Participatory Marketing

Why Create a Fanpage? It all boils down to one thing….

Participatory Marketing

. Participatory marketing is based not on passive consumption, but active audience participation
. It’s all about marketing with people, rather than at people
. It’s customer focused
. Harnesses a powerful concept called the Hawthorne effect

Hawthorne Effect

Before we explain what is the Hawthorne effect, you need to go back to 1924 to a company called Wester Electric.

At Wester Electric, researchers from MIT and Harvard decided to investigate working conditions and worker productivity. They asked workers to participate in a series of tests designed to measure their productivity and capture their feedback.

Some of the test included worker productivity while working under brighter lighting conditions…or softer lighting conditions. Working longer hours…or working shorter hours.

What baffled the researches was that no matter what test they conducted, workers productivity increased! What was even more odd was that Hawthorne workers became advocates of whatever it was that their participation involved!

The confounded researches even got workers to work in the dark – and even then, productivity and advocacy went up! The startling results made them wonder if it was something in the Hawthorne water?

No. The positive result had NOTHING to do with what was being tested, and everything to do with getting people to PARTICIPATE. The researchers thus coined the term “The Hawthorne Effect” to denote the positive effect of participation. In a nutshell, people just like participating!