Opérations participatives des marques : pourquoi et comment faire participer les consommateurs ? De la compréhension des opérations participatives et des motivations des consommateurs à s’y engager à l’analyse de leurs effets sur la marque

This doctoral research deals with Participative Operations (PO). They consist for brands in inviting consumers, either to choose new products, feature in advertisements or help develop a new product or slogan; everyone can participate and see others’ participations. Even though PO are popular among brands nowadays, they received very little attention in the academic literature. Beyond managerial enthusiasm for PO, two facts led us to work on this topic. The first one concerns the impact of PO on consumers: the contribution may be very important despite a low value reward, and in product categories where lasting involvement is fairly low. This paradox raises the issue of consumers’ motivations to participate. The second one deals with PO purposes: managers interviewed in this research revealed that brands perform such actions without necessarily knowing their precise impact. This incited us to investigate the effects of PO on brands and consumers. For these reasons, this research helps to have a better understanding of the reasons and the way to engage consumers in brands PO. Based on four empirical studies, two qualitative and two quantitative, (1) we first define the objectives of PO and their forms, (2) then we identify the reasons why consumers participate, (3) we also characterize the most attractive PO and (4) finally, we explain the effects of participation for both partners.