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PDMA Book Reviews | PIPELINE 2013 | Executive Webcasts | Recently Certified Members

PDMA Book Reviews

Brand Together: How Co-creation Generates Innovation and Re-energizes Brands
By Nicholas Ind, Clare Fuller and Charles Trevail
Book review by Kelly Frey

“Brand Together” is an advocacy piece on using a co-creation framework for branding of consumer products by three leaders in the field, two of whom are founders of Promise (a brand strategy and innovation consultancy using the co-creation process for major international companies, some of which are featured in the book). The book draws on published materials spanning art, philosophy, psychology, reality television and classical branding; 20 interviews with brand managers; working sessions with co-creator experts; and experiences with a 236-member moderated online community centered around co-creation. The central premise is that our culture has become participatory (p. 18 and p. 82), such that branding should now be an exercise undertaken with customers as opposed to for customers. The authors provide a framework for co-creation of brands and multiple examples of how the co-creation process has worked effectively for their clients.

The authors “see brand as a stakeholder experience”—the result of hearing about, buying and using something that influences future consumer intentions (p. 21). They note that Generation C (the “Connected Generation”—born after 1990 and nurtured on interactive, computer-assisted communications) will make up 40% of the population in the United States, Europe and BRIC countries (p. 12) and has expectations of being active participants with, rather than passive recipients of, their favorite brands. The authors also note that classical ethnographic observation of consumer behavior fails to completely comprehend the emotive elements associated with brands, resulting in a disconnect between observed product interactions and true consumer needs. The solution, in the authors’ minds, is to create collaborative, iterative environments in which employees and consumers are engaged with brand management in brand development activities.

Read more.

Networking and Development Opportunities

Webcast: A Look Under the Hood of Outstanding Corporate Innovators

Wednesday, May 15, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm CDT Q&A will begin at 2:30 pm

Learn from the best at PDMA's upcoming webcast. This webcast will detail the lessons learned by winner's of PDMA's Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award (OCI). We'll hear directly from executives at several past OCI winning companies and take a ‘look under the hood' at the practices that have contributed to the success of companies and how they achieved innovation success in the face of challenges.

The following executives will join presenters Professor Emeritus Thomas P. Hustad, Kelly School of Business, Indiana University, and Sally E. Kay, Principal, Strategic Product Development and retired Dow Chemical and GlaxoSmithKline:

• Meredith Baratz, VP Strategic Insight & Innovation, UnitedHealth Group
• Suzanne Thompson, VP Global Stewardship & Innovation, Clorox
• Matthew Bensen, Site Leader, faurecia's Westworks Innovation Center

*This webcast is based on materials that can be found in Chapter 24 of "The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development, 3rd Edition." Buy your edition today!

Webcast: Improving Consumer Product Sustainability through Measurement and Reporting

Corporate decision makers are increasingly under pressure to meet both investors’ expectations of financial performance and the demands of stakeholders focused on nonfinancial issues. In a typical situation, improving performance in one dimension results in decreased performance in the other. You find yourself making trade-offs more often than not. Overcoming these challenges requires innovative thinking, processes and products driven through sustainable business practices.

One of most important aspects of planning and implementing sustainability for improved financial and nonfinancial performance is in understanding sustainability factors that are material to your business and products. This is an area where The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) can help with identification, measurement and understanding of the factors relevant to your organization and products. Join us to learn more from Dr. Kevin Dooley, Chief Research Officer of The Sustainability Consortium, and learn about measuring and assessing the sustainability factors material to your business. The topics covered in this webinar are:

• Development of the TSC measurement and reporting system
• How it addresses key challenges in measurement and reporting
• How the TSC used a multi-stakeholder process to generate measurement standards
• How leading retailers and manufacturers are using the reporting platform being developed

Find out more about creating opportunities and building relationships with consortium forum members on the TSC website.

Join PDMA at PIPELINE 2013 Next Week!

Know what Terry Jones, chairman of Kayak.com, and Pascal Finette from Mozilla have in common? They've both been key players in organizations that successfully leveraged innovation, and they're going to share their insights with PIPELINE 2013 attendees on May 16th.

Much is expected of today's product development teams – doing more with less is standard. So how can we be innovative not only with our product ideas, but also with our processes and in our culture so that we truly enable our teams and companies to be successful? Find out at PIPELINE 2013 from Terry, Pascal and other great presenters including Dr. Stephen Markham, President of the PDMA Foundation Board who will be presenting “Learn How to be a Winner in Product Development – Results and Insights from the 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Survey."

Reserve your spot for PIPELINE 2013, to learn from these innovation experts, and network with peers and solutions providers – all from your desk. Plus, as always, the day will be full of opportunities to share experiences around the trials, errors and successes of innovation.

Can't make it on the 16th? Register for access to the on-demand session – all available through Aug. 16. We look forward to seeing you at PIPELINE 2013!

Recently Certified PDMA Members

Congratulations to the PDMA members who earned their certification in April!