Creative consumers – consumers who adapt, modify or transform a proprietary offering – represent an intriguing paradox for business. On the one hand they can be a black hole for future revenue, with breach of copyright and intellectual property, while on the other hand they represent a gold mine of ideas and business opportunities. This problem is central to business – business needs to both create and capture value; the problem is that creative consumers demand a shift in the mindsets and business models of how firms both create and capture value. We develop a typology of firms’ stances to creative consumers based upon their attitude and action towards customer innovation. We then consider the implications of the stances model for corporate strategy, and examine a three-step approach to dealing with creative consumers, namely, awareness, analysis and response.
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Making a face: Graphical illustrations of managerial stances toward customer creativity
1. Australasian Marketing Journal 20 (2012) 9–15
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Australasian Marketing Journal
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/amj
Making a face: Graphical illustrations of managerial stances toward
customer creativity
Colin L. Campbell a,⇑, Pierre R. Berthon b,1, Leyland F. Pitt c,2, Ian McCarthy c,3, Kirk Plangger c,4
a
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria 3145, Australia
b
Marketing Department, Morison Hall 250, Bentley University, USA
c
Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Creative consumers – consumers who adapt, modify or transform a proprietary offering – represent an
Available online 17 November 2011 intriguing paradox for business. On the one hand they can be a black hole for future revenue, with breach
of copyright and intellectual property, while on the other hand they represent a gold mine of ideas and
Keywords: business opportunities. This problem is central to business – business needs to both create and capture
Creative customers value; the problem is that creative consumers demand a shift in the mindsets and business models of
Firm stance how firms both create and capture value. We develop a typology of firms’ stances to creative consumers
Strategic response
based upon their attitude and action towards customer innovation. We then consider the implications of
Diagnostics
the stances model for corporate strategy, and examine a three-step approach to dealing with creative
consumers, namely, awareness, analysis and response.
Ó 2011 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction on the David Letterman show, drew mixed reactions from the
two brands. Mentos contacted the experimenters and said that
How do firms feel about consumers who alter and modify their they loved what they were doing, and asked how they could help.
proprietary offerings? How do managers measure their stances to- A Coca-Cola spokesperson, quoted in the Wall Street Journal was
ward this, and what will firms do, or be prepared to do about this far less enthusiastic, stating, ‘‘We would hope people want to drink
behavior? How can the type complex data that would result from [Diet Coke] more than try experiments with it’’, adding, ‘‘the crazi-
this type of investigation be summarized and communicated suc- ness with Mentos. . .doesn’t fit with the brand personality of Diet
cinctly and effectively? Coke.’’ (King, 2007) Some time later, however, Coca Cola changed
Recent reports in the popular business press and in the media in its stance, and became enthusiastic supporters of the Mentos-Diet
general have highlighted corporate dilemmas in the face of the Coke experiments. The firm used its corporate Web sites—http://
relentless meddling of ‘‘creative consumers’’. Apple’s iPhone 4 www.coke.com and http://www.cocacola.com—to add The Coke
was hacked, unlocked or jailbroken (depending on one’s views). Show, a series of user-generated video challenges, featuring the
Microsoft’s Kinect gaming device suffered a similar fate, as did a Mentos-Diet Coke experiments.
range of Sony’s gaming devices. Yet it is not just the marketers of The Mentos-Diet Coke experiments emphasize a number of
digital technologies that are exposed to the creative wiles of their simple, but important facts. First, consumers are creative when it
customers – even simple consumption products suffer a similar comes to the proprietary offerings of firms, and their creativity is
fate. The video hosting website YouTube features literally hun- not limited to programmable, high-tech, digital products – it spans
dreds of videos showing what happens when the well-known che- a wide spectrum. Second, their creativity is not necessarily focused
wy candy Mentos is dissolved in Diet Coke (King, 2007). One of the on making products better, or easier to use – often it is simply
best-known illustrations of this explosive phenomenon, featured about having fun. Third, their attempts at creativity are far more
easily broadcast and disseminated in this age of digital social med-
ia – one of the Mentos-Diet Coke videos, dubbed ‘‘Experiment
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9905 5539; fax: +61 3 9905 5560. #137’’, has attracted more than 8 million viewers on YouTube.
E-mail addresses: mrcol@mac.com (C.L. Campbell), pberthon@bentley.edu (P.R. Fourth, different firms adapt different stances to the phenomenon
Berthon), lpitt@sfu.ca (L.F. Pitt), imccarth@sfu.ca (I. McCarthy), kplangge@sfu.ca (K. of consumer creativity: Mentos was positively disposed toward it,
Plangger).
1
while Coca Cola was (initially) negative. Finally, firms can and do
Tel.: +1 781 891 3189; fax: +1 7818913189.
2
Tel.: +1 778 782 7712.
change their stances toward consumer creativity: After becoming
3
Tel.: +1 778 782 5298. aware of, and analyzing the phenomenon, Coca Cola changed its
4
Tel.: +1 778 928 9922. stance and the way it acted – from being placidly against the
1441-3582/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ausmj.2011.10.009
2. 10 C.L. Campbell et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 20 (2012) 9–15
phenomenon to actively supporting it. Importantly, this required to experiment with a firm’s offering, and most firms have no formal
the management of Coca Cola to become aware of the phenome- processes for identifying them.
non (‘‘What are consumers doing with our products apart from Creative consumers are an increasingly prevalent and important
consuming them, and how are they doing this?’’) (King, 2007). phenomenon, due to increases in the modularity and reconfigurabil-
Having become aware of it, the firm needed to analyze what was ity of products, and the availability of Internet technologies that al-
happening and the effect it could have (it needed information low them to communicate and disseminate their knowledge and
not only on the creativity phenomenon, but also on general market innovations (Mollick, 2005). The digital milieu affords unparalleled
sentiment toward it). Having analyzed the phenomenon, Coca Cola opportunities for customers to exercise their ingenuity. The Internet
had to take action. It changed from a firm mildly annoyed by con- permits the rapid dissemination and communication of customer
sumer creativity, to one that exploited it for the positive consumer innovations, and hobby programmers delight in improvising and
engagement it fostered with the brand. improving carefully written code. Modular products that embody
These are the questions on which this paper focuses. First, is it high levels of reconfigurability, and inexpensive hardware, particu-
possible to measure the stance of a firm toward consumer creativ- larly in the form of computer chips and storage media, enable enthu-
ity, and more specifically, how well a firm becomes aware of it; siasts to explore a range of technologies. The presence of creative
how effectively it analyzes it, and how prepared the firm is to take consumers has been noted across a range of product categories (Choi
action concerning it? Second, is it possible to summarize these and Perez, 2007; Flowers, 2008; Jeppeson, 2005; Lüthje, 2004), as
measurements for the individual firm, and at aggregate level, to well as other marketing functions, particularly advertising (Muniz
portray these graphically in an effective way? In other words, is and Schau, 2007; Berthon et al., 2008). As these consumers are char-
it possible to portray the stance of a firm toward consumer acterized as having novelty seeking and creativity producing behav-
creativity in a simple, yet powerful manner, so that it can be com- iors (Hirschman, 1980; von Hippel, 1989), they are considered to be
municated to whoever the firm decides is a target audience – an important, if not a valuable external resource for firms engaged in
management, employees, customers, or a broader public? The innovation (Chesbrough, 2003; Füller, 2006; von Hippel, 1989).
paper is structured as follows: First, we briefly review the literature The Mentos-Diet Coke phenomenon discussed in the introduc-
on consumer creativity, and illustrate the notion of firm stances to- tion shows that individual firms might feel differently about crea-
ward the phenomenon by means of recent examples of consumer tive consumers, and that firms also can, and do, change what they
creativity and firm reactions to these. Next we describe the use of think of, and are prepared to do, about them. Berthon et al. (2008)
an instrument to measure firm stances toward consumer creativity define how a firm views, and what it is prepared to do about, cre-
within a large sample of firms. However, the focus is not so much ative consumers, as a firm’s stance, and note that firms adopt a
on the psychometric properties of the instrument, or on a sophisti- range of stances toward creative consumers. They differentiate be-
cated analysis of this data as it is on the use of a powerful statistical tween the various stances a firm might hold using two axes: a
graphic technique that is used to summarize and display the vari- firm’s attitude towards, and action on consumer innovation. Atti-
ous stances toward consumer creativity. Therefore, the next section tude to consumer innovation is a firm’s espoused policy or philoso-
of the paper introduces the Chernoff Faces technique and applies it phy towards the phenomenon in principle; it can range from
to the results of the study as a way of illustrating the technique’s positive to negative. The espoused philosophy typically reflects
use in this regard. The paper concludes by acknowledging some the mental mindset of top management, but can also range from
of the limitations in the approach, by identifying managerial impli- a subtle form of politicking to poor organizational communication.
cations and outlining some avenues for future research. Action on consumer innovation comprises what a firm does once
the phenomenon has actually been detected. This can range from
2. Creative consumers: concepts, proliferation, stances and active to passive. These two axes delineate a fourfold typology of
examples firm postures to consumer innovation, comprising the stances of
discourage, resist, encourage and enable. The four stances are
The notion of user innovation – which refers to innovation by shown in Fig. 1 and described and illustrated below.
end users, firms and creative consumers (von Hippel, 1986, 1989)
– has been of interest to researchers and practitioners alike for 2.1. Discourage
some time. The notion of the lead user was originally alluded to
by von Hippel (1986), who defined them as users whose current The hair loss drug Propecia is medically identical to, but only a
strong needs will become general in a marketplace months or 1/5th of the dose, of Proscar, a drug used for an enlarged prostate. A
years in the future. However, it has been argued that ‘‘creative con-
sumers’’ are different to that of ‘‘lead users’’. Creative consumers
have been defined as individuals or communities of individuals Active
who to some extent adapt or modify a proprietary product offering Reject: actively Enable: actively
restrain customer facilitate customer
(Berthon and McCarthy, 2007). They are different to ‘‘lead users’’ in
creativity innovation
three ways: First, creative consumers work with all types of offer- e.g. Sony e.g. Valve
ings, not just novel or enhanced products (the focus of the lead AiboPet, Software, BBC
user). For example, Muniz and Schau (2005) describe a community Firm’s FedEx
of creative consumers still using, modifying and creating content Actions
towards
for Apple’s defunct Newton PDA despite the fact that the product
Creative Discourage: but Encourage: but
ceased production in the mid-1990s. Second, creative consumers Customers de facto tolerate/ don’t actively
do not necessarily face needs that will become general; rather, they ignore facilitate
will often work on personal interests that can remain individual, or e.g. Sony PSP, e.g. Skypecasting
expand in use to a subset of users. The Mentos-Diet Coke experi- Apple Podcasting Toyota
menters are satisfying needs for fun, creativity, entertainment Passive Disney
and experimentation, rather than attempting to improve the prod-
Negative Firm’s Attitude towards Positive
ucts for physical consumption. Third, while firms tend to use a for- Creative Customers
mal and disciplined process to find, screen, and select lead users
(von Hippel et al., 1999), creative consumers rarely ask permission Fig. 1. Firms’ stances towards creative consumers.
3. C.L. Campbell et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 20 (2012) 9–15 11
number of consumers have identified this, and have begun asking magazines. Her Wiener Bench – a wooden bench festooned with
their doctors to prescribe Proscar for them, and then cutting them fat pink crocheted tubes – was made from an old Ikea side table,
up. Most health insurance schemes, or national health programs in the yarn from 60 used sweaters and the stuffing from a sofa, left
countries with national health insurance will cover Proscar since on her street on rubbish day (Ikea Hackers, 2011). Until very re-
it’s ostensibly for a ‘‘real disease’’ whereas Propecia use is seen as cently the company however, was unaware of this consumer crea-
vanity. Merck, whose response to customers’ behavior thus far tivity. When shown a web site featuring these innovations, Mona
has been negative, but faint, markets both drugs. CEO and Chair- Liss, director of public relations for Ikea in the United States, com-
man, Raymond Gilmartin, has released a public statement, saying mented: ‘‘I could spend all day looking at this.’’ She then opined
’’We don’t recommend that people try to divide Proscar tablets to that what compels an Ikea hacker to hack, in addition to what
create a dose of Propecia’’, however, the firm has not done anything she called Ikea’s clean palette, ‘‘is this invisible aura of Ikea, some-
further to prohibit pill-splitting. Berthon et al. (2008) refer to this thing in our DNA that is inviting and unspoken.’’ (Green, 2007).
type of stance as discourage. Here a firm’s attitude towards con- However, apart from this mild enthusiasm, the company has not
sumer innovation is negative, but the firm’s actions are de facto taken any direct action to facilitate consumer creativity. This third
passive. While the firm might verbally reprimand consumer inno- stance is what Berthon et al. (2008) the encourage position. The
vation, by taking no manifest action, it essentially allows or disre- firm’s attitude towards consumer innovation is primarily positive,
gards the behavior. but the firm’s actions are again de facto passive. In this instance
firms verbally laud and applaud consumer innovation, but take
2.2. Resist no overt action to facilitate it – this stance is a positive but
‘hands-off’ approach to the phenomenon.
The famous hacker, George Hotz, also known as ‘‘GeoHot’’, un-
locked or ‘‘jailbreaked’’ the Sony PlayStation 3 computer game con-
2.4. Enable
sole and then posted a video on YouTube showing others how to do
this. On his blog Hotz suggested that he did this creative act simply
The web site hackthissite (http://www.hackthissite.org) is ‘‘a
for the challenge and celebrity of being the first to hack a console
free, safe and legal training ground for hackers to test and expand
that was deemed to be hacker proof. However, regardless of Hotz’s
their hacking skills. It offers many active projects in development,
motivation, Sony has been aggressively pursuing him, so as to warn
with a large selection of hacking articles and a forum where users
other consumers to keep their creative hands off their products.
can discuss hacking, network security, and other areas of interest.
Sony began by filing a lawsuit that accused Hotz of violating the
Likewise, the open source browser Firefox provides a web site for
Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and
enthusiasts who wish to contribute to the product’s evolution
Abuse Act. This was followed by legal action that forced Google,
(https://www.developer.mozilla.org) to obtain resources, share
YouTube and Twitter to disclose the identities of those who viewed
ideas, and work on further developments. The fourth stance is
or commented on his YouTube video and personal website since
what Berthon et al. (2008) term enable. Here the organization’s
January 2009 (Techspot, 2011). With these actions, Sony is making
attitude towards consumer innovation is positive, but in contrast
it clear that they are not open to this type of consumer creativity.
to the previous encourage stance, the organization’s posture is
They will seek and hound any individual who tries to circumvent
clearly active. Not only does the organization vocally acclaim con-
how their products work, and they will vigorously work to identify
sumer innovation, it also actively assists consumers innovate with
and ban users who run hacked PlayStation 3 consoles (BBC, 2011).
its products. This is very much a ‘hands-on’, positive approach to
Not only is this stance hurting Sony’s reputation among the lead
the phenomenon.
technology users community, it is impacting their ability to hire
Berthon et al. (2008) caution that while it would be ideal if
technology talent. For example, with headlines such as ‘‘Hackers
there was ‘‘one correct’’ stance in the grid in Fig. 1, like most
Hate Sony for GeoHot Goof’’ it is being reported that famous soft-
important and complex issues in management, there is no simple
ware engineers and hackers are turning down lucrative job offers
and easy solution. The 2 Â 2 matrix, instead, should prompt a ser-
because of Sony’s treatment of George Hotz (Techni Buzz, 2011).
ies of questions that will require a firm to evaluate whether it has
This is an example of what Berthon et al. (2008) term the resist
the appropriate stance for the set of environmental circumstances
stance. What distinguishes this stance from the discourage posture
under which it operates. In subsequent work by Berthon et al.
is that while the firm’s attitude towards consumer innovation is
(forthcoming) the authors developed and tested a 24-item scale
still negative, the firm’s responses are active. Thus, firms verbally
for researchers and practitioners to assess the three dimensions
berate consumer innovation and also follow up their espoused po-
that would determine a firm’s stance: the extent to which an orga-
sition with punitive action. The firm actively seeks to minimize or
nization is aware of its creative customers, its attitude towards its
eliminate consumer innovations.
creative customers, and finally the action it takes in response to its
creative customers. These dimension were then each split into two
2.3. Encourage
components as follows: Awareness = The extent to which the firm
is informed about creative consumers, and the extent to which the
The Swedish furniture retailer Ikea attracts a large number of
firm seeks new information about creative consumers; Atti-
consumer innovators. Winnie Lam was thinking about food when
tude = The extent which the firm is positive towards creative con-
she made her Chocolate Sundae Toppings footstool, fashioned from
sumers, and how open-minded towards creative consumers the
a few bags of cotton pompoms hot-glued to an Ikea stool. ‘‘It came
firm is; and, Action = the extent to which the firm is nurturing to-
from staring into a bowl of ice cream one day,’’ said Ms. Lam, 31,
wards creative consumers, and the extent to which the firm is
who lives in California, and is a product manager at Google. ‘‘I’m
directing (or controlling) towards creative consumers.
a chocolate lover, but I’d rather look at it than eat it.’’ (Ikea Hackers,
2011). Alex Csiky, a 43-year-old guitar maker in Ontario, was fo-
cused on blowing a raspberry at the guitar-making industry while 3. The study
at the same time making a great sound when he built his sleek
blond electric guitar from an Ikea pine tabletop. Christine Domanic, Our intention in this paper is not so much to test the instrument
28, an artist who was living at the time in Philadelphia, found the described above as to demonstrate how a relatively simple but
inspiration for her rolling bench in the sex ads in the back of city powerful statistical graphic tool can be used to display complex
4. 12 C.L. Campbell et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 20 (2012) 9–15
data in an appealing and easily accessible way. Therefore, we have multivariate data based on appropriate visual cues (Garner,
chosen not to describe any rigorous testing of the scale or the data 1974; Spoehr and Lehmkuhle, 1982). The human face (or a simpler
here. Our study utilized a convenience sample of Executive MBA representation of it) is one of the most effective graphical icons for
students, drawing on two pools of mature executive students from visually clustering multivariate data, particularly for long-term
North American universities. Unlike most convenience student memory processing. Wang (1978) describes a number of papers
samples used in marketing research, these individuals were all in on applications of faces to multivariate data, while Wilkenson
full-time employment in organizations; the average age was (1982) showed that faces can be more effective than many other
37 years; the average annual income was $97 000; and all could icons for similarity comparisons.
be classified as being in middle- to senior management positions The facial technique was originally proposed by the statistician
(many held the title of CEO). The respondents were required to Chernoff (1973). It is helpful first, in that widely divergent facial
complete the Campbell et al. (forthcoming) scale. 178 usable ques- features are shown, each of which can be associated with a differ-
tionnaires were returned. As a precursor, t-tests were used to ex- ent variable. Second, most people are able to discern correctly be-
plore whether there were significant differences between the two tween faces with different features. In Chernoff’s (1973) opinion,
samples on each of the items – none were found, so the two sam- ‘‘People grow up studying and reacting to faces all of the time.
ples were pooled. A further question described the four stances (as Small and barely measurable differences are easily detected and
defined above) toward creative consumers and asked the respon- evoke emotional reactions from a long catalog buried in the mem-
dent which description best matched that of their firm. ory’’ (p. 362). He later went onto say (Chernoff, 1978): ‘‘I believe
The results of the study are summarized in Table 1 below. As that we learn very early to study and react to real faces. We per-
can be seen from the table, the majority of firms in the sample ceive the face as a gestalt and our built-in computer is quick to pick
either held the Encourage or Resist stances. The responses to the out the relevant information and to filter out the noise when look-
24-item scale were summaries by the components of the three ing at a limited number of faces’’ (p. 1).
dimensions of the scale, and these are reported for each stance in The Chernoff Faces procedure has been incorporated into many
Table 1. The data from the table was then used as input to the statistics and statistical graphics packages. Essentially the proce-
Chernoff Faces routine in the statistical program R. In the following dure involves the assignment of variables in the data set to the fea-
section we discuss Chernoff Faces in general, and then describe and tures of a human face. It is both relatively cogent and flexible and
discuss the specific application of Chernoff Faces to the display of can be tailored to suit the prerequisites of almost any data set,
overall corporate stance toward creative consumers. and the technique has been applied in a wide range of disciplines
and fields. Chernoff (1973) describes its use in such diverse fields
as the study of fossil data, in geology. Apaiwongse (1995) employs
4. Chernoff faces
the approach to detect perceptions among market drivers toward
environmental protection policies, while more recently Raciborski
Over the years various graphic display techniques including pie-
(2009) applies Chernoff Faces to a portrayal of public utility data. In
charts, histograms and scatter diagrams have been used to portray
marketing specifically, Huff et al. (1981) used faces to illustrate
statistical data (Beniger and Robyn, 1978; Zelazny, 1972). From the
progressions of business failure and success, and Golden and Sirde-
1980s onward, the accessibility of user-friendly software and rela-
sai (1992) displayed consumers’ perceptions of multi-dimensional,
tively inexpensive graphics plotters and printers, as well as other
multi-object attributes (brand and retail image impressions) using
media-producing devices with which to create these displays,
Chernoff Faces. Nel et al. (1994) illustrated and compared service
greatly expedited the task of researchers and managers in commu-
quality scores from a large-sample customer satisfaction study
nicating numeric information. Unfortunately the ability of many of
using the procedure. Nowadays, rudimentary Chernoff Faces can
these displays to depict multi-dimensional data was severely con-
even be constructed using simple commands in spreadsheets such
strained, particularly when a basis for generalizing and communi-
as Excel (Hunt, 2004).
cating relationships was desired. Some researchers explored icons
as a way of displaying multivariate data (Everitt, 1978; Cleveland,
1985). This variety of icons for representing multivariate data in- 4.1. Generating Chernoff faces
cluded tools such as Fourier blobs (Fienberg, 1979), glyphs
(Anderson, 1969) and faces (Chernoff, 1973). These offered novel Despite the advances in computer statistical and graphic pro-
ways of presenting intricate data by means of straightforward, cessing capabilities that had occurred in the previous twenty years,
interpretable pictures. Nel et al. (1994) still lamented the difficulty of generating Chernoff
Unlike most graphs, icons are not designed to communicate Faces. To a large extent, these problems have been overcome re-
absolute numerical information. They are intended for recognizing cently by researchers such as Raciborski’s (2009) published syntax
clusters of similar variables and are useful for sorting or organizing, for easy use with the high-end statistical and data analysis package
and especially comparing, variables that differ in many respects. by StataCorp (2009) that generates Chernoff Faces to ‘‘detect pat-
While some researchers argued the use of icons to be subjective terns, clusters, outliers, and temporal trends’’, and also the open-
and ad hoc, cognitive science research on multi-attributable visual source statistical software R. This study uses the faces procedure
processing, has shown that people can accurately categorize under R to allocate facial features similar to the procedure
Table 1
Firm stances toward creative consumers.
Stance Discourage Encourage Resist Enable
Number (self-reported): 20 68 72 18
Informed about creative consumers 4.78 5.86 5.96 6.04
Seeking new information about creative consumers 3.89 4.68 6.33 6.41
Positive towards creative consumers 2.05 5.64 1.76 6.29
Open-minded about creative consumers 4.42 5.84 2.78 4.89
Nurturing towards creative consumers 1.97 5.32 1.43 6.11
Directing (controlling) toward creative consumers 3.87 4.01 6.32 3.57
5. C.L. Campbell et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 20 (2012) 9–15 13
described by Raciborski (2009). Our allocation procedure for doing to measure stances toward these. The paper has limitations in that,
this, as well as our results, are summarized in Fig. 2 below. As ref- obviously, it does not claim to be a definitive study of the position-
erence points, two extreme faces were generated using the actual ing of all firms toward creative consumers, but merely represents
minimum and maximum values from the dataset (recall that the the views of managers in a convenience sample, as a means of
scales used in the study is a 7-point Likert-type scale). These are illustration of a technique. The convenience sample was chosen
shown in Fig. 2 below: for purposes of exploration and illustration only. Obviously it
As can be seen from Fig. 2, the ‘‘ideal’’ corporate stance toward would be relatively simple to get the data on firm stances toward
creative consumers, would have a fat, longish face, dense hair creative consumers from more scientifically designed samples. The
‘‘combed’’ upward, large round eyes with large round pupils, a pictures obtained here could well have been very different had dif-
large broad nose and a broadly smiling mouth. The ‘‘least ideal’’ ferent, or other firms been chosen. Second, a study such as this pro-
face for a firm stance toward creative consumers would be the vides more of a snapshot in time than an ultimate set of results. As
minimum values face shown in Fig. 2, which is thinner and shorter, demonstrated by the Coca Cola stance in the Mentos-Diet Coke
has very little (and downward sloping) hair, tiny eyes with no pu- example, a firm’s stance toward creative consumers can be dy-
pils, and very thin, small nose, and a small, unsmiling mouth. namic, so that the scores obtained, and thus the Chernoff Faces,
We then used the data for the four stances toward creative con- are for firms up to that particular point in time. It may very well
sumers shown in Table 1 to construct the Chernoff Faces presented be that if the data had been collected at a different time, perhaps
in Fig. 2. It is obvious that the faces of the four stances are quite dif- a few months earlier or later and then subjected to an analysis, that
ferent. While the Enable stance is not perfect on all the attributes, very different faces would have emerged. The nature of the crea-
it does present a favorable picture overall, with the exception of its tive consumer phenomenon and firm stances toward it is such that
hair. The nice fat face = reasonably well informed about creative stances could evolve continuously. Third, the allocation of criteria
consumers; large eyes = open-minded about creative consumers; to facial features is in a sense always arbitrary and will depend
the long, fattish nose = seeks information about creative consum- on the allocator’s personal preferences. For example, a smile can
ers; the large mouth = nurturing toward creative consumers and signal a lot, and could be perceived by many to be the most impor-
the broad smile = positive toward creative consumers. While there tant feature, with possible negative interpretation as a result. For
is dense hair, this is downward sloping, indicating that even Enable example, in Fig. 2, the nose size of the Resist and Enable stances
stances are somewhat directive and controlling toward creative is quite similar. If ‘‘directing and controlling toward creative con-
consumers. On the other hand, the Resist stance also has a long sumers’’ is regarded as the most important criterion, then some
fat face = reasonably well informed about creative consumers; observers might perceive that there is little difference between
but has small eyes = not open-minded about creative consumers; these stances, and a similar conclusion could be drawn on being in-
also has a long, fattish nose = seeks information about creative con- formed about the phenomenon (the size of the face). Finally, the
sumers; but has a narrow, mouth = nurturing toward creative con- Berthon et al. (forthcoming) scale for the assessment of firm
sumers, that is unhappy = negative toward creative consumers. Its stances toward the creative consumer phenomenon is still in the
hair is less dense hair, downward sloping, indicating that it is early stages of its development, so subsequent changes to the scale
somewhat directive and controlling toward creative consumers. are not represented here and will have to be incorporated into fu-
ture research.
5. Limitations of this study
6. Managerial implications and avenues for future research
In this paper we outline an approach for simultaneously map-
ping corporate stances toward creative consumers using Chernoff A number of managerial implications become apparent from
Faces, based on their scores on the dimensions of an overall scale the research conducted here. First, if the firms considered here
Fig. 2. Chernoff Faces – assignment of attributes, best and worst case scenarios, and attributes by stance.
6. 14 C.L. Campbell et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 20 (2012) 9–15
do have clearly defined stances toward the creative consumer phe- effectively both within the firm and beyond its borders. As technol-
nomenon, these are probably still at a nascent stage. Firms will ogy, markets, and consumers advance and develop, there will
need to think objectively about their stances toward creative con- undoubtedly be a migration between stances, and firms will need
sumers, articulate their attitudes toward them, find ways of to reflect this both in their thinking and in their communication
becoming aware of them, and then decide on the actions they will with various stakeholders. As Berthon et al. (2008) advise,
be willing to take. Astute managers will define the issues that they responding to the threats and opportunities of creative consumers
care most about, as well as the characteristics of the creative con- will require firms to manage a three-way fit between their stance,
sumer phenomenon (for example, how they seek information, and the relative ability and desire of consumers to adapt, modify, and
the extent to which they want to be able to control and direct cre- transform their products, and the firm’s ability to scan, track, and
ative consumers) that they deem most important. They will also control consumer-produced innovations. In doing so they will need
monitor the activities of other firms they regard either as compet- to use every tool at their disposal. We suggest that Chernoff Faces
itors or benchmarks. In this instance, iconic tools such as Chernoff can be a simple yet powerful tool in the manager’s arsenal that will
Faces that permit the simultaneous picturing of bundles of attri- allow them to assimilate complex information quickly, track the
butes in multidimensional space might become invaluable tools. market dynamics that create this information over time, and to
Firms will be able to use tools such as Chernoff Faces to communi- communicate this to the various stakeholders who impact on it,
cate their stances toward creative consumers to a range of different and are in turn affected by it.
stakeholders, including management teams, personnel, suppliers, What can a manager do with creative consumer stance data and
and obviously, customers. Finally, managers will also be able to Chernoff Faces in a marketing sense? In summary, we would argue
monitor their stances over time, perhaps by using the scale in that a marketer can use the faces to assess their own firm’s stances,
which the data presented here is based, and thus be able to track track these over time, and compare themselves to competitor
their stance longitudinally. firms. From a customer perspective, marketers can use the faces,
Exploratory studies such as those reported in this paper also and the data contained therein to communicate what their atti-
open up a stream of future opportunities for research. First, pre- tudes towards customer creativity with their products is and what
senting different target groups with the faces and gauging their re- the firm will be prepared to do about it. In times of rapid techno-
sponses to, and interpretation of, the visual stimuli would shed logical and social change, coupled with a concomitant reduction
further light on how effective devises such as Chernoff Faces are in attention span, graphic devices such as faces might prove to
at communicating complex multivariate data (e.g. Cook, 1996; be a useful marketing communication tool.
deSanctis and Jarvenpaa, 1989; Dickson et al., 1986). Second, Cher-
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