It is pretty much an article of faith in the marketing profession that “knowing your customer” is a good thing. Equally important is listening carefully to, and “engaging” (the latest marketing buzzword), your consumers. Indeed, it is often said that the true “owners” of your brand are those very same customers and consumers. Having a good relationship with your boss is always recommended.

I would be willing to bet that you enthusiastically subscribe to these customer/consumer-centric marketing tenets, primarily because they are widely accepted and make good sense. So, why is the wall between marketers and their intended “targets” (this word alone suggests why the wall so stubbornly persists) still so high and seemingly impenetrable?

Perhaps it is because marketers don’t really listen to, engage, interact with, or frequently even care that much about, the people they’re actively trying to win over and sell to. Maybe the customer is not really “King” after all. It certainly seems that way much of the time. Too many marketers seem to treat their customers less like royalty and more like peasants. Sure, the customers play an important role in keeping the brand kingdom solvent, but they are not really deserving of much of the marketers’ time, attention or respect.

Now, I realize this is a pretty cynical view of our business. Surely it behooves marketers to build strong, positive and mutually beneficial relationships with their customers and consumers. All quite true, but that does not mean that marketers and their agencies always (or even frequently) do so.

I suspect that you take pride in your company’s/agency’s commitment to building and nurturing positive relationships with the people who actually matter most to your brand (remember, they “own it”). If that is the case, then when was the last time that you actually had a meaningful conversation with any of those customers/consumers to really listen to their needs, take their input and then do something tangible and constructive with it?

Or, when was the last time you actually “partnered” with your customer/consumer stakeholders to develop new products or improve existing ones, create and deliver new services, fix broken processes, build brands, develop marketing campaigns, even run your business?

This is exactly what an increasing number of innovative marketers are doing to re-energize, re-engage or re-establish mutually productive relationships with customers and other important stakeholders. Welcome to the brave new world of co-creation in marketing. Co-creation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-creation) is a business management theory that is increasingly being embraced and employed by marketers. The classic example of co-creation is the open source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source) movement in technology. Another well known co-creation initiative is from Lego. That beloved global toy brand has enabled people to actually co-create new Lego toys with the company. In addition, a number of shoe companies (Nike, Converse, Steve Madden) now make it possible for buyers to customize their own shoes on the web. The Nike custom application (www.nikeid.nike.com) is pretty amazing.

But, there are plenty of other examples of companies that are now opening up their Black Boxes and letting customers and consumers in as true collaborators and even partners. For example, Toyota has started a community site called Heya (http://www.heya.toyota.com/login.asp?nextpage=%2Fdefault%2Easp%3F) that is specifically designed to solicit real input from owners and buyers. Starbucks, which is trying to reinvent itself, just launched a similar customer-engagement effort called MyStarbucksIdea.com (www.mystarbucksidea.com). And even the New Chrysler LLC is getting into the co-creative marketing game with its new site ChryslerListens.com (www.chryslerlistens.com).

Let’s hope this new co-creation strategy works for Chrysler. Talk about a company that has not listened to customers for years. That lack of customer input is certainly a key factor in Chrysler’s products being so sub-standard across the board, and why car buyers have all but deserted the company. (One good sign: Chrysler actually listened to car enthusiasts last year when it agreed to build the new Dodge Challenger, a superb retro remake of the early 70’s Chrysler muscle car. If Chrysler keeps listening to its brand loyalists, they could still survive, but the odds are pretty steep against them.)

So what is really happening with this co-creative marketing movement? Basically it’s a healthy recognition by more and more marketers (and their agencies) that the bankrupt “our way or the highway" approach to marketing is dying, if not already dead. The famous Henry Ford maxim of, “You can have a Model A in any color you want, just so long as it’s black,” is now a rusted relic. Companies, organizations and even presidential candidates (notably, Barack Obama) are finding much more success with a bottom up, outside-in approach.

No more ”telling and selling” and pushing stuff out and hoping it sticks. The co-creation ethos is all about creating a genuine two-way dialogue that pulls in customers, consumers, stakeholders, shareholders, partners, employees, etc. This more egalitarian, open and participatory form of business and marketing requires something most companies are loath to do: giving up control. However, once you get started by bringing consumers into your process and your thinking, it is amazing the innovations you can come up with and the things you can achieve. And the good will and, ultimately, loyalty you can engender.

Of course, a major accelerator of the co-creation shift is the web (gee, the Internet really does change everything). The web is one big co-creation platform (actually, more like a universe), where people can interact with each other, sound off, communicate, engage and create in ways unheard of just a short decade ago. It’s thus not surprising that most of the business-driven co-creation initiatives are being launched and managed online. The web was made for co-creation…the two have a decidedly symbiotic relationship.

Co-creation in marketing is here to stay. Your customers and/or consumers want to be heard, and smart companies are now listening much more carefully and acting upon what they hear and learn. Yes, true partnering with your customers and consumers requires you to let go and delegate some of the power to others. But, thinking and acting like you have all the power and control has has not particularly helped most marketers anyway. Trying to control everything certainly will not work in the increasingly egalitarian, user-driven world of social networking, instant feedback and consumer empowerment. The global economy and business overall are being democratized (lower cased "d") like never before in history. Marketers need to get on board with this historic transformation. If not, your customers are going to vote with their feet.

Even a seemingly invincible brand power like Starbucks realized this was happening, so the CEO Howard Schultz stepped in to stop the slide and reach out in a much more humble way to ask his customers, "What are we doing wrong, how can we do better, and what do you suggest to improve every aspect of our Starbucks experience?" Starbucks is now trying to co-create a stronger future with the people who have the most stake in its success: customers.

The benefits of co-creation – stronger customer relationships, greater innovation, and consumer loyalty born out of true brand involvement and ownership – are clearly worth it. Adopting a more participatory, democratic, co-creative approach just might be the spark you were looking for to jump start your 2008 marketing and communications efforts.

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