3 Open Source Marketing: A Collaborative Marketing Approach
3.2 Motivation of Users in Open Source Marketing Projects
The project “Spread Firefox” by Mozilla is a good example of how open source
marketing can work. However, a non-profit company has a great advantage: it does not follow a drive for profit maximization, as do most private companies. No one except the community itself benefits from the development and marketing of the browser. Is it conceivable that companies such as Expedia, Thomas Cook, or Orbitz could integrate open source ideas in their marketing under these conditions?
One thing is certain: no customer will voluntarily act in the interests of a private company whose only aim is to save money. This situation raises the question of whether and under what conditions consumers would participate in the marketing of products and services. To answer this question, it is useful to consider the motivating reasons for individuals to participate in an open source project as well as to provide a brief
overview of the current technical opportunities for communication and participation.
A number of economic and non-economic approaches to explain the motives for participation in open source projects have been developed (see Weber, 2004, pp. 135–
149; Lerner & Tirole, 2002; Ghosh, Glott, Krieger, & Robles, 2002 and part II Lakhani
& Wolf, 2005; Hertel, Niedner, & Herrmann, 2003; Wiedmann, Langner, & Hennigs, 2007). Some of these are theoretically based, whereas others are based on initial
empirical results. Numerous and occasionally very different motivational drivers for collaborative participation in open source marketing projects have been identified.
These drivers can be reduced to three dimensions:
Pragmatic motivation—This includes all motives resulting from a direct benefit to participating consumers, such as a specific reward for their work.
Social motivation—These motives arise from the exchange relationships among community members, such as processes of identification or mutual aid and
recognition.
Hedonic motivation—This includes all subjects that result from emotional aspects, such as motives for the fun of group work or enthusiasm for a brand.
In the following, these three dimensions are briefly described (for details, see Wiedmann & Langner, 2006b; Wiedmann et al., 2007), and the individual motivational drivers of collaborative participation in open source marketing projects are illustrated and explained in more detail (see Fig. 3).
Fig. 3 Framework of consumer-sided motivation in open source marketing (Source: Wiedmann et al., 2007)
3.2.1 Pragmatic Motivation
Pragmatic incentives for an individual to actively participate in a marketing-related open source project arise from a number of factors. A reward in the form of free product samples or participation in a contest is one of the most important aspects (see
Wiedmann & Langner, 2006a, pp. 143 ff. Lerner & Tirole, 2002; Lakhani & Wolf, 2005). Lucasfilm, normally a major advocate of copyrights, joined with atomfilms in 2002 and created the Star Wars Fan Film Awards. For 10 years thousands of amateur filmmakers competed to receive the prestigious award, to increase their reputation in the fan community, and to gain worldwide fame through the portal atomfilms.com. For Lucasfilm, the competition not only provided the opportunity to raise awareness of the Star Wars franchise (some posts reached over one million views) but also allowed the company to gain new ideas for its own film projects and for new marketing ideas.
Travel communities are also using customer contests as a first step toward open source marketing. The travel club Triphunter.de asked its users, in cooperation with the German newspaper “Der Freitag”, to find the best travel photo in combination with the best travel story. Submissions were presented to the community and put to a vote. The best pictures and stories were then published once a month in the newspaper “Der Freitag”. Through the interactive competition, TripHunter learned about new and
interesting destinations and increased its customer loyalty through the active integration of its clients in its marketing activities (Source: triphunter.com, 2009).
However, it is not only rewards that drive people to participate. In particular, when well-respected companies creatively integrate their customers into their marketing activities, they motivate people to participate for a variety of other reasons. The opportunity to provide proof of their own skills to prospective employers (signaling), such as in the form of a self-created advertising spot or a self-created advertising idea, or the possibility of contacting key business representatives (getting in touch) are also seen as important motivators given the thousands of young job-seeking copywriters, PR strategists, and marketing managers (see Weber, 2004; Cherkoff, 2005; Raymond, 2001;
Lakhani & Wolf, 2005; Lerner & Tirole, 2002).
3.2.2 Social Motivation
Relevant social motives include ideological reasons, such as the belief that creative work should be generally free, and intrinsic or psychological motives, such as self-confidence (peer recognition and ego boosting), participation in a community
(community identification), selflessness (altruism and a job as vocation), or the fight for a common cause (or against a common or joint enemy) (see Lakhani & Wolf, 2005;
Hertel et al., 2003; Lerner & Tirole, 2002; Weber, 2004; Bonarccorsi & Rossi, 2003).
The Australian company Blowfly shows how motivating the last aspect can be. The aim of the company, founded by Liam Mulhall, was to establish a new beer in the highly concentrated Australian beer market by creating an unconventional, grass-roots
alternative to the impersonal mass production of large brewers. By using forums, chats, and voting on the Internet, Blowfly wanted to integrate potential buyers in the planning process from the very first moment of the beer. The idea paid off. As people heard about this user-integrating way of developing a new beer brand, many visited the
Blowfly website and participated in the discussions and voting about the direction Blowfly should take. The logo, the shape of the bottle, and even the design of
promotional materials were determined by the prospective customers of the beer. Even the flavor could be influenced by the consumers. At the end of the cooperative
development phase, which lasted 13 weeks, thousands of users had participated in the votes and discussion, and approximately 10,000 users regularly followed the outcome of the voting as newsletter subscribers (see Langner, 2007) (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 The community of travelpod.com shares travel feedback via travel blogs (Source: travelpod.com, 2013)
In the travel industry, travelpod.com is a good example of the use of social
motivation to encourage people to participate. The online service was built around the specific social need to share one’s travel experiences with others (peer recognition and ego boosting). The site focuses on providing users with an ideal platform for their own travelogues. Hence, the service includes weblog software with sophisticated map
functionalities, picture and video galleries, and comment functions to interact with other travelers/trip followers (community identification). Most of the services are free.
Advanced features are provided for a small fee, which forms the income stream of Travelpod.
3.2.3 Hedonistic Motivation
Hedonistic and emotionally colored reasons can also provide incentives for
participation. Many consumers are so strongly associated with certain brands (love marks) that they can be regarded as fans (brand enthusiasm) (see Förster & Kreuz, 2003, pp. 74–83; Roberts, 2005). For example, in 2004, the American teacher George Masters created a completely independent commercial in honor of Apple’s iPod. With the desire to be known as the author of the clip, he provided the film to a community of Apple fans. The commercial spread at an exponential rate over the Internet. Within a few days, more than 40,000 users viewed the clip. The quality of the spot was so good that many viewers thought it was the result of a major advertising agency (see Langner, 2006).
OpenstreetMap is a good example for a tourism related open source project that is based on a hedonistic motivation. The goal of the community is to create a free world map of all existing cities, streets, sights and so on. With the help of GPS-devices, Geo-information is collected worldwide and voluntary entered to OpenstreetMap by
community participants. The completion, verification and correction of all data streams are also done by the community and represent a strong part of the project. The major advantage compared to proprietary map providers such as Google is, that everyone is allowed to use and process the data as desired and to use the maps for their purposes free of any licensing fees.
Another important subject is fun (fun & flow) (see Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2003; Voiskounsky & Smyclova, 2003; Lakhani & Wolf, 2005; Weber, 2004; Diamond
& Torvalds, 2001). When the American beer producer Budweiser started its
“Whassup” campaign in the early 2000s, it did not take long until the first fan-made derivatives of commercials found their way onto the Internet, such as spots in which Rabbis, English noblemen, superheroes, or South Park characters recreated the original spot. Although the creative works of the campaign were protected by copyright,
Budweiser did not prevent the illegitimate use of their marketing material. Therefore, in a short time, a global community created new ideas for spots, discussed them online, and then (partially) transposed them jointly. The derivatives of the “Whassup”
campaign still enjoy great popularity in social networks (source: AdCritic.com, 2007) (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5 The community of Couchsurfing.com makes travelling a cultural experience (Source: Couchsurfing.com, 2011)
Fun as motivation also plays a major role in community marketing in the travel market. The community Couchsurfing.com, where people can offer their “couch” for travelers to stay for free anywhere in the world, has grown primarily due to this hedonistic motivation and the enthusiasm of its users, who love the idea of cultural exchange. Despite its global approach, the portal encourages users to form regional marketing groups, which actively seek new members online and offline to convince them of the community concept (Germann Molz 2007, pp. 65–77). Other activities include user-generated content. Therefore, couchsurfing.com encourages its users to publish videos of their experiences and self-made commercials on youtube.com. Since 2011, more than 3000 videos have been published that show, in the most authentic manner, what makes couchsurfing great and the issues people should consider when they decide to stay with strangers while travelling the world.
3.2.4 Technical Requirements
Consumers’ ability to creatively participate and share their work is supported by the
lack of a need for technical knowledge in these creative processes and online
communication. Neither the creation of a video nor the dissemination of a video clip over the World Wide Web requires special skills, such as programming languages or communication protocols anymore. Tools, easy-to-understand programs, and online platforms allow almost anyone to create at least semi-professional work and to disseminate it effectively. As these reduced technical entry barriers for users are particularly important for an effective online dialogue, private companies still have to focus on well-established social platforms and should not try to use self-developed programs in order to have more control. Furthermore firms should not only consider technical requirements of platforms and programs themselves, but also of technical requirements related to the marketing tasks they want to work on collaboratively. A video with a mobile telephone is easily made and shared, whereas a new design of a product package needs knowledge of sophisticated graphic software and design skills, although the final picture of the product packaging itself can then be easily uploaded to almost all platforms.
3.2.5 Multi Channel Integration
Although internet based social media is the main platform for most collaborative
marketing activities, open source marketing is not limited to online channels alone. This fact is evident in an idea by Mercedes Benz. In 2004, the U.S. automobile manufacturer invited its customers to send pictures via mail of themselves and their “beloved”
Mercedes. Within a short time, the company had received hundreds of high-quality pictures, which became the core of a traditional ad campaign. However, rather than hiring a professional agency for the development of the ads, Mercedes integrated its customers into the development process of the campaign. The photos were put to a vote on the Internet. After the selection of the pictures, Mercedes customers were allowed to vote on the storyboard and the type of use in each of the advertising campaigns as well (see Cherkoff, 2005).
Airbnb.com represents an example of multichannel integration in the tourism sector.
Airbnb.com is an online platform on which users are able to quickly and easily rent their private home to tourists. Around 60,000 accommodations are offered in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries, ranging from simple apartments or rooms to luxurious villas. In total, over 15 Million people booked their accommodations through the platform so far (Airbnb, 2014). What makes the new idea/concept special is, that owners of the listed apartments and houses do not only publish a simple listing on Airbnb.com but they are directly marketing their accommodations over the platform via personal pictures and videos completed even with personal biographies and pictures of the owner. Multiple guidebooks on how to market one’s own apartment or house via Airbnb.com written by users of Airbnb themselves are available under an open source license and are continuously extended.