Co-creation Dialogue Sessions in Los Angeles and Amsterdam

The last weeks we have been working on a project in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. The project aim was to find the right positioning of new products to be introduced by our client. Instead of creating products from scratch or building on client’s concepts - as we normally do in co-creation sessions - this time we needed to figure out the reason for being of a portfolio of products. Since such a task is not to be done with an average set of consumers, we recruited heavily on creative, outspoken, constructive, critical and passionate users of our client’s products. We found them. The differences between LA and Dutch consumers were abundent, but both worlds were not too far apart though. People from LA are VERY talkative though and like to share what they love (photo: Apple, Prius and Obama).

A few things I would like mention about Los Angeles’ and Amsterdam’ sessions:

- People feel truly honoured to be part of a strategic product development process
- When clients open up, consumers open up (we do not use one-way mirrors..)
- You get the best results when you invite the best people
- You need brand advocates and competitors’ fans in the mix
- Consumers can be far more passionate about a brand than clients could ever imagine…

These findings are in line with what we have experienced in recent other projects. We stick to our own rules: inspire, select, connect, share and continue.