Wikification

Reading other blogs about the London bombings I was directed to Wikinews who was first to provide details regarding the bombings evening beating CNN. Wikinews is contributed to by its readers thus its really shaped and controlled by the users. The same thing is happening to brands which are taking customer suggestions in developing new products and services, referred to as wikification.

"Customers are taking charge of almost every aspect of a brand, even to the extent of product development. ''A growing body of empirical work shows that users are the first to develop many, and perhaps most, new industrial and consumer products,'' notes Eric von Hippel, head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Turning your brand over to customers can produce pays off. In a study at 3M, von Hippel found that product ideas from customers generated $146 million in revenue. By contrast, sales from internal ideas only generated $18 million." more at Fusion Branding