by Fan Bi
12. February 2010 19:09
Empathy isn't a new phenomenon. There was a time not so long ago when there was a broad and deep connection between producers and consumers that allowed everyone to prosper. Dev Patnaik
this mildly hilarious pic of 'caring' is from scottamus
Here at Blank something we buy into nearly as much as the Custom Co-Creation Revolution (#CCCR) is design, and not fashion design, but user design. We take care of the user part and the user takes care of the fashion part. In this post, I'm going to be giving a big plug to Dev Patnaik's Wired to Care. It's almost required reading here, and we'd suggest it to anyone who is customer-centric. Dev (not that we're actually on first name basis with him, but it just sounds a lot more friendly than calling him by his last name), makes a series of great points supported by comprehensive and surprising examples.
For all of the Industrial Revolution's wonderful impacts on the ability of the average person to go into business, it also created a giant rift between producers and consumers. Nearly overnight, we went from a world of face-to-face commercial transactions to a world that was simultaneously more connected and further apart.
quite the epic image from fanboy30
But if you are truly caring, you are customer-centric, you are empathetic. That empathetic connection then enables a better transaction. Consumers become more loyal and more willing to try new products ... they gladly pay premium prices to get products and services that connect with them.
So what does Caring have to do with the #CCCR. Co-creation brings out the ultimate leveler between producer and consumer. Producer provides consumer the platform to create a product that's much more suited to the consumer's tastes and preferences than even the most empathetic product designer. The consumer as a result keeps coming back for more, for this unique product they helped create, that they can tweak but still have uniquely theirs. And as Dev says, most people are probably even worth paying a premium for it.
This article was from Chief Shirt, Fan Bi - founder of the co-creation movement for men's custom dress shirts.
