Martin Schreier

The “I Designed It Myself” Effect in Mass Customization

Many companies offer websites that enable customers to design their own individual products, which the manufacturer can then produce to order. To date, the economic value of products self-designed using mass customization (MC) toolkits has been attributed to the two factors of preference fit achieved (which should be as high as possible) and design effort (which should be as low as possible). On the basis of literature on behavioral decision making, we suggest a third factor, namely the awareness of being the creator of the product design. In the course of five different studies, we provide experimental evidence that this “I designed it myself” effect creates economic value for the customer. Regardless of the two other factors, self-designed products generate a significantly higher willingness to pay. This effect is mediated by feelings of accomplishment and moderated by the outcome of the process as well as the individuals perceived contribution to the self-design process. These findings have important implications for MC companies: It is not enough merely to design MC toolkits in such a way that preference fit is maximized and design effort is minimized. To capture the full value of MC, toolkits should also elicit “I designed it myself” feelings.

The Psychological Effects of Empowerment Strategies on Consumers' Product Demand.

Companies have recently begun to use the Internet to integrate their customers more actively into various phases of the new product development process. One such strategy involves empowering customers to cooperate in selecting the product concepts to be marketed by the firm. In such scenarios, it is no longer the company but rather its customers who decide democratically which products should be produced. This article discusses the first set of empirical studies that highlight the important psychological consequences of this power shift. The results indicate that customers who are empowered to select the products to be marketed show stronger demand for the underlying products even though they are of identical quality in objective terms (and their subjective product evaluations are similar). This seemingly irrational finding can be observed because consumers develop a stronger feeling of psychological ownership of the products selected. The studies also identify two boundary conditions for this “empowerment–product demand” effect: It diminishes (1) if the outcome of the joint decision-making process does not reflect consumers’ preferences and (2) if consumers do not believe that they have the relevant competence to make sound decisions.

The Innovation Effect of User Design: Exploring Consumers' Innovation Perceptions of Firms Selling Products Designed by Users

The authors study consumer perceptions of firms that sell products designed by users. In contrast with the traditional design mode, in which professional designers employed by firms handle the design task, common design by users involves the firms user community in creating new product designs for the broader consumer market. In the course of four studies, the authors find that common design by users does not decrease but actually enhances consumers’ perceptions of a firms innovation ability. This “innovation effect of user design” leads to positive outcomes with respect to purchase intentions, willingness to pay, and consumers’ willingness to recommend the firm to others. The authors identify four defining characteristics of common design by users that underlie this innovation inference; namely, the number of consumers, the diversity of their background, the lack of company constraints, and the fact that consumer designers actually use the designed product all contribute in building positive perceptions. Finally, the authors identify consumer familiarity with user innovation and the design tasks complexity as important moderators that create boundary conditions for the innovation effect of user design.

All That Is Users Might Not Be Gold: How Labeling Products as User Designed Backfires in the Context of Luxury Fashion Brands

An emerging literature stream posits that drawing on users rather than internal designers in new product creation may benefit firms because the resulting products effectively satisfy consumer needs. Four studies conducted in the context of the luxury fashion industry uncover an important conceptual boundary condition of this positive user-design effect. Contrary to extant research, the results show that being “close” to users does not help but rather harms luxury fashion brands. Specifically, the authors find that user design backfires because consumer demand for a given luxury fashion brand collection is reduced if the collection is labeled as user (vs. company) designed. The results further reveal the underlying rationale for this reversal: user-designed luxury products are perceived to be lower in quality and fail to signal high status, which results in a loss of agentic feelings for the consumer. The authors explore several strategies luxury brands can pursue to overcome this negative user-design effect. Finally, they find that negative outcomes of user design are attenuated for luxury fashion products that are not used for status signaling—that is, product categories of a luxury brand that are characterized by lower status relevance for the consumer.

The Handmade Effect: What's Love Got to Do with It?

Despite the popularity and high quality of machine-made products, handmade products have not disappeared, even in product categories in which machinal production is common. The authors present the first systematic set of studies exploring whether and how stated production mode (handmade vs. machine-made) affects product attractiveness. Four studies provide evidence for the existence of a positive handmade effect on product attractiveness. This effect is, to an important extent, driven by perceptions that handmade products symbolically “contain love.” The authors validate this love account by controlling for alternative value drivers of handmade production (effort, product quality, uniqueness, authenticity, and pride). The handmade effect is moderated by two factors that affect the value of love. Specifically, consumers indicate stronger purchase intentions for handmade than machine-made products when buying gifts for their loved ones but not for more distant gift recipients, and they pay more for handmade gifts when purchased to convey love than simply to acquire the best-performing product.

The Value of Marketing Crowdsourced New Products as Such: Evidence from Two Randomized Field Experiments

To complement their in-house, designer-driven efforts, companies are increasingly experimenting with crowdsourcing initiatives in which they invite their user communities to generate new product ideas. Although innovation scholars have begun to analyze the objective promise of crowdsourcing, the current research is unique in pointing out that merely marketing the source of design to customers might bring about an incremental increase in product sales. The findings from two randomized field experiments reveal that labeling crowdsourced new products as such—that is, marketing the product as “customer-ideated” at the point of purchase versus not mentioning the specific source of design—increased the products actual market performance by up to 20%. Two controlled follow-up studies reveal that the effect observed in two distinct consumer goods domains (food and electronics) can be attributed to a quality inference: consumers perceive “customer-ideated” products to be based on ideas that address their needs more effectively, and the corresponding design mode is considered superior in generating promising new products.

Toolkits for User Innovation and Design

Die Entwicklung neuer Produkte beeinflusst masgeblich den Erfolg eines Unternehmens.1 Es ist allerdings ein uberaus risikobehaftetes Unterfangen, was bedeutet, dass die erfolgreiche Einfuhrung neuer Produkte alles andere als die Regel ist. Generell kampfen Unternehmen mit Misserfolgsquoten neuer Produkte von bis zu 90%.2 Namhafte Beispiele reichen vom CD-I von Philips uber den Newton von Apple bis hin zum BetaMax von Sony.3 Einer der Hauptgrunde fur das Scheitern liegt generell in mangelnder Marktorientierung — Hersteller versaumen es oft, auf „die Stimme des Kunden“zu horen.4 Des Weiteren konnen die hohen Flopraten auf eine schlechte Ubereinstimmung zwischen Produkteigenschaften und individuellen Bedurfnissen zuruckgefuhrt werden.5 Empirische Studien belegen auserdem, dass Kunden diverser Branchen wie etwa der Uhren- oder der Security-Softwareindustrie sehr heterogene Bedurfnisse haben.6 Resultat ist eine Vielzahl von Kunden, die mit Standardprodukten unzufrieden sind bzw. vom Markt unzureichend bedient werden.

The Self-Expressive Customization of a Product Can Improve Performance

This research demonstrates that the self-expressive customization of a product can improve performance on tasks performed using the customized product. Five studies show that the effect is robust across different types of tasks (e.g., persistence tasks, concentration tasks, agility tasks). The evidence further shows that the effect is not due to changes in product efficacy beliefs, feelings of competence, feelings of accomplishment, mood, task desirability, goal activation, or goal attainability. Instead, the self-expressive customization of a product extends an identity (e.g., personal identity, group identity) into the product. When the product is subsequently used to pursue a goal whose desired outcome can affirm the extended identity, performance improves.