Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

You can't come across a marketing magazine or agency pitch these days without talk of "co-creation". Though the term has its roots in Alvin Tofler's idea in 1979 of the Prosumer (a contraction of Producer and Consumer), it has become achingly hip in recent months. And as direct marketers it's right up our street - redolent as it is of the concepts of customer-centricity, interactivity and dialogue that lie at the heart of DM.

Co-creation is old hat in technology circles of course - with open-source software. In product design, Lego's invitation to kids to help design new models is one of the most oft-cited examples. And I greatly enjoyed reading about Fiat's successes in encouraging more than 8,000 consumers to come up with ideas for accessories for the Fiat 500 before the car was even launched. Or Doritos' consumers getting to design an ad to run in the middle of the Superbowl. The examples are endless.

But the more I discover about Apple - which is synonymous with creativity - the more it seems to be a gleaming counter-example to this trend of co-creation. I speak as a huge fan of the brand, but if you get a glimpse behind the scenes it's as close to an autocracy as you can get. The shining vision of one man and his coterie of trusted advisers drives everything - and the space for individual expression outside of that clique is minimal, whether you're an employee or a customer.

The paradox is bewildering - the brand of choice for the creative community is produced by a company where the notion of co-creation is anathema. Unless of course you look at what people do with the product. Some of the best pieces of creative communication were doubtless conceived by creatives working on Apples. And the iPod is the ultimate in creatively personalisable experiences - everyone's digital jukebox is different. But, you could argue, that has little to do with how the product or its marketing was conceived and everything to do with how it's used.

So does co-creation betray a lack of vision on the part of the brands that deploy it? Or is it a simple matter of commonsense that the more you seek to engage your consumers, the more engaged they will be?

Speaking of iPods, check out one coming to an untimely end in a blender at www.willitblend.com. Less a case of co-creation as mindless destruction. But very funny all the same.

This column originally appeared in Marketing Direct.