As consumer goods businesses engage in an accelerating innovation arms race, competing for increasingly scarce consumer attention we identified three archetypical strategies they employ to improve consumer experience and shape their brand perception, often by shifting from products to experiences.
Working with FMCG firms and marketeers we identified the following options, briefly considered in this paper: (A) creating value alone within the realm of their existing industry; (B) collaborating with other companies across industry boundaries; and (C) co-developing value with ecosystem partners while redefining industries.
While (A) is the (traditional) approach most companies employ, significant consumer value could be co-created through partnerships and collaborations in (B) and (C). These two strategies allow companies to transcend their industry’s boundaries, and allow them to reach new audiences and repositioning their brand through association.
We find that building ecosystems may be promising, but is also more demanding as it requires a distinct set of competencies in partnering and collaborative value creation to be successful. We find that businesses could start building these competencies through ad hoc partnerships and by playing a complementor role in other ecosystems.
Read the full paper here.