Augmented Customer Strategy

4Innovation Augmented by the Customer: From Ideation to Diffusion

4.1. Introduction: the new roles and contributions of the customer

“When Thumbelina uses a computer or a laptop, they both require the body of a driver in activity voltage, not that of a passive and relaxing passenger: demand and not supply”.

Michel Serres [SER 12, pp. 40–41], our translation.

Today, companies are beginning to assign a more active role to customers throughout the value creation process – a trend that is currently amplified by the possibilities of new information and communication technologies. In his book Thumbelina, Serres [SER 12] proposes the emergence of a new human being, who now requires playing the role of the driver and not the passenger. This image, between driver and passenger, seems relevant in a world in which customers participate in all stages and sequences of a firm’s value creation processes. Beyond their simple role as a buyer or a repetitive buyer – so much hoped for in the mantras of behavioral loyalty of the 1990s [REI 96] – customers’ potential contributions are much broader than their monetary and financial contributions [KUM 10a]. Customer relationships affect all stages of the value creation process. In this chapter, we propose a perspective on two new roles for customers upstream and downstream of the launch and the marketing of a new product or service [VER 13]: the customer becomes a co-innovator when they participate in the processes of emerging ideas and designing ...