Threadless (Strategy Highlight 5.2.) is a community-centered online apparel store that leverages user-generated content. The idea is to turn consumers into prosumers, a hybrid between producers and consumers. Members of the Threadless community do most of the work, which they consider fun: They submit T-shirt designs online, and community members vote on which designs they like best. The designs receiving the most votes are put in production, printed, and sold online. It can be said that Threadless uses the _____ technique.

The crowdsourcing technique is a technique that seeks information, opinions and ideas from a group of people who belong to a particular target market.

Like the name implies, it is usually done by engaging a “crowd” to source for ideas, and information for a particular project or goal.

Crowdsourcing aims to reduce cost while gaining insight into the intelligence and creativity of the target market.

Like the Threadless community, the target market may be unaware of the work they are putting in but they get the desired product at the end so they see crowdsourcing as fun and satisfying.