Crowd Sourcing (Essay Sample)

CROWD SOURCING
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Crowd sourcing is a strategy where business firms make use of the collective information gathered, from the public; to complete tasks that are business oriented (Cove, 2007). The tasks are normally formulated to be completed by the firm or a third party, but the public is incorporated assist in their completion (Cove, 2007). Crowd sourcing is a strategy that has attracted many companies in their marketing activities, in the recent past. The strategy has also been dubbed as mass collaboration, crowd casting or fan sourcing (Cove, 2007).
Just like any other strategy, crowd sourcing has its benefits and is not elusive of bottlenecks. The marketing strategy is characterized by hefty advantages that outdo the demerits. Among the most remarkable advantages are:
* Lower overheads. A firm that engages the public in the contribution of ideas pays less to them than it would pay for a team of experts (Trendwatching, 2007).
* Pooling of talent. The crowd involved comprises of people with different levels and fields of knowledge. Crowd sourcing taps and tries to blend as much knowledge as possible (Surowiecki, 2004). The ideas generated could be even more creative than those by experts within the firm (Surowiecki, 2004). An example of a firm is the Citreon car company in Canada that sought to let its consumers decide what brand of the vehicle to produce next through a Facebook forum (Trendwatching, 2007).
* Consumer involvement transforms to sales. When consumers are involved in designing and deciding the products that suit them best, they are enticed to purchase more of the product (Trendwatching, 2007). An example is the Nissan Car Company that launched its crowd sourcing campaign where people are to contribute innovative ideas on what technology to incorporate in the vehicles (Trendwatching, 2007).
The drawbacks are fewer than the merits but worth noticing.
* Unethical remuneration. The wages paid to participants in crowd s...