Sorry for the pun.
As you may have noted from my previous posts, I’m big into mass customization and co-creation (MC/CC). Although consumer-generated media is the buzz term of the moment, its impact on the fundamentals of capitalism will be limited. CGM is an evolution of company/customer conversation, not a revolution of company/customer transaction.
The transactional revolution will begin on the production lines and in the boardrooms of major corporations. Currently, the very idea of letting a customer manipulate a product prior to purchase goes against much of what we were taught in school (protect the brand, be “on” brand, be consistent with your branding efforts, etc.)
But within the automotive industry, we are seeing some great efforts at opening up the production- and marketing-models to customer control.
The revolution began in 2003 when Toyota’s chairman, Hiroshi Okuna, uttered the words “I can’t offer any relevant input. This is a vehicle design and concept that is clearly not for anyone in this room.”
With those words, Okuna admitted that it was time to consider a new model of car design (and a new brand) if Toyota hoped to appeal to a new, younger and more demanding demographic. Toyota would have to give up partial ownership of the brand to the customer. Acting as a leader and visionary, Okuna gave the idea a seal of approval.
Over the next few months, developers brought Okuna a revolutionary concept – a car that could be mass customized to customer specs prior to delivery. It would be a production- and distribution-system that would come with a new brand: Scion. Since it launch, Scion has been huge success, and many other car manufacturers are following Toyota’s lead.
Read more about the Scion and its impact on the basics of capitalism here (another chapter of my book):
the-custom-class-chapter-7.pdf
The latest example of a car company driving a new form of capitalism is Fiat and their 500 (or Cinquecento in Italian). This story has gone largely ignored in American circles because we won’t see the car on our streets before 2010 (and we’re ethnocentric, but I digress).
The Fiat 500 has been around for a long time. Much like Beetle (German) and Mini-Cooper (English, until recently), the Fiat 500 was designed for congested Italian roads in the middle of the 20th century. It was a popular and practical car throughout the 60s and 70s, but it’s influence tapered off as the 80s approached. The production of the 500 ceased in 1977.
Because of the international brouhaha over car size, Fiat is bringing the 500 back from a 30-year hiatus. It’s small, sporty, and cheap. It’s also the most mass-customized and co-created car to come out of Europe.
For quite some time Fiat has had a really cool, multilingual website up for people interested in the 500. See it here.
John Todor, contributor to the Customer Think blog, recently wrote up a summary of Fiat’s efforts to both engage and respond to customer demands:
Fiat has engineered a way to get customers engaged on- and offline. I believe they are on their way to nurturing mutually meaningful relationships.Customers are:Engaged in the design. 500 days before the launch Fiat invited potential buyers to a web site to design accessories for the car. 8000 did so! Now there are over 100 accessories available. Accessories customers find relevant and appealing. The most popular, a clear glass roof. Second most popular, Italian colors as racing strips. Italian pride (emotion).
Engaged in the Launch. Customers generated the themes for advertising. Think about it! Who knows how to reach potential customers in a more meaningful way than customers who are already involved?
Engaged in Customization of their Car. Ford and Chrysler offered online “build your car” tools for years. Fiat has taken it a step further. They add emotions.
Engaged in their Web Presence. Each visitor to the Fiat website can customize the look and feel of their own web site. This isn’t just appearance. It enables customers to get the information that is meaningful to them—front row and center. (All the bubbles I added into this post from Fiat’s website are stand-alone widgets that can be drag/dropped anywhere on the site…very cool technology.)
Customer involvement helped sell 57,000 cars in the first month (July ’07). I predicted the way Fiat is continuing to involve customers in the ownership experience will lead to a growing customer base. Perhaps more importantly, they are nurturing highly engaged and committed customers who are very likely to be passionate evangelists.
The one area Todor didn’t touch on was the fact Fiat opened up the advertising and marketing of this product to consumer generation. I love it. Product and promotion. Complete exposure to customers. Here is one of the two winning campaigns:
“Many of the great ones who had change the world are gone forever.
Luckily, some do come back.”
What a great approach, no? Buzz? Yes. Demand? You bet.
The first 500 sold out in two hours.
Fiat’s sales goal- 57,000 500s over the course of year – was tapped in 30 days.
THEY ARE OUT OF CARS.
Its a problem anyone would be glad to have. Fiat has mass customization and co-creation to thank for their enviable dilemma. Capitalism, as we have known it since the dawn of industrialization, is on the verge of major change.
Willie 