Threadless Essay

MIS 551 First Semester 2011-2012 (111) ______________________________ Threadless Case Block 1: The Threadles Approach to Innovation and New Product Development
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Presented to Dr. Amine Nehari
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Presented by:
1-Abdulkarim Al Nuhayer, ID No. 199160430 2-Sulaiman Bakhsh, ID No. 199714350
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Nov. 17, 2011
Key question:
Is Threadless a new approach to innovation?
Threadless is a new approach to innovation since it applies community-driven product development process rather than the traditional product development process. It enables anyone to submit t-shirts design through its web site and asking its community of more than 500,000 members to vote for the winning design. Also, it encourages its community members to participate by critiquing submitted designs, blogging about their daily lives, posting songs and videos inspired by the designs and, most important, purchasing t-shirts that have won the weekly design competitions.

Boards:
Develop funnel and outline similarities and differences with traditional methods.

Threadless

Threadless

Awareness
Awareness

Interest
Interest

Evaluation
Evaluation

Commitment
Commitment

Referral Program and word of Mouth
Referral Program and word of Mouth

Repeat
Repeat

* The biggest difference we see between Threadless and the traditional methods is the lack of “experts” in Threadless. In other words, many other designer clothing companies have a team of professionals or experts with years of design experience. There are even other t-shirt companies that rely on the expertise and brand of one expert. * Threadless does not rely on the tastes or artistry of one designer, but it has fostered a community of