Automotive
Co-creation workshop: Identifying innovation opportunities and strengthening customer intimacy
What happens when the BASF Creation Center and the automotive supplier Grupo Antolin come across two BMWs, several Polaroid cameras and various materials? Action! In a co-creation workshop, the participants developed ideas for the car interior of the future and presented them using self-made prototypes. The result of all of this: many clever and new ideas.
“For us it was important that everyone contributes and develops his or her own ideas in the workshop,” says Alex Horisberger, material expert at the Creation Center. Together with trendscout Uwe Seemann he hosted the workshop. The participants of Grupo Antolin represented a cross-section of all business functions – from Technical Development over Sales to Marketing.
The participants were asked to find spots in the car interior that have potential for improvement! Where can we create new added value in the future?
The goal for each group was to build a prototype that turns a blind spot into a hot spot and thus generates new added value – no limits to creativity were set. The participants experimented with different materials and came up with various ideas. For example, a bag that can be stored inside the doors. Due to particularly folded slats the bag protects the content (e.g. smartphone or keys) by preventing it from slipping.
At the end of the day, the organizers as well as the participants of Grupo Antolin were enthusiastic: “We received great feedback from Grupo Antolin. With this sort of workshops, we not only strengthen customer relations, but also manage to stay in the memory of our customers as a proactive and innovative partner,” adds Daniel Tarres, Global Key Account Manager.
In the future, the new Creation Center will offer a very specific environment for workshops and wide-ranging customer consulting. Here, the competencies of the designfabrik®, trendscouting and simulation are combined closely to accompany the customer with comprehensive knowledge from the first idea to the finished product. Due to the linkage of the real material world with the newest possibilities of digitalization, the Creation Center will constitute a room for open and creative ways of cooperation.