Spring+2010+Section+09-SS+Week+12

= Participation: The New Era in Business and Politics =

“Times they are a-changin”
In the middle of curve jump of collaboration. The companies that entrench themselves now will own the future.

Engineering Orientation: 1910-Now Sales Orientation: 1955-Now Market Orientation: 1975-Now Participation Orientation: 2001-Now

Forrester’s Social Technographics Ladder
 * Read Li & Bernoff’s //groundswell*//

Thinking Power: from web 1.0-web 2.0 Listening Power: from dictated news to personal selection

 * in the 1990's web pages were created by a select few and published out for general consumption
 * there were a few gatekeepers who controlled most of the information available
 * in the 2000's web pages offer an infrastructure on which average people can add content
 * information flow is uncontrolled and created/consumed by all parties
 * in the 2010's web pages & their creation jumped from computers to personal electronic devices, furthering content creation and delivery

====** Getting Brand Communities Right: ** Outstanding concepts that challenge how we view customers. Branding on a community basis becomes business concentric not just a marketing strategy. When a customer or more importantly a group of customers with a common interest become involved with the business itself the results are powerful. Take for example Harley-Davidson. Harley enthusiasts travel to rallies, to the factory for the "rivet wall", and to their local clubs, not just for the enjoyment of the product but for the sharing of common interests. Harley provides access to information as well as to company resources to support and incorporate these items into their business operations. The result transformed Harley into the success story it is today.====

While not a paradigm shift, we are seeing a change in sourcing of expertise. Formerly scientists, engineers, accountants, etc were paid to develop goods and services that were then sold to the masses. Now, those same scientists, engineers, and accountants are more and more taking part in open source and collaborative works. Products such as Wikipedia, Linux, GIMP, Blender3D, and Firefox are created by these same talented people but for free. Instead of money they get enjoyment, community outreach, praise, and pride. Companies are beginning to see the advantages of this approach too. Companies such as Sun Microsystems (Java and Solaris products) and Google (Android OS) are seeing the economic advantages and pursing community based creation & development. In the end it is the community that consumes these products, so they are in the in the best position to determine what they want and create it to their liking.

==== Shifted Political Power: My.BarackObama.com -Chris Hughes - one of the creators of Facebook - credited with helping Obama win the campaign through successful use of online media and creating an online community of Barack Obama supporters ====

This tee-shirt company is a great example of a business that has capitalized on its online community - allowing people to submit new designs for consideration and inviting fans to vote online. The most popular designs are produced and sold for a limited time, keeping the product line fresh and ever-changing. The community has taken on a life of its own, with "unofficial" sites such as [] (Unoffiical fan site) and a "Threadcakes" online cake-baking contest [] co-sponsored by Threadless with Mary Alice of Charm City Cakes ("Ace of Cakes" TV show) fame as a judge.
 * __Threadless Case Study__** - []

__**Principle Issue**__

The three founders--Nickell, DeHart, and Kalmikoff--are faced with a decision regarding a major retailer that is offering to carry large volumes of select Threadless t-shirts in its retail stores. With this potentially lucrative offer looming they need to decide if they should accept.

Marketing Magicians :


Our team came to the conclusion that Threadless should continue with their current model except in the case of their archived designs. After some period of time, Threadless could dig into their archive of once popular designs to sell to their retail partner. A key part of this strategy would be to make sure that the original designers name was displayed on the shirts so that they would gain notoriety.


 * Team O**

Our team came to the conclusion that Threadles management should float the idea to the community of purchasing Threadles t-shirts in retail stores. If the community accepted the department store idea then an exclusive retail t-shirt design contest would occur.