Taking It To The Next Level: From Competition To Co-Creation

If you are a designer or maker you wonder how you will compete in this market or how you will take your business to the next level by getting a bigger piece of the proverbial pie.
 

No matter how great you are at what you do, there will be someone who is smarter than you, a better marketer than you and more successful than you. Looking at your competitors to build your creative business is a race to the bottom.
 

Instead of looking at the situation as I–win-you-lose and compete for the same customers, think about how can you change the rules of the game.
 

Before we launch into how we mentally transition from a DIY, my-secret-sauce-is –my-manufacturing-partner, competitive  mode to  a more Do-It-Together, collaborative mode, let’s make sure we get the terminology straight.
 

Competition implies “win-lose” not “win-win”.  You will need to forever defend your “secret sauce” and it can’t be a process or technique or production partner as it can be replicated.  Zappos took a commodity like shoes to become the market leader when they stopped competing in the shoes category. They went from selling shoes; to selling “happiness”.
 

Collaboration implies working together towards a shared goal to get to “win-win”.  Threadless is a great example of collaborating with customers to premium-ize a commodity like  T-shirt.  JCrew’s collaboration with indie designers like Prabal Gurung, DODOCase  and others are also noteworthy. However, this kind of collaboration is more a marketing strategy and less about product innovation.
 

As a small business I don’t think that collaboration is sufficient to take your business to the next level. It certainly will help you scale up as you partner to increase production or seek help in areas that are not your strength. But to truly innovate you need to think of creating new products  and experiences that are hard to replicate. You need to co-create something that is unique.

So what is co-creation?

Let’s start by defining what it’s not: it is not outsourcing your manufacturing or production to a partner.
 

Co-creation is about creating new products & services working in conjunction with another skilled individual or business, showcasing  a combined vision, which is bigger than the sum of the parts.
 

As I see it, there are three ways of co-creating:

With another designer –  where both designers have complimentary skills that can be leveraged to develop a new technique or blend unusual materials together that results in a unique product.  For example a surface pattern designer and textile designer  working together to create new textures & weaves or a metalsmith working with a glass artist  to come up with a new line of jewellery.                       

With an artisan or small batch producer– two successful brands that  prove that high design + artisinal/small batch made  =  unique products are Michael Aram, SURevolution.  Michael Aram products are carried by boutiques and retailers around the globe. SURevolution products are sold thru the online boutique Vivre.com.  In both cases the designers ( Michael Aram and Marcella Echavarria) work hand-in-hand with the artisans, challenging each other, giving form to the vision, stretching the boundaries of the age old traditional craft. This is truly where the artist’s vision meets the artisan’s craftsmanship to transform a perfect piece into a “collectible”.

With customers –  Large companies have been fairly successful crowdsourcing ideas for new products and services in what is called the “CUSTOMER MADE” trend. This has huge untapped potential for small indie businesses. Leveraging your Twitter followers or Facebook fans as potential co-creators should not seem out of the realm of possibilities. Take your most ardent fans and reward them to work with you as they can tell you what works or does not work about your products.

The point here is if you are uncomfortable with sharing how and where your products are made or who is making it then co-creation might be a far fetched concept. On the other hand if you want to come up with unique products that will stand out in the sea of sameness, think about co-creating your next product line. Think about how you can change the rules of the game to make the proverbial "pie" bigger.

Photo Credit :: facecocreation

Which indie brands or designers are doing it well? What could you co-create? Share you thoughts and viewpoints with us, in the comments!

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