The Best Community Co-Creation Initiatives

Opting for a community co-creation approach means not being afraid to revitalize your offering and/or innovate based on consumers’ expectations and needs. This innovative technique has often paid off for brands that dared to take the plunge and allow their users to express themselves fully! Thanks to their feedback, these companies have managed to stand out from competing brands, strengthen their reputation, and create a new relationship with their customers. This community of interest, often built with engaged users, remains the best ally for making a profound change in the production process. Trustt presents the best community co-creation initiatives…

Why Community Co-Creation?

The search for authenticity and the freedom of expression via social networks have changed the behavior of consumers who want more interactions, authenticity, and proximity with brands.

As a result, consumers are ready to get involved in the co-creation process and innovation of their favorite brand, provided that the finished products and services match their needs and values.

Moreover, according to a Supper / Opinion Way study: 78% of consumers participating in this survey feel that brands offer them products they “don’t really need, and for 72% of” them, useless or poorly designed products (49%)!

Implementing a co-creation approach for your offering therefore allows you to create products or services totally adapted to the real needs of your target consumers.

This is why, given the many advantages of these new processes, some large groups put this co-creation at the heart of their community strategy (Lego, Décathlon…).

To meet these new consumer expectations, companies must learn to capture their customers’ attention creatively and, above all, must remain honest with them in developing their new marketing actions.

Thanks to customer influence and crowdsourcing, brands are modifying their internal processes: the ongoing co-creation dialogue with their community becomes a real source of inspiration for developing their product offerings (design, packaging, service, and finished product) and for building a solid e-reputation.

In this context, Trustt helps you develop your proprietary community and improve your e-reputation through the ambassador program on your site. Thanks to this marketing tool, collect detailed and authentic reviews that allow you to co-create, step by step, best-selling products closer to the needs of your target consumers. Gathering customer voices and being attentive to their expectations in a spirit of collaboration and innovation are part of Trustt’s essential values.

Inspiring Community Co-Creation Initiatives

1- Respire, the Excellence of Co-Creation

If you want a beautiful successful community co-creation experience, Respire is the brand to follow! With a community of over 500,000 internet users on social networks, the brand’s founders – Justine Hutteau and Thomas Meheut – continuously engage daily with their consumer-actors to maintain their initial objectives of transparency, effectiveness, and proximity.

With over 3 million products sold in 2 years, and 30% growth each quarter, Respire stays on course by continuously aligning its products (deodorant, shower gel, shampoo, sun products…) with the values and ideas shared by their community.

The initiative to remember: to reinforce this feeling of belonging to a privileged group among its customers, Respire has set up the Respire Hive, a private account of 200 internet users (of all ages) on Instagram. These true ambassadors allow the brand to have transparent exchanges on upcoming projects and gather authentic opinions on tested products.

2- Glossier, the Case Study of Community Co-Creation

How Glossier’s Community Strategy Works

Founded by Emily Weiss, Glossier is the iconic brand that pioneered community co-creation in the beauty industry. By directly asking its followers about their ideal facial cleanser, the brand was able to collect over 400 responses. The brand then launched into community co-creation of cosmetic products increasingly tailored to the needs of their consumers and always of better quality.

With exponential growth since its creation in 2014, the brand is now valued at over a billion dollars. This dynamic evolution has been based, from the beginning, on the consumer’s voice placed at the heart of their marketing strategy and customer service.

The initiative to remember: highly Instagrammable packaging and points of sale, and a break from old habits in the beauty sector by constantly reinventing themselves through a collaborative dynamic with their audience. Thus, this business model, based on sharing opinions and digitalization of experiences, allows consumers to contribute to a so-called community construction.

3- Nidé.co, Cosmetic Products Designed Through a Collaborative Platform

How Nidé.co’s Community Strategy Works

Born in 2018, Nidé.co is one of the companies that put co-creation at the heart of their marketing strategy. With its slogan “co-create with us the cosmetics of tomorrow”, it encourages consumers to participate in the different stages of creating a perfect cosmetic product! By relying on crowdsourcing, Nidé.co mixes innovative ideas from customers with the brand’s expertise. Thus, the company puts consumer engagement at the heart of the creation process of its cosmetic products.

More than 12,000 users directly participate in the smooth running of these co-creation stages for clean, cruelty-free products to ensure these cosmetics perfectly meet their expectations.

The initiative to remember: the creation of a collaborative platform that brings together all beauty fans in a co-creation journey. They can participate in the entire process of creating an ideal cosmetic product: from posting cosmetic ideas, through community voting, to beta testing that allows the formula to be developed. Then, beta testers try the cosmetic product designed in small series and provide feedback, which helps optimize the final product. Ultimately, the products are sold on this same platform. In the long term, the brand aims for a dedicated place with a beauty hub where experience, retail, and work will mix.

4- Sojade, Articles Designed with Their Community

Thanks to the explosion of social networks, Sojade (Triballat Noyal group) – a brand specialized in plant-based and organic food products – was able to co-design and publish its plant-based cookbook. This was co-created with a highly engaged consumer community. Participants in this co-creation process take pleasure in spontaneously sharing recipes on Instagram that showcase the use of the brand’s plant-based and organic products. Eventually, about twenty recipes were selected to be published in a book on the seasonality of ingredients, perfectly reflecting the brand’s values.

With a hundred contributions per month, a global audience (Facebook and Instagram) of 8 million impressions and 200,000 engagements, the brand is strongly developing its notoriety. The gain in visibility, the desire to follow a brand and to be part of a participatory project has the effect of building customer loyalty to the brand.

The initiative to remember: Sojade has set up a “permanent contest” on Instagram that allows customers to share content such as a plant-based recipe made with at least one product from the brand. Now, half of the content published on Sojade’s social networks is created by a community of consumers who spontaneously get involved in its brand content. This has the effect of developing broader themes in articles: lifestyle, wellness workshops, nature, sports, culinary experiences, and more inclusion.

Quick Summary: The Advantages of Community Co-Creation for Your Brand

Co-creating your products with members of your community is as effective, if not more so, than a market study! You receive feedback from your target consumers on a product before incurring development costs.

You have a panel of users who can test your products, and their feedback and opinions allow you to continuously improve your products.

By implementing a co-creation process for your products or services, you transform your audiences into brand ambassadors. They will not hesitate to promote your products or services to their network whenever the opportunity arises.

You create a privileged and lasting bond with your customers, which allows you to build loyalty. You ensure the development of your company and the sustainability of your business.

You multiply the chances of success for the launch of your new product or service offering, as your audience is already involved and has participated in the entire creation process of your product or service. At the time of its market introduction, you already have potential customers, which will positively impact your sales and revenue.

It’s your turn!