides, only a few studies have explored how companies
are involving customers through the web and social media at the early stages of the
NPD, namely at the idea generation and screening stage (Kristensson and
Magnusson, 2010). This research aims at filling these gaps. To achieve the goal of
this research, we have adopted a case study methodology by contributing to the
literature on customer co-creation in the NPD process. Within this vein, the present
research aims at providing insights on customer co-creation through the description
of the strategies used by an international food manufacturing company located in
Italy, to involve ordinary customers in the idea generation and screening stages of
NPD. Finally, the case study will analyze the resources shared with customers, and
the innovation results achieved by this company.
1. The open innovation model and lead-users research
In every industry, target markets are imploding into several niches and customers
needs change very rapidly, requiring companies to accelerate the innovation speed
and to develop highly customized products. In order to compete successfully,
several businesses are urged to anticipate market changes, to shorten new products
time-to-market, and to reduce innovation costs. Involving customers in the NPD
process becomes a necessity for picking up emerging needs and achieving sustained

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competitive advantage (Thomke and von Hippel, 2002). Since products are more
complex, the knowledge capital required to produce a new product has increased in
quantity and in quality.
The open innovation model has been argued to face these challenges by involving
different stakeholders into the NPD process. This model assumes that valuable
innovations may be produced outside the firm (Chesbrough, 2003), and from different
players, such as customers, suppliers, manufacturers, universities. In this paper the
focus is on one specific companys stakeholder: the customer. The idea that some
customers can be the source of innovation is an old idea in industrial marketing
research. Much research has been undertaken in this area highlighting the contribution
of lead-users to new products development, namely a hard user of technologies that
manifest needs that will emerge in the market some months or years later (von Hippel,
1986, 1988). von Hippel (1988) provided evidence that lead-users are a source of
unique and useful data for new product concepts in the field of computer-aided
design of printed circuit boards. He also found that lead-users were the
developers of about 80 percent of the most important scientific instrument
innovations, and of most of the major innovations in semiconductor processing (von
Hippel, 1988). Further, research proved that lead-users are willing to create products
that produce eight times higher sales than products based on in-house ideas (Lilien et
al., 2002). In different typologies
of product such as sports equipment products (Franke and Shah, 2003; Lu thje et
al., 2005), surgical equipment (Lettl et al., 2006), video games ( Jeppesen and Molin,
2003),
open source software (Lakhani and Wolf, 2005), and toys (Seybold, 2006) research
has found that groups of dedicated and knowledgeable users provide knowledge and
ideas for product and service innovation and improvement. However, in previous
research, innovators can be regarded as rather extreme users; in many cases they
were even developers since they possessed the ability to implement their ideas
into workable prototypes (Kristensson and Magnusson, 2010).
Nevertheless, some scholars have criticized the involvement of users and leadusers into the NPD; these arguments are mostly built on the assumption that users
do not own the sufficient technical knowledge for producing innovations
(Christensen, 1997), or that customers are not able to properly articulate their needs
(Leonard and Rayport, 1997; Ulwick, 2002). The risk of listening too much to
customers is that these companies may develop only incremental improvements
(Lojacono and Zaccai, 2004; Christensen, 1997).
2. Customer co-creation
The advances of the internet, the new role of customers, and the new possibilities for
involving customers in the NPD process have been discussed by Prahalad and
Ramaswamy (2004). These authors state that the role of the customer is changed from
isolated to connected, from unaware to connected, from passive to active. They state
that the NPD process can be viewed as a process of co-creation engaging marketers
and customers (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). Thanks to the internet and social
media, which enable customer-to-firm and customer-to-customer interactions,
companies can now create value with them.
Related to the co-creation concept is the service-dominant (SD) paradigm
developed by Vargo and Lusch (2004). This model assumes that marketers should
focus more on the services associated to products, rather than only on the products.
Thus, the SD logic contrasts with the goods-dominant logic (GD logic), and it
assumes the primacy of intangibles, like knowledge, in the generation of value. In
the SD logic, value is

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co-created by firms, employees, customers, stockholders, government agencies, but is

always determined by the beneficiary, which is often the customer (Vargo et al.,
2008). In the SD logic customers co-create value through the integration of firmprovided resources with other private and public resources. According to Vargo et
al. (2008), companies may acquire resources through the exchange of systems
applied operant resources (knowledge and skills) with those of internal (e.g. own
employees), private (e.g. friends, stockholders), and market-facing (suppliers,
other economic exchanges) service systems. These actors can be defined as
service systems if they can take action, apply resources, and work with others in
mutually beneficial ways (Vargo et al., 2008, p. 149). Thus, each system contributes
to the creation of value for itself and for the other (Vargo et al., 2008). Consistently, a
company may lead innovation by using the applied knowledge and competences of
its customer to develop only the kind of product and service a customer wants or
desires. The exchange is the process through which each service system accesses
resources from other service systems, and in such a way, they co-create value,
namely value in exchange.
In marketing communications, Vargo and Lusch (2004) and Prahalad and
Ramaswamy (2004) expect a shift, from a one-way communication aimed at
persuading customers to a bidirectional communication focussed on dialogue and
conversations.
3. NPD and customer co-creation
Cooper (2001) developed a stage-gate process for the NPD, assuming that at each
stage a company performs different decisions, needs specific information, and
requires the involvement of different functions to progress the project to the next
gate. The NPD process has been traditionally conceptualized as a closed process,
where the inputs for new ideas come mainly from internal sources (Cooper, 2008).
The stage-gate has been recently modified to accommodate open innovation
(Cooper, 2008). Accordingly, companies are trying to involve external actors at
the different NPD stages, which include ideation or discovery, development stage,
and launch or commercialization stage (Cooper, 2008). Cooper (2008) suggests that
companies are increasingly involving inventors, start-ups, small entrepreneurial
firms, partners, and other sources of available technologies that can be used as a
basis for internal or joint development. The early stage of the NPD is also referred
as fuzzy front end, meaning the period between when an opportunity for a new
product is first considered, and when the product idea is judged ready to enter
the formal development process (Tidd and Bessant, 2009). Because of the high
level of uncertainty and lack of knowledge and information, many firms seem to
have great difficulties managing the fuzzy front end in practice (Tidd and Bessant,
2009).
In this paper, we focus on the fuzzy front end of the NPD process, namely idea
generation and idea screening. In the idea generation stage, marketers conduct market
research for analyzing customers needs, while R&D personnel analyze technical
developments and generate a set of feasible ideas. Later on, such ideas are screened
by the marketing and sales, R&D, production, and finance functions within a
company who assess whether there is a market for the new proposed product,
and if the company can make it (idea screening).
In marketing literature very little research explored how different companies are
involving customers at the different stages of the NPD process (Hoyer et al., 2010).
Moreover, existing marketing studies have almost completely ignored innovation and
NPD (Hoyer et al., 2010). However, both in marketing and innovation literature
existing studies on customer co-creation focussed on very specific cases (Pru gl
and Schreier,

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2006; Rowley et al., 2007; Fu ller and Matzler, 2007; Kohler et al., 2009;
Kristensson and Magnusson, 2010; Fu ller et al., 2011).
For instance, Pru gl and Schreier (2006) investigated how users innovate the
toolkits
available in The Sims. They found that customers engagement in innovation
activities is long-lasting, continuous, evolving, and intense. Rowley et al. (2007)
illustrate through a case study how Flexifoil, a leading player in the international
sport kiting market, creates hype about its new products through its customer online
community, which has led to sales increases. Their findings suggest that for
enhancing customers co-creating experiences, marketers need to foster a sense of
community among users, to facilitate communication within the community, to
respond to feedback and to continuously develop and keep the community
relationship (Rowley et al., 2007). Fu ller and Matzler (2007) explored how Audi
has used virtual prototyping (virtual product experiences) to enable customers to
express their latent, so far unknown, needs and to develop customer-centered, really
new products. Kohler et al. (2009) describe how companies can engage customers in
virtual worlds, such as Second Life, for NPD purposes. Kristensson and Magnusson
(2010) analyzed how customers can best be managed in order to contribute their
ideas to the early stages of the NPD process for new service development. They
found that innovators with high use experience who are unaware of any
technological restrictions tend to produce service ideas that are more radical in
nature, whereas innovators with high use experience who are aware of
technological restrictions tend to produce service ideas that are more incremental in
nature. Fu ller et al. (2011) focussed on the Swarovski jewelry design competition
in order to understand how to design co-creation experiences for idea and design
competitions in order to achieve superior outcomes. Their results highlight that cocreation experiences significantly impact both the number of contributions as well
as the quality of designs submitted by users. In particular, they showed that a sense of
community, autonomy, joy, and competence contributes significantly to participants
positive co-creation experience.
Thus, some scholars (Lilien et al., 2002) suggest that companies need to learn how
to
harness customer competences and knowledge. To date, still little is known about the
innovation results companies are achieving through co-creation initiatives at early
stages of the NPD process (Fu ller and Matzler, 2007; Kristensson and
Magnusson, 2010). Moreover, few studies focus on how customers are being
involved at early innovation stages through the web and social media. Within this
context, this paper attempts to fill these gaps. Through a single case study, we
describe the strategies implemented and the results achieved by an international
food company who is involving customers at an early stage of the NPD process.
The case study approach will enable the exploration of the kind of resources
customers are sharing, and how valuable are they for product innovation.
4. Methodology
A case study method has been adopted because the phenomenon under investigation is
new, it is hard to find similar researches, and the study attempts to increase
researchers understanding of such phenomenon (Eisenhardt, 1989). Moreover, since
our aim is to explain the how of co-creation at the early stage of the NPD process,
the case study is an appropriate methodology to investigate this issue (Yin, 1994).
Case studies can involve either single or multiple cases (Yin, 1994). A single case
study has been adopted and an international food manufacturing company has been
selected as being a popular case of successful consumer co-creation in the food sector.

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Another reason is that there are still only a few examples of companies co-creating
with customers.
According to Yin (1994), there may be descriptive, exploratory, and explanatory
case studies. The present case study offers a description of the strategies used and the
results achieved by the company which has successfully involved customers at an
early stage of the NPD process.
The procedure proposed by Eisenhardt (1989) for handling a qualitative analysis
has been adopted. This includes the definition of the content of the analysis, the
selection of relevant cases, the analysis of the collected data, and the discussion of
the implications. With regard to content, the analysis has been focussed on
understanding the customers co-creation phenomenon at early NPD stages in the
context of the food sector. Thus, Nambisans (2002) criteria to analyze the virtual
customer environments created by companies (interaction patterns, knowledge
creation) was partly followed. Additionally, information about the goals of the
company, the NPD stage in which the consumer has been involved, and the
results achieved have been collected. The international food company of this case
study has been selected because it represents a rare case of co-creation in the food
sector. This company is a successful case in terms of innovation achieved through
customers involvement in the idea generation and screening phase by using social
media and the web. Different methods for data collection can be used in case
study research, such as qualitative, quantitative, or both (Yin, 1994). A qualitative
approach to data collection has been adopted since the phenomenon under
investigation is new and the study aims at explaining the how of co-creation. Yin
(1994) proposes a combination of different sources of evidence, namely data
triangulation, for data collection. In the current case study the following sources
have been adopted: interviews with marketing and R&D staff, non-participant
observation of the web site, documentation, and archival resources.
5. Co-creation in the food sector
5.2 Company overview and co-creation initiative
The company selected for this case study is a global player in the food sector,
exporting to more than 100 countries their range of products including pasta, pasta
sauce, bakery products, and crisp bread. The group employs more than 15,000 people
and in 2009 had net sales of more than 4.1 billion euros coming mostly from
European countries.
In March 2009, the food company launched in Italy a collaborative innovation
platform with the aim of listening to customers voice, and also for gathering their
ideas:
[y] this project does not speak to somebody, it listens; it does not say, it does (head of
digital marketing).

As discussed by marketing employees, the company was receiving thousands of

e-mails from customers showing their affection to the brand, communicating their
needs, and asking to put some products back on sale. The company has then decided
to adopt the web, as being considered the best place where to listen to their customers.
As stated by a marketing manager:
There are 28 millions of Italians on the internet, they share news, they chat with their friends
[y] the web represent the new frontier of communication, and it is the best media to
dialogue with our customers.

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On this co-creation platform customers can submit ideas that they want to see
implemented by the company for satisfying their needs and desires, or what is
important to them. Customers can submit ideas into five different categories:
branded products (ideas for new products, new ingredients, and new recipes), brand
promotion (context of usage of products, new ideas, and feelings associated to the
consumption process), products packaging (design, shape, size, and materials),
corporate social and environmental responsibility, and an other areas section.
There are a few norms customers have to respect before submitting their idea;
thus, ideas must be original and new and not violating any copyright, name, brand,
patent, or any other third-party right. To submit an idea, customers must register to the
web site. The community is moderated by the companys editorial staff and customers
have to respect netiquette rules.
Once customers ideas are received and published on the web site, these ideas are
screened only by the customers community; in fact, customers can vote for the best
ideas or leave their comments, explaining why they have voted for an idea or how
they suggest improving it. The company pledges to implement the ten most voted
ideas; however, they reserve the right to select the least voted ideas if considered
profitable. The idea generation process is continuous and no deadline has been
set up; once the ten best ideas are selected, the voting process starts again. The
outsourcing of the idea generation and screening process applies only for the ideas
produced on the web site. The idea generation and screening process are
followed by an internal business feasibility analysis of the most voted ideas. The
evaluation process and the time needed to implement an idea are clearly explained
and updated on the web site, showing the companys commitment to openness and
transparency.
No tangible reward for the authors of the selected ideas has been defined by the
company, the winner is invited at the launch of the new product resulting from
the idea. Thus, during the registration process, customers may also agree to receive
the surveys organized by the company.
The communication between the company and the customers registered to the
web site is based on a peer-to-peer, informal interaction. The company facilitates
customers conceptualization of ideas through a tutor, a companys staff available
through skype or messenger, which is responsible for explaining to users how
to use the web site and how to develop ideas in a clear and descriptive way. The task
of the tutor is to help users to improve, refine, conceptualize, and propose new
ideas, namely the conversion from tacit to explicit knowledge (Nonaka and
Takeuchi, 1995). In addition, marketing and R&D staffs communicate informally
with customers and provide an answer to all ideas, both feasible and unfeasible.
Marketing staff also explain customers why some of the best ideas have not passed the
evaluation process. Increasingly, they share information about important events,
timing of new products launch, and about the products developed from customers
ideas. The co-creation platform is also integrated with other social media, such as
Twitter and Facebook.
5.2 Company achievements
The innovation results achieved by the company can be measured by the number of
ideas received, voted, and implemented by the company. In 35 months since its launch
(from March 2009 to February 2012), the co-creation platform received a total of
5,109 ideas (an average of five new ideas per day), 10,015 comments, and 103,783
votes (company data, February 29, 2012) (Table I).

Ideas

Ideas in the Ideas in the final

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Number of
Category

1. Product area
New biscuits
New snacks
New bread products
Other products
New ingredients
2. Promotion area
Prizes
Point of sales
Points collection
Competitions
Event
Other topics
3. Packaging
Shape and format
Materials
Information on packaging
Other topics
4. Corporate social and environmental
responsibility
Social responsibility
Environmental responsibility
Other topics
Total

ideas received implemented

2,995
988
830
338
540
259
1,255
404
61
233
144
133
280
540
275
82
43
138

355
176
74
102
5,109

pipeline

stage of evaluation

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1

10

14

For the product area, the company has received a total of 2,995 ideas, a total of 1,255
ideas were received for promotion area, the web site received also 540 ideas for the
packaging, 355 ideas about the companys corporate social and environmental
responsibility, and four ideas in the other ideas area (company data, February 29,
2012). According to a marketing manager: more than half of these ideas are
original. The originality, value, and feasibility of the ideas received can be
ascertained by the number of ideas implemented by the company in a very short
period of time since its conception:
Up to now, we have already implemented nine ideas, and many ideas are in the final stage of
evaluation [y] most of these ideas are very interesting and valuable to us, for this reason
they have been implemented in a very short period of time (marketing staff).

Among the ideas implemented, customers proposed an idea for the development of
a new line of wheat meal biscuits, which gave birth to three new types of biscuits
(company data). The request of a new, more functional shape of a breaded product
gave birth to a new product, and to correlated ideas about gadgets customers would
like to find in the package of the new product (company data). Among the
other ideas implemented by the company, there were some ideas about packaging,
such as: an idea for a more effective packaging of rusks, another one for a fully
recycling packaging for all products, and for a luminous packaging for a star-shaped
biscuit. Among the nine ideas implemented, there is an idea for a new ingredient for a
type of snack, two ideas to put back on sale a type of biscuit, and a snack. Customers
also suggested and voted the idea of receiving an e-mail notification for every new
survey conducted by the

Table I.
Number and typology of
ideas received, already
implemented, in the
pipeline, in the final stage
of evaluation until
February 29, 2012

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company. All these ideas were originated and voted by customers, and later
implemented by the company in a very short period of time. These ideas lead to the
development of new products and services, which were not originated or proposed
by the companys R&D and marketing department, rather by ordinary customers.
Thus, the importance of customers ideas for the companys innovation activities has
been emphasized by the head of digital marketing:
[y] when you use digital communication you need to give something back to customers,
we did not pay them, however we put their ideas in practice [y] they asked us to put
back on sales a biscuit called [y] and we did [y] they told us that they wanted a new
packaging for a popular type of biscuit [y] and we gave it to them [y] these ideas
were born in the cocreation platform, we did not think about them, this means
innovation!

In addition, the idea for the development of wheat meal biscuits triggered the
development of an innovative process to produce them, namely the steamed-oven
cooking:
The steamed-oven cooking is a process developed to keep the freshness, the taste, and the
nutritional properties of the new line of wheat meal biscuits, which is consistent with
the quality level of most of our companys products [y] this is innovation in the innovation
(R&D staff).

Moreover, the company has created a database with a sample of customers that are
involved in real market research conducted by the company. Registered users can
decide whether to participate to such surveys; in doing so, they collect points that
can be redeemed with the companys products. This strategy has enabled the company
to collect in a cost-effective way huge amount of information about customers needs
and desires, which is not possible to collect through traditional research methods.
As stated by the head of digital marketing:
[y] people freely participate to real market researches [y] .we have constituted a panel
of over twenty thousand people [y] we conduct regularly surveys on everything [y]
from testing the level of appreciation of the name of a new product, to the customers
breakfast behavior [y] which is very valuable to us since it can be used for the
segmentation of the market and for other purposes [y] we have learnt that involving
customers through digital channels is much more convenient, effective, practical, and
immediate than doing N market research or focus groups [y].

6. Discussion
Previous marketing studies on online co-creation have mostly focussed on
relationships management (Hoyer et al., 2010), or on the development of online
communities for increasing sales, failing to discuss the innovation potential of
online customers co-creation activities (Rowley et al., 2007). In innovation
literature, some studies have investigated the online customers co-creation process,
focussing on very specific cases, such as: how to involve customers in online
design competitions (Fuller et al., 2011), how users innovate the toolkits in a
popular game (Prugl and Schreier, 2006), how companies can engage customers in
virtual worlds for innovation purposes (Kohler et al., 2009), or they studied the
differential impact of users experience on the degree of innovativeness of the idea
generated (Kristensson and Magnusson, 2010). The present study contributes to the
literature on online customers co-creation and it is the first study in the food sector
that analyzes customers involvement at the fuzzy front end of the NPD process.
Thus, this is one of the first studies that provide an in-depth analysis of the results
obtained through co-creation initiatives.

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The traditional way of obtaining customers needs through market research

instruments, such as surveys or focus groups, has been questioned as being irrelevant
and unrealistic (Hamel & Prahalad, 1994). Establishing customers needs at the
beginning of the innovation process is especially difficult in turbulent times,
where such needs change very rapidly. The case study describes how an
international food company has outsourced the idea generation and screening
stage of new products to their customers achieving significant results in terms
of both innovation and market intelligence generated. The results achieved by the
company show how companies can manage the fuzzy front end of the NPD through
the internet.
The assumption that customers do not innovate because they lack of technical
knowledge (Christensen, 1997) does not fit with the current case, which is not based
on the creation of technical knowledge. Thus, the criticism that customers only
develop incremental innovations (Christensen, 1997; Lojacono and Zaccai, 2004) is
not evident in this study. In accordance with previous results (Fu ller and Matzler,
2007), this case study shows that the virtual environment can enable customers to
express both tacit and explicit knowledge, which can be used for developing
customer-centered new products and services.
The case study analysis shows that the company in our case study first outsourced
to its customers the development of new product concepts, by receiving a huge
amount of new ideas. From interviews with marketing staffs and from the data on the
project, the study shows that the quality, originality, desirability, and feasibility of
the ideas received were high. In fact, several new products and services were born in
the co-creation platform, such as a new line of wheat meal biscuits, a new type of
snack, a fully recyclable packaging, and the like. Increasingly, the product innovation
triggered also process innovation. Accordingly, the idea of producing a new tasty
and light wheat meal biscuit triggered the development of new production processes
for its cooking, namely the steamed-oven cooking.
The idea screening was also outsourced to customers. Accordingly, customers
could also evaluate the new ideas proposed by other users, enabling the company to
separate good ideas from bad ideas. The voting mechanism enables customers
to provide insights about what would be acceptable by the market. The success of an
idea is determined by its capability to satisfy the needs of as many customers as
possible; thus, the more customers vote for an idea, the more likely the idea will
be implemented. This mechanism helps the company to listen to customers needs,
and to develop innovative solutions that are more likely to be accepted by the market.
The ideas expressed by customers provide valuable insights into unarticulated
customer needs, motivations, and desires.
Thus, outsourcing the screening of ideas to customers helped the company to
understand what idea or product to prioritize in its innovation strategy; which has
contributed to reduce market equivocality, uncertainty, and lack of clarity, which often
cause the failure of NPD projects (Tidd and Bessant, 2009).
This case study demonstrates how the food company has not only outsourced the
fuzzy front end to its customers; rather it has also gathered other valuable
information about promotions relevant to customers, and information about
customers expectations on the brand. The case study shows also that by
harnessing consumers knowledge, a company can foster the development of new
products and services, new packaging types, promotions and corporate social
responsibility initiatives which fit actual customers needs and desires.

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Findings show that through the web and social media, marketers may rapidly
and costly get to know customers needs and how to satisfy them, which decrease the
need for inputs from traditional market research, considered ineffective at gathering
such kind of knowledge (Mahr, 2011; Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). In particular, the
present study demonstrates that involving customers in the NPD process is also
beneficial in terms of marketing intelligence generated at cheap costs. Findings
highlight that the international food company does not need to conduct expensive
and time-consuming market research for testing whether new ideas will appeal the
target market. In fact, the company has capitalized on the number of contacts acquired
and the affection generated among the community of customers to involve them in
other valuable activities, such as the participation in online surveys. The firm conducts
market research through its web site, which provides several advantages compared
to traditional market research. First, the respondents of the companys market research
voluntarily decide to participate to the companys surveys; second, they can decide
whether and when to participate to such surveys; therefore, it can be inferred that
they are more likely to provide honest answers. Findings show that differently from
traditional market research, an online market research is less expensive, and can
generate a higher number of responses in a short period of time.
The web site has been used by the company to engage customers in the co-creation
activities. Here, customers could propose, discuss and vote ideas and interact
with the companys staff. The blog within the web site has enabled the adoption of
interactive communications, based on peer-to-peer, transparent, and informal
communication. An interactive and peer-to-peer communication between the
companys marketing and R&D staff and the customers has contributed to creating
a feeling of trust between the company and its customers. Providing transparent
communications about the idea evaluation process and providing a constructive
feedback to every new idea were important strategies to engage customers. The
company has also appointed a tutor to facilitate codification of customers tacit
knowledge and ideas. These facilitators have enabled those customers to express
these needs and desires, and to codify such form of customers tacit knowledge in
terms of ideas expressed in the form of text. In literature it has been discussed that
customers are not able to properly articulate their needs (Leonard and Rayport, 1997;
Ulwick, 2002); thus, the adoption of facilitators, and the comments provided by
other customers to refine the ideas, may be important mechanisms to overcome
such a problem. The facilitator and other customers have contributed to provide a
clear and unambiguous definition of the idea submitted, which is a key objective
in the fuzzy front end, since it facilitates the subsequent development stage
(Tidd and Bessant, 2009).
7. Conclusions
This is the first study that analyzes customer involvement at early stages of the NPD
in the food sector. The case study illustrates how an international food
manufacturing company has successfully involved customers in the fuzzy front
end of the NPD, contributing to the literature on customers co-creation.
The results of our case study show that companies can obtain several benefits by
engaging customers at the fuzzy front end of the NPD. Involving customers at these
stages may lead to effectively and rapidly matching emerging and latent customers
needs. The results achieved by the company in this case study have shown that
customers are capable of producing original, new, and feasible ideas, which are highly

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valuable for companies innovation activities. Such knowledge is critical for

developing new products and services that better match customers needs.
With more than two billion users, the internet offers an important opportunity to
rapidly harness huge amounts and variety of information and knowledge, which
may not be possessed by the companys marketing or R&D experts. Therefore,
customers ideas produced through co-creation platforms may supplement the
knowledge of in-house marketing and R&D experts. The co-creation platform enabled
customers to decide through a voting mechanism what ideas they liked most,
providing clear indications to the company about what the market was expecting
or asking for.
The possibility to get customers involved at early stages of the NPD helped the
company to know how customers will react to new products offering, and what
kind of project should be prioritized. The innovation results were achieved by
exploiting the interaction opportunities offered by social media and the web. In
particular, this case study shows that adopting a blog within the web site, involving
R&D and marketing staff in the provision of a response to every consumers idea,
using a tutor for helping customers to codify tacit knowledge are best practices
to imitate.
The present study demonstrates how companies can achieve different types of
results through co-creation activities, such as the development of new services
(e.g. new packaging types), new collection points schemes, new gifts, original ideas
for sponsorship related to environmental responsibility and the like.
Finally, the co-creation platform was used as a channel to source rapidly and cost
effectively valuable marketing intelligence.
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Corresponding author
Raffaele Filieri can be contacted at: raffaele.filieri@northumbria.ac.uk

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