Monopoly Goes Global and Uses the Wisdom of the Crowd to get there.
Parker Brothers the makers of Monopoly (the worlds most played game according to Guinness World Records) have launched a world wide contest to find the top 22 cities for their new game Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition.
Currently Montreal Canada is in the top place putting it at the Broadwalk position. The city that receives the most votes will be placed on the highest rent property.You have until February 28th 2008 to vote for your top 10 cities and you can vote every 72 hours.
The monopoly world edition website it translated in 30 languages. Canada is right now the best represented country with 3 cities in the top 10 followed by china with 2 cities.
Check out www.monopolyworldvote.com to vote for your favourite cities.
Is this an example of a company using the Wisdom of the Crowds to develop a better product or is this an example of clever marketing?
February 11th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I don’t see why it can’t be both. I think it would be a mistake to think they only do this for one reason. I guess you could ask what’s their primary motivation. That’s a more difficult question. However, I’ll go for marketing the product to people.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I actually think this is a great illustration how companies of the future will go about engaging their customers to help build or contribute to the very products they’ll be purchasing. Tapping into the collective wisdom of the very constituents you intend to serve by soliciting their input generates an emotional stake which makes tehm infinitely more likely they’ll evangelize your product / service and they will also become a valuable source of future innovation and improvements they again ultimately benefit from.
The success of American Idol from a programming perspective is a classic example of what happens when you trust the wisdom of the crowds. It will be intersting to see how companies like McDonalds or Wal-Mart are able to successfully tap into the same social dynamic. Something tells me if you were figure out a way to to give McDonald’s customers more say, more input as to the available food choices, the menu would change in such a way that would be more nutritional and offer more, not less, benefits by eating there. Do this, and you can’t help but think you’d increase the frequency already loyal customers pull up to the drive through.
Companies that learn how to master and harness the wisdom of the very crowds they serve will invariably create more value for those they serve and subsequently increase their bottom lines … creating stronger (not weaker) companies, generating more jobs (not less) and ultimately maximizing share holder value.
Zig Ziegfried
Fouunder - Supreme Wealth Building Formual W=VP2