Involving customers through co-creation: An approach from the fashion industry

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive market environment, companies across different sectors are being pushed to develop new strategies and marketing approaches in order to better promote and engage customers with their products and services. By increasing customers' involvement, companies can improve their marketing results, which may positively relate to their accounting results. In this context, one of the most important approaches is based on promoting consumer involvement with products and services. This involvement can be increased through co-creation design. Co-creation processes are gaining momentum as a customer involvement tool that has important implications for brands including brand co-creation and new product development. This chapter analyzes the new values on consumers and the co-creation processes in the fashion industry and in fashion design education, highlighting the entertainment factor as a key element that fosters co-creation activities. Firstly, the authors conceptualize consumer values through fashion and its functions to then extend the analysis to the co-creation design processes.