A lot has been said about the troubles of the US auto industry. I am not qualified to add anything to the business arguments. I am qualified to talk about marketing and design. I was impressed by GM Saturn's smarts at having a dozen or more Saturn Sky's at last year's BlogHer. Many women took the test drive experience and blogged about it. That followed one of the principles of WOM success: offer a compelling product experience in an unexpected way (concierge-style test drives at a blogging conference).
Now GM is trying a co-creation effort. Or so it seemed until today. Much had been written in the traditional press about GM's minicar "vote" which was unveiled this morning.
"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is set to unveil three new minicar concepts and give potential customers a chance to vote on the best one."
The "survey" launched today. It seems to be a single page with micro-thumbnails of three South Korean-designed GM concept cars asking users to vote via radio button. You get immediate feedback. (I voted for the Beat but the Groove seems to be the car to beat, so-to-speak).
There must be something more. There must be something I am missing. I Googled what made sense and still came up with just the news stories. I searched my Inbox for the original mention of this and ....well, my Inbox could use some work.
Judging this based upon this single page, The simple answer to the headline is, no, this is not co-creation. It doesn't have any of the simple guidelines of co-creation. It seems like a simple poll. What will the outcome be? How does my vote matter? They are not making any promises about whether the vote will affect marketing or production of one car over another (No one would recommend using a simple radio-button poll to drive that).
Automobile manufacturers have a great opportunity to engage in co-creation. It doesn't have to start on the whole-car-design level. But with so many undifferentiated "boxes" on wheels out there, couldn't we use social media to push more distinctive, useful and impressive design? People love their minis. People love their bugs. People love their Rolls Royce (who wouldn't). they all allow for greater owner/enthusiast involvement. If GM wants me to love my Beat, then I need a bigger role in its development or in how I personalize it.
Still waiting for the co-creation from GM minicars. And if you know more that I am not seeing behind this promotion, let me know.
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