Effects of co-creation claim on consumer brand perceptions and behavioural intentions

Increasingly often, companies co-create' with consumers in open innovation practices to develop new products more effectively. Little is known about how co-creation affects consumer brand perceptions in the mass market. We hypothesize that co-creative brands - as opposed to non-co-creative brands - are perceived as more authentic and sincere, and are associated with relatively positive behavioural intentions. A between-subjects experiment was conducted to test these hypotheses in an online panel of consumers who did not take part in co-creation. The experiment had a 3 (control vs. co-creation vs. co-creation supported with some visual proof)x2 (well-known existing brand vs. fictitious brand) design. Quantitative data analyses (n=530) confirmed that for both brands, co-creation affects brand personality perceptions directly and behavioural intentions indirectly. This study shows that co-creating with consumers can be a strategic method to positively influence product perceptions and behavioural intentions.