Consumer participation in valuing social and environmental product quality
Résumé
The advent of the digital era has enabled the emergence of new ways to integrate consumer expectations in product and service design. Co-opting customer competence (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2000) is increasingly used by marketers through online applications. Exploring how and to what extent consumers can actively participate in the design and pricing of more responsible products is the key focus of this paper. We therefore explore the case of a French cooperative that launches products whose specifications and price result from an online consultation. We describe the context, the actors and the process of this initiative. We analyse its results in terms of consumer participation and market success and draw conclusions on the criteria that are used in the price-setting scheme.