Recently an article in Harvard Business review titled, "Aligning with the Consumer Decision Journey"
discussed the value of "the loyalty loop" and it's value to the firms
core ethos. Oddly however this is only 1 of two or more basic models. In
short it is the corner stone of the quite valuable factor of: "the
customer is always right" an adage that creates incredible loyalty in
its own right. The question however is what value is asking groups who
are primarily basing the understanding of "new" as an extension of the
old. Aligning then is a pull strategy.
Alternatively,
and quite rightly so, a push model, suggests the "eat what you are
given" model which often delivers greater "newness" but also at the
expense and responsibility of the delivering organization to continue to
innovate from within. Aligning with the consumer can then become
another mechanism for tired design and complacency.
Aligning
with consumers can be viewed as a mechanism for outsourcing
"newness" to the group - that the social consensus holds more collective
vision than a core team of specialized creators - the European model.
Oddly, from within the design world: aesthetics, visual direction, and
even in many cases functionality, specialized creators vastly push
father than collective alignment.
Simply
the innovation cycle comes from aligning by pulling, but 1st
from creating by pushing, researching requiring development,
investment and leader based deployment. Social media is not the answer, but
primarily a step in the direction of awareness equaling
breakthroughs and equaling innovation via
creation deployment.
