Downsides of DIY: Crowdsourcing Your Brand into Oblivion?

More and more these days, companies are turning to crowdsourcing for everything from new product ideas to branding initiatives. While the combination of ”free ideas” and engaged customers can seem like a win-win, there turn out to be at least a few pitfalls to watch out for when turning your business over to the masses.

Brand Channel brings up just this concern in their April post,  “Friends Don’t Let Friends Crowdsource a Brand,” suggesting that companies put their brand at risk when they place “integral, core elements of brand identity in the hands of [consumers].”

The key to making crowdsourcing work, we’d propose, is taking care with how much responsibility gets delved out. To look at some positive examples, Nike’s NIKEiD program has been a success with sneaker-lovers, who salivate at the chance to color customize their shoes, and Threadless has won big time with their user-generated t-shirt designs. What they have in common is attention to quality control: Nike takes a direct approach by providing well-designed templates and color selection, while Threadless uses a rigorous voting system to push lame ducks to the bottom of the list. In both ways, customers contribute to the brand, but in a tightly controlled way.

Does this constitute a refutation of the pro-DIY enthusiasm being voiced by many IDSA2010 speakers, or just a natural evolution? Let us know your thoughts below. (Or when we see you in Portland…two weeks to go!)

Nike VP of Global Footwear Design John Hoke will deliver a keynote talk at IDSA2010 on the emerging landscape of open source creativity and its impact on the design world.