Case Study Analysis - Customer Involvement

Article Report “Customer Involvement – Lessons Learned: A Study of Three Customer Involvement Projects at Volvo Cars” Summary The article describes three different cases of customer involvement at Volvo Cars. There are different approaches to involve the customer which may conduct to different results according to the goal established by the company. The ‘regular’ marketing research can be a little bit unexpressive when considering the involvement of the customer as the ways that were showed. Associate these two “dimensions” will result in a deeper knowledge of the market, of the customer and at the same time can open horizons and help in the creativity for the development of new ideas and contributing for the innovation. Critical analysis and potential application of article results to the project of creating a new service In a competitive market, Volvo Cars wanted to make itself more relevant to today’s car buyer. In most of the cases the car is the second major investment for the people. Many times is seen as a part of a personality of someone and is a form of expression for the users. This reasons, the easy access to information and large range of choices in the market, contribute for the increasing requirements and expectations for the customer. This market is very competitive - the way to adapt to the changes in the market and ensure that the company is offering what the customer expects and need is crucial to understand the customer and have success in the business. For this, Volvo Cars understood the importance of the involvement of the customers, investing in customer and market research activities, adopting a customer oriented vision, in order to learn from and with them using methods that may allow to create value for, by, and with the customers. Involving customers in the development of a service, using them as codevelopers and co-creators of new solutions through collaboration between them and the company, may allow large gains in terms of better...