Speach: 11.03.2008 10. Internationale GOR Konferenz GENERAL ONLINE RESEARCH 08 10.-12. march 2008

Interactive customer co-creation in transparent markets
Synchronized consumer research of networked consumers

Open innovation, open source, customer co-creation, social software,
prosuming, location based services, data mining, radio-frequency
identification (RFID), long tail, crowdsourcing as well as account card and
3D printer belong to the key words which mark a transformation of the consumer
goods industry and of the market and consumer research. These transformations carry
two fundamental developments of the relation between producers and
customers.

The first transformation describes a collaboration for innovation within
networks of firms and external entities like customers, retailers and
suppliers. Collaboration for innovation integrates the customer into a
firm's system of value creation. The customer, a so-called prosumer,
participates in the production process and produces the consumer goods
himself. "Open source", "open innovation" or “crowdsourcing" have become
keywords to describe the production sphere of the prosumer. A prosumer is
the active consumer of Web 2.0 in social commerce.

The second transformation is accompanied by global informationalisation
and data mining which carry a flood of information on the one hand and force a high
degree of market transparency on the other. These transformations result in a market
transparency that renders all value-adding activities of an organization visible – from
raw material to the consumer. In particular, loyalty cards, radio-frequency identification (RFID)
and location-based services provide an audit trail which provides consumer research with
detailed information on consumer preferences.

Reflecting on these transformations, I find myself confronted with the following questions:
Which may be future tasks of market and consumer research, if these become less relevant in
their traditional field of consumer survey or questionnaire? Will market and consumer research
lose part of their market knowledge if producers acquire information by direct data link to market
customization? Or will consumers satisfy their needs as far as possible within the structures of
prosuming and customer integration? This talk analyzes the social commerce of Web 2.0 on the one
hand and considers the consequences for market and consumer research on the other.