A health brand marketer creating new value through social media

Crowdsourcing is consumer research on steroids for health brands.

The health brand Vitaminwater, through its vitaminwater flavorcreator Facebook page, is inviting friends and fans to pick a name, write the package blurb and design the label for a new product release.

They’re also awarding $5,000 to the creator of the winning package design. In fact, today is the announcement of the winning flavor and vitamin package, that will then mark the start of the label design content.

What are six lessons that health brand marketers can take away from this combined social media/crowdsourcing effort:

1. Opening your brand up to customer participation allows you to create win-wins for your customers and your company. Customers get a product (or service, or enhancement) of their own creation, and your company gets a pre-approved stamp of approval.

2. Follow the “conversational” practices of your customers . Vitaminwater’s fans are heavy users of social media, particularly Facebook. With 963,000+ of them, participation in, and word-of-mouth about this contest will be strong. Where do your fans tend to congregate?

3. Brand actions speak louder than words. Vitaminwater could simply have introduced a new flavor through a traditional new product process. Instead, they let their fans develop the idea, creating much richer interaction with the brand through an engaging experience.

4. Crowdsourcing is consumer research on steroids. Rather than trying to understand what your customers want through traditional research, your customers are bringing their tastes and preferences to bear by actually creating more relevant brands.

5. Ideas not used today, can be stored for the future. If your brand, and your crowdsourcing idea, is big enough to motivate participation, the hundreds or thousands of ideas that you capture today can be stored away for future consideration.

6. We live in a new world of open innovation and collaborative production. Isn’t it better that you leverage the knowledge, creativity and passion of your crowd to your advantage rather than your competitors reaping the rewards?

How can you put the strength of the masses to work for you? How can you harness the insight and passion of your customers to create new and greater value for themselves and your company?