Open Innovation in Lifestyle Brands
Globalization has not only introduced global brands with their respective products and services, but also modified an individual’s lifestyle pattern. The modern day consumers are conscious about every product they choose and analyze whether it would cater to their taste and preferences. More than a product or service, it’s the brand image that decides how a consumer will to relate to it. As a result Lifestyle brands are becoming increasingly cautious about the ways in which they connect to their audience. To strengthen this connection they are resorting to idea management and open innovation techniques.
Lifestyle is individual and unique to a person and holds a distinguishing factor to it. Swarovski, the famous luxury product retailer resorted to open innovation with its Lifestyle Electronics Competition 2011. This competition encouraged consumers to incorporate Swarovski gems into lifestyle electronic such as earphones, e-books, mobiles, notebooks and the like. Innovative designs created by the public were asked to be uploaded on the company website and later were judged by a team of Swarovski executives. The end result of the competition of was 2,000 configured and 600 freely created designs. The designs attained through this open idea capture gained prominence and got added to the brand’s product/service portfolio. The idea that got promoted was irrespective of the electronic device you carry, it becomes unique with a Swarovski in it!
The term “Lifestyle” essentially means a way of life, that is never static and forever changing for betterment. New and creative ideas help lifestyle brands create product awareness and also in product development. Philips, the global leader in lifestyle, healthcare and lighting has frequently adopted open innovation strategies to bring greater innovations to the market, quickly and efficiently. In the year 2005, Philips established its One Philips Innovation Campus in Shanghai, by investing 40 million Euros annually. The aim was twofold. First, the brand aimed to promote internal collaboration and increase efficiency in bringing multiple R&D centers in one campus. The second objective was to open up the campus to external teams, facilitating R&D cooperation and open innovation. The main objective of this open innovation to set up an environment that promotes networking, interactions and knowledge-sharing, resulting in joint projects and ventures amongst the HTCE organizations.
Thus we see that the procedure of idea management has stretched beyond the confines of a seminal hall or corporate meeting room. Today, entrepreneurs are aware of the fact that every individual is capable of “out of the box thinking”. It has been proved time and again that the best of the ideas come in from a mixed, unidentified and unorganized section! However, there lies its uniqueness, that the crowd to whom brands sell their products can well be contributors to their success.
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