Why Product Brands Should Build Their Own Platforms

There are two central processes that shape brand flagship platforms:

1. Consumer crowdsourcing and crowd-sending of products; and
2. Content

Crowdsourcing refers to consumers drawing value from platform participants like the brand, other consumers, or third-party businesses.

Crowd-sending refers to consumers providing value to there platform participants.

According to a study, these two manifest in various interactions on flagship platforms. We can group these interactions into five key platform building blocks: transaction block, community block, benchmarking block, guidance block, and inspiration block.

They argue that brands should assemble building blocks and functionalities based on a common overarching consumer goal.