Co-creation marketing strategy
The co-creation of Value in a business organization is a type of business strategy that involves the encouragement and promotion of active involvement of the customers to create an on-demand for products and made- to order goods. As far as co-creation is engaged, the customers get what they asked for, and they have a contribution to make in making this happen. Co-creation is, therefore, a marketing strategy that is rooted in the Value of the customers. Customers use different pathways to share their ideas, problems, and expertise for the improvement of a service or product. By providing their feedback through the ways mentioned above, then the consumers add Value to the product. This strategy also helps in increasing the competition level of the organization involved. Through the use of social Medias such as twitter and facebook and others, consumers can share their experiences with a specific product and the services they use. This way, the consumers help in adding value to the services or products, without directly dealing with the companies making the items. For instance, the threadless UK t-Shirts Company organizes for s situation in which customers place orders for customized t-shirts design on the social website. The visitors of the site the vote, and the winning design is sold on the website.
All consumers in the world, want a personal experience with their products and services, and companies have to know how to satisfy this requirement for a million customers in the world. The products and services are now owned by the costumers since there is no longer an ecosystem of the business, but we now live in a customer ecosystem. This is because consumers are no longer interested, nor are they satisfied by the offers made by the manufacturers the Value of a product only increases when the customer and the consumer design it. Therefore co-creation of Value is created by the consumers on any product and service that is produced by a firm, and the customers are able to personalize and customize it to complete their needs and meet their satisfaction and needs. The personification and loyalty of the customers t the products increase the value of the specific product and in turn, enable the organization to earn more revenue and improve its competition status.
As discussed above, Bitner defined the concept of servicescape is the combination of service and a landscape that illustrates the physical environment in which the experiences of a customer are created. Over the years from 1992, man researchers have tried to define servicescape. The most lingering view on servicescape is that it is defined from an atmospheric perspective, and it concentrates on the effect of the servicescape on the experiences of the customers. Customers are passive respondents to the cues in the environment concerning services. This environmental cues response is perceived as psychological to emotions and behavior. In this case, the value of service is distinguished by a customer as a collaboration between the service provider and servicescape that acts as resources in enabling the customers to consummate their products to fulfill their needs.
In the world we live in today, there has been a lot of changes in how things were done in the past, including our business enterprises. These days, consumers tend to have more power in their demands and are tough when services and product purchases are concerned. The rise in competition among organizations has also contributed to this factor, and companies are trying to find other ways that are more innovative and inventive to increase their competition levels with their competitors. Bitner, 192, was the person who discovered and popularized the word servicescape. It is also known as a service setting. According to Bitner, service space is significant in positioning, segmenting, and differentiating a company from its competitors. Servicescape can be defined as the environment that surrounds the services that ensure that it plays a vital role in shaping the expectations of the customers, facilitating the goals of the employees and the customers, differentiating the services offered by the firm, and influence the nature of the experiences the customers. In simpler terms, servicescape is the environment in which services are delivered and where the company and the customers interact.
As afar as servicescape is concerned, the providers of services should be able to provide and develop surroundings that are appealing to the pleasure and arousal of the states of the consumers and avoid environments that create submissiveness to the customers. On the other hand, the environment chosen should be able to facilitate and smooth operation and useful for the company.
Servicescape is composed of three main aspects. According to Bitner, servicescape is a built environment that opposes the natural environment, and a sit is humanmade. The three elements or aspects of servicescape include:
Spatial layout and functionality
Spatial design is how equipment, machines, and furnishings are organized, the size of the products, shape, and the special relationship between these products. Feature, on the other hand, is the ability of the products to facilitate the accomplishment of the needs of the customers and the goals of the employees. This aspect is significant for the customers in self- survive environments, where they have to serve themselves and do not rely on the employees to serve them or help them. I this case, the functionality of a self-service like the ATM is crucial to the success and satisfaction of the consumer. In retail settings, spatial layout and functionality influence the satisfaction of customers, performance of the stores, and the search behavior of the customers.
Symbols, signs, and artifacts
In the physical environment, items serve as explicit or implicit signals that give a message on the position of its users. In other words, they are the icons that help in amplifying the message from the buyer to the intended customers. Signals, for instance, are explicit messages, since they are displayed on the exterior and interior of an organization. They are used as labels like names of departments, directing indicators such as exits, and as communicators of behaviors, an example of no smoking. Proper use of signs helps I reducing stress. The other symbols and artifacts of the environment communicate less directly compared to signs. Materials like paintings, photographs, and certificates can also help in delivering symbolic meanings to an organization.
On the other hand, the meaning behind the environmental symbols are mainly culturally constructed; for instance, in the UK, the size of an office desk indicates the status and reinforce the professional image. A big office desk symbolizes high status and more power, while a small desk suggests a lower rank with less profession. Signs, symbols, and artifacts are significant as they help in forming the first impressions on consumers and also communicate new concepts of services. When a customer is not familiar with a product, they look for environmental cues to help them in forming their expectations.
Ambient conditions
These are the background characteristics of the environment, like lighting, music, color, and noise. These factors affect how people feel, think, and respond to a service or product being provided. For instance, music has been noted to influence the perception of customers on products. When here is music, customers tend to think they have spent less time shopping compared to when there is music. Slow music, with slow tempos, because customers to pay more, a stay is more leisurely. The scent, on the other hand, plays a part in consumer spending. Bakers, coffee shops, tobacco stores, for instance, have been documented to make more sales from the scent they produce, as it makes customers longer around more to satisfy their olfactory organs. The ambient conditions affect the five senses of the customers.
There is no doubt that there is a relationship between the customers and their values and the environment. Surroundings are the designs of space that positively affect the emotions of a buyer in order to change their decisions in purchasing a product. Servicescape illustrates aspects that influence the service environment. The above literature has discussed these elements and how they affect the employees and the customers. They include particular layout and functionality, ambient conditions and signs, symbols, and artifacts. These three elements of servicescape build holistic cogitation that activates the internal cognition, emotions, and physiological responses in customers and the employees. These fact9ors are furthermore decided on by the personality f a personal ad the situational factors facing a customer or employee.
On the other hand, most of the value co-creation among customers is a result of experience. In this case, a company should be able to coordinate the skills of the customers that are valuable when the customers interact with the provided resources, like the servicescape. Experience, in this case, is the personal experience that a customer has from their interaction with the organization, including the servicescape or the service setting and the employees. The experience of a customer is related to their cognition, emotions, and behavioral responses that result in the mental decision. Customers, by virtue of being customers, have experience in their buying, which is either good or bad. Emotions are very vital in customer experiences, and therefore, aspects of any service rendered should be considered carefully by an organization.
According to Holbrook’s 2006, Value is found in activities and interactions, and it’s experienced subjectively. According to him, Value is a product of the interaction between individuals, and it is a result of attitude, affection, behavior based on judgment and satisfaction. Therefore, servicescape provides space for co-creation of Value to take place through mechanisms.
Servicescape provides the responses to customer responses, which in turn form the experience of the customer, thus become valuable. As mentioned above, customer experience is the responses f a customer in terms of their emotions, cognition, and behavior that result in the perception of the mind. In this case, if an organization s ability to differentiate between favorable and unfavorable customer experience, then they can be able to support the co-creation of Value among customers. It is reported that three internal mechanisms of sense-making, identifying and making use, are co-creation value constellations of the interactions and activities that have an effect on the servicescape. These three elements provide a good understanding of the relationship between the environment and the customer as well as value co-creation concerning customer experience. The three arrangements of value co-creation can be linked to the elements of servicescape. The scopes such as physical artifacts, intangible artifacts, and technology (Edvardsson et al., 2010; Bitner, 1992) –and ambient conditions, and signs, symbols and objects (Edvardsson et al., 2010; Bitner, 1992) – to the three value co-creating constellations. These strategy dimensions help in reducing the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effort in the activities and interactions of identifying, sense-making, and using. This is when the design is intuitive, meaningful, and easy to use. This is consistent with a service logic, in which the role of the company is to support the customers’ processes (Vargo and Lusch, 2008a; Grönroos, 2008).
In addition to this, the knowledge and the skills of customers play a vital role in influencing the actions of the customers in the process of service. In this case, the customer service experiences of a customer are likely to affect their future decisions on value co-creation and the servicescape. In this same way, the co-creation values and the interaction among customers are affected by past experiences. The more knowledge that a customer has, the more skill they have, and the less the customer will use their cognition, emotions, and behavior when it comes to a servicescape. For instance, the experience of the exceptional location of the bus location will prevent a customer from challenge sin navigation to the bus station. However, prior knowledge prevents customers from attaining new experiences, as they rely on already learned responses. In providing a favorable service setting environment, the customers will know the effectiveness of the service and improve their skills and value co-creation.
It is clear that customers determine their Value in the products they purchase, Value is the appropriate judgment on the commodity. A company cannot be able to create Value for its products without the help of the customers. As much as a form would want to make the Value of their reproduces for selling and competition, the customers also have to conclude through their evaluation of the products and the services offered to them. A company, therefore, needs to establish a harmony between the products they sell, the quality of the service, and the meaning taken from the servicescape and the sensory characteristics to impact the Value. Therefore a poorly operated servicescape contributes to low expectations by the customers and thus low levels of co-creation value.
On the other hand, a positive servicescape increases the expectations of the customers. For instance, the mood derived from music can give different responses to customers. For example, the arousal caused by music playing in a store and the scent increases the pleasure levels, causes the customers to spend more money, and be satisfied with the shopping experience, which in turn helps in the value co-creation.
In conclusion, servicescape is defined as the environment in which services are delivered and where the company and the customers interact. As afar as servicescape is concerned, the providers of services should be able to provide and develop surroundings that are appealing to the pleasure and arousal of the states of the consumers and avoid environments that create submissiveness to the customers. On the other hand, the environment chosen should be able to facilitate and smooth operation and useful for the company. Moreover, Co-creation is a marketing strategy that is rooted in the Value of the customers. Customers use different pathways to share their ideas, problems, and expertise for the improvement of a service or product. By providing their feedback through the ways as mentioned earlier, then the consumers add Value to the product. This strategy also helps in increasing the competition level of the organization involved. Servicescape has three vital elements, and they include ambient conditions, spatial layout and functionality, and signs, symbols, and artifacts. These elements work hand in hand with identifying, making sense, and using aspects of co-creation value. The knowledge and the skills of customers play a vital role in influencing the actions of the customers in the process of service. At the same time, customers determine their Value in the products they purchase. Therefore for s good value co-creation, the environment in which the services are being provided should be adequate, illustrated n the aspect of the ambient condition of the servicescape. I this case, servicescape offers a space for value co-creation, by providing a conducive environment, spatial layout, functionality, and signs, artifacts, and branding or symbols. As much as the servicescape does not offer a full opportunity for co-creation, it helps in the improvement of the Value of the products offered. In addition to the customer experiences, then value c creation is possible. It is reported that three internal mechanisms of sense-making, identifying a making use, are co-creation value constellations of the interactions and activities that have an effect on the servicescape. These three elements provide a good understanding of the relationship between the environment and the customer as well as value co-creation concerning customer experience. The three constellations of value co-creation can be linked to the elements of servicescape. The scopes such as physical artifacts, intangible artifacts, and technology and ambient conditions, and signs, symbols, and objects to the three value co-creating constellations. These strategy dimensions help in reducing the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effort in the activities and interactions of identifying, sense-making, and using. This is when the design is intuitive, meaningful, and easy to use. This is consistent with a service logic, in which the role of the company is to support the customers’ processes.