Empower Indirectly Using Co-creation

You increase your persuasiveness when you incorporate into what you’re offering the ideas of those you aim to persuade. A chief example of this point is that if your shoppers are invited to participate in the customization of products or services they’re considering for purchase, they become more likely to purchase those items. They’ll also like the items better after they do purchase them.
     It makes sense that people buy into what reflects their preferences. But there’s more to it. Even when the consumer for a product, service, or idea doesn’t take you up on the invitation to co-create, they’ll be more open to considering the item. Researchers at Wageningen University and InSites Consulting find that the brand image of a store improves when it gains a reputation for collaborating with customers in the design of what they sell. People who hear about it from friends become indirectly more persuadable by the retailer. They consider the store staff to be more authentic and sincere than they otherwise would.
     The type of collaboration being considered here is different from the personalization of individual items for purchase only by the co-creating consumer. Instead, this collaboration has to do with the design of and selling strategies for products and services to be offered by the retailer to an entire target audience.
     Empowerment is included in the explanation of why an invitation to co-produce impresses those who do so plus those who have only learned about it but did not participate. Knowing we have the choice of being asked to be listened to gives us a sense of power, we enjoy the feeling, and we consequently like to continue interacting with those who help us feel that way.
     In exploring this same issue, researchers at Aarhus University and Bocconi University point out that two conditions are necessary for the consumers who do the co-creation to experience the empowerment which leads to increased purchase potential: First, the consumers must believe they have sufficient expertise to make good suggestions. Second, they must see clear evidence that their suggestions have been used.
     Invite your target consumers to participate in the design of products they buy from you, the delivery of services, and the layout of environments in which they shop. Invite those others you are wanting to persuade to collaborate with you in forming opinions and developing influential arguments to convince people those opinions are correct.

For your success: Retailer’s Edge: Boost Profits Using Shopper Psychology

Click below for more: 
Effect Endowment via Customer Coproduction
Cojoin the Stages of Coproduction
Puff Down for Authenticity
Hover Within the Shopper’s Power Level
Use Ideas Designed by Users