Abstract
Successful products are loved by customers and in synch with their needs and wishes. Harmony between product and customer can be pursued by developing appropriate knowledge about their conscious and latent expectations. The ability to skilfully capture the “voice of the customer” (VOC) is fundamental to direct innovative efforts and to identify valuable and attractive solutions. VOC research is a primary source of opportunities for innovation.
Nowadays it is widely acknowledged that a company cannot innovate on its own. The term open innovation is frequently used to characterize a system in which innovation comes from extensive collaboration with external actors: customers should play a key role in firms’ networking efforts, given their decisive impact on the processes of adoption and diffusion of new products.
Companies must, therefore, build a deep relationship with customers to be able to innovate in the right direction its value proposition. It should be noted, however, that some customers may represent an element of inertia towards radical innovations. As we shall see in this chapter, it is critical to recognize the variety of voices and types of customers and the diversity of their contributions to innovative processes.
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Notes
- 1.
Von Hippel (1994).
- 2.
See Christensen et al. (2007): “When customers find that they need to get a job done, they ‘hire’ products or services to do the job. This means that marketers need to understand the jobs that arise in customers’ lives for which their products might be hired”.
- 3.
Sawhney et al. (2003).
- 4.
- 5.
As regards the distinction between hedonic and utilitarian benefits, see Chitturi et al. (2008).
- 6.
See www.alessi.com: Kettle 9093 designed by Michael Graves.
- 7.
Several authors have focused their attention on the activities that customers engage in to achieve a specific set of outcomes, elaborating similar concepts: the customer-activity chain (Sawhney et al., 2003); the customer-activity cycle (Vandermerwe, 1993); or the buyer experience cycle (Kim & Mauborgne, 2000). Kim and Mauborgne have articulated the buyer experience cycle in six stages: purchase, delivery, use, supplements, maintenance and disposal.
- 8.
- 9.
Christensen (1997).
- 10.
Kim and Mauborgne (2005).
- 11.
See Goffin et al. (2010).
- 12.
Kim and Mauborgne (2000).
- 13.
- 14.
See Bloor and Wood (2006).
- 15.
Griffin and Hauser (1993): “Our data suggest interviews with 20–30 customers should identify 90% or more of the customer needs in a relatively homogeneous customer segment”.
- 16.
- 17.
Christensen (1997).
- 18.
Von Hippel (2005).
- 19.
- 20.
Franke and Shah (2003).
- 21.
Von Hippel (1986).
- 22.
Von Hippel et al. (1999).
- 23.
- 24.
Herstatt and Von Hippel (1992).
- 25.
Von Hippel, Franke, et al. (2009).
- 26.
- 27.
See Kozinets (2002).
- 28.
Füller et al. (2007).
- 29.
- 30.
- 31.
- 32.
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Biazzo, S., Filippini, R. (2021). Intelligence: Uncovering Innovation Opportunities Through Customer Involvement. In: Product Innovation Management. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75011-4_4
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