Crowd Sourcing in the Wedding Industry

This post definitely falls under the Monique Musings category and is based on a piece of news that I saw regarding the citizens and local government of one of my favourite places Bordeaux.

The City of Bordeaux used crowdsourcing to design the Bike of the Future for its new public bike rental system.   The City asked residents to submit their ideas for the new bike design through the official City of Bordeaux je participe micro-site, with more than 300 respondents taking part. Designer Philippe Starck was then brought in to translate the numerous suggestions into a single concept. The final design, unveiled at the second Cyclab event in Bordeaux in February, is a silver and yellow bike-scooter, with a foot panel placed in front of the pedals to enable users to safely push start the machine. Peugeot has now been contracted to put the bikes into production before they become part of a city-wide rental scheme.

Whilst I love Bordeaux and think that this is a great idea, it got me to thinking about using crowdsourcing in the wedding industry??

Crowd Sourced bridalwear

American online fashion store Cut On Your Bias asks their consumers to help design their new collections.  The company is working with designers who provided the initial ideas for clothes to home accessories.  Cut On Your Bias encourages users to customize these designs, choosing from a range of different materials, colors and cuts. Following a public vote, the most popular customized design will go into production and become available as a limited edition collection on the site, while users who voted for the winning design will receive a 25 percent discount on the final price. Something that a bridal designer could incorporate into an upcoming collection?

Real World Venue Visiting Online

A recently launched website — Turnhills.com — is using crowdsourced photography and videos to enable consumers anywhere to window shop the New York’s largest apparel brands online.  The site currently features storefront window displays of 37 top retailers, with more to be added soon. Shopping enthusiasts are encouraged to contribute to the site’s content by uploading their own photos of shop display windows and sharing their shopping experiences online. This also ensures site content is kept up-to-date.

This idea could easily be translated using crowdsourced photography for wedding venues.  Instead of the styled and  photos of wedding venues, brides and grooms to be could upload pictures taken during their venue visits or weddings.  Other newly engaged couples could then be encouraged to upload their own photos and share their experiences online, helping couples reduce the number of wedding venue visits required.

Brides creating new products.

If you are looking for ideas for new bridal products, there is no doubt that brides to be can be the source of countless winning product ideas.  There are many sites that tap into the global brain for inspiration, but how about one where consumers share in the profits?

That is what Genius Crowds does as consumers begin by creating an account and then submitting their own product ideas or discussing and voting on those already listed on the site. Ideas are organized by topic, and they can also be searched by recency, popularity and other set criteria. Participant voting leads to a set of crowd favorites,which are then judged.  The concepts deemed most likely to succeed are designated “for the shelf,” and Genius Crowds handles all packaging, prototyping, testing, manufacturing and distribution through its relationships with world-class manufacturers and retailers.  This is one of the biggest hurdles to new product ideas, the lack of knowledge on how to take the next step.  The resulting products are sold under the Genius Crowds brand name, and 25 percent of all royalties go to the products’ inventors, whose names get included on the packaging as well.

How about “Bright Brides” where brides to be submit their own product ideas and other brides vote on those ideas.  The same model as above could be applied with a brides name ending up on their own packaging and earn money at the same time!

If you have seen crowd sourcing initiatives in the bridal industry I would love to hear about them.

Monique x x