New trends in innovation and customer relationship management: a challenge formarket researchers.

For decades, one of the key roles of market research has been to help companiesforecast customer acceptance of innovation and of changes to the marketing mix(the 4Ps). However, traditional market research is in danger of being leftbehind by new practices in sales, marketing and R&D. Reflecting an increasinglyparticipative approach to customer relationships, these disciplines are movingtowards customer involvement and co-creation of value rather than innovationmainly generated by head office and only then tested among customers. Co-creation involves working participatively with customers to enhance the valuethey get when buying and using goods and services. It enables firms tounderstand and respond to deeper and more valuable customer needs, and reducesthe inherent risks of innovation. Nor is this increasing trend towards co-creation limited to new product introduction. As companies invest in customerrelationship management (CRM) programmes, they need to design new forms ofrelationship with those directly affected: their customers. As customers useinternet-related technologies to manage their relationships with suppliers, co-creation will become a more important component of innovation and growthstrategies. In this context, traditional market research approaches begin tolook outdated. The authors illustrate, with a case study of a dotcom company,how action research can provide tools and methods by which market researcherscan assist and improve the co-creation process. The implications for marketresearchers and research practices are identified.