Doritos gets it!
This is a consumer goods product that truly giving up control to their consumers using rich content and community to build its brand. This past year Doritos received a ton of hype with their consumer-generated Super Bowl ad and ended up with arguably good ads.
More recently, the strategy puts the consumer as the storyteller and the medium by inviting consumers to decide which new limited edition chip flavor will survive. Enter Fight For The Flavor. The idea of voting for a new product flavor or color isn't new (M&Ms, Crest, Ice Breakers etc.) but actually releasing the product (and investing in the Consumer based R&D) is. By doing so, they're encouraging immediate trial and consumer engagement with the brand in order to "fight for the flavor".
Check it out.www.snackstrongproductions.com
What I love about this is that the Doritos team realizes the art and science of marketing. They are using body of techniques for investigating a consumer phenomena and acquiring new knowledge through consumer’s feedback loops and data, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge of the past campaigns.
I think you nailed it when you said they were tapping into a “body of techniques”.
Consumer as storyteller is one of my favorite subjects, but additionally, Doritos is using what Patricia Seybold calls Open Innovation which describes allowing your customers to innovate and co-create your brand with you. (couldn’t figure out how to embed a link, but I have written about this on NextUp).
For years now and with significant press coverage recently, Innovation has been the big buzz. Like many, my company jumped on the innovation bandwagon a few years back. Since then, we have invested heavily, but have not had the success that was expected. I believe our problem, like many “innovative” companies, is that we don’t ask our customers to participate. We come up with ideas that we believe customers will like and then test them to find out. A much more effective approach is to simply involve your customers in the ideation process. Put them in charge. It’s OK. Really!!!
Doritos is taking this to a new level by not only asking customers to innovate with them, but turning the whole process into an entertaining and engaging story that will get retold.