Stimulating consumer community creation through a co-design approach

Abstract

Increased competition requires retail stores to increasingly focus on improving their customers’ experiences. Along this line, this article explores how a co-design approach can help retail stores of outdoor products develop consumer communities as a part of their store concept. Such stores may be particularly interesting in relation to consumer communities, because of the consumers’ often passionate relationship to activities related to the products in focus. Two longitudinal case studies of outdoor product stores in Denmark are investigated. The two cases are investigated through interviews, store observations, network meetings, and co-design workshops. Several important findings are discovered: first, in relation to community forms, the article defined three archetypes: business–consumer (BC), consumer–consumer (CC), and a combination of the two (BCCC). Second, in relation to the premises for the creation of communities, the article defined three types: consumer motivation, consumer availability, and consumer homogeneity. Third, in relation to consumer community activities, the article argued that these could be understood as being defined by three elements: the business, the consumers, and the products. Finally, the article defined four overall types of community-initiated activities by distinguishing if they are consumer-initiated or business-initiated and if they have a recreational or goal-oriented purpose.