Customer Perception about “Crowdsourcing” within the Suburbs of Mumbai

A lot of money is invested in the development of a new product, however when a customer is standing in the retail outlet and has numerous option to buy from, Why does he choose one product over another has always been a key question. Marketers here face a challenge to connect to customers and convince them to try their product. Having an innovative product here becomes necessary for companies to stay profitable, yet the failure rate of new brands remain high and one of the reasons being not understanding consumer needs1. Companies spend a lot of money on developing a new product, with the changing times marketers are involving customers in the new product development process. This concept is recognized as “Crowdsourcing” in marketing which refers to the process of outsourcing activities by a firm to an online community in the form of an ‘open call’. The objective of this paper is to find out customer perceptions about Crowdsourcing practices in Mumbai. This paper highlights the importance's of Crowdsourcing and the motivations that trigger customer participation in the same. The respondents were surveyed on the basis of convenience sampling from the suburbs of Mumbai. The literature was viewed for understanding the importance's of the concept and the role that customers play in product innovativeness.