Digital platforms that aggregate products and services, such as Google Shopping or Amazon, have emerged as powerful intermediaries to brand offerings, challenging traditional product brands that have largely lost direct access to consumers. As a countermeasure, several long-established brands have built their own flagship platforms to resume control and foster consumer loyalty. For example, sports brands like Nike, adidas, or ASICS launched tracking and training platforms that allow for ongoing versatile interactions among participants beyond product purchase. The authors analyze these emerging platform offerings, whose potential brands struggle to exploit, and provide guidance for brands that aim to platformize their business. This guidance comprises the conceptualization of digital platforms as places of consumer crowdsourcing (i.e., consumers drawing value from platform participants such as the brand, other consumers, or third-party businesses) and crowdsending (i.e., consumers providing value to platform participants) of products, services, and content along with a well-defined framework that brands can apply to assemble different types of flagship platforms. Evaluating the consequences of crowdsourcing and crowdsending for consumer–platform relationships, the authors derive a typology of archetypical relationship states and develop a set of propositions to help offline-born product brands thrive through platformization.

聚合产品和服务的数字平台，如谷歌购物或亚马逊，已经成为品牌产品的强大中介，挑战在很大程度上失去了直接接触消费者的传统产品品牌。作为对策，一些历史悠久的品牌建立了自己的旗舰平台，以恢复控制并培养消费者的忠诚度。例如，耐克、阿迪达斯或 ASICS 等运动品牌推出了跟踪和培训平台，允许参与者在购买产品之外进行持续的多功能互动。作者分析了这些新兴平台产品，其潜在品牌难以利用，并为旨在将其业务平台化的品牌提供指导。本指南包括将数字平台概念化为消费者众包场所（即，消费者从平台参与者（例如品牌、其他消费者或第三方企业）和众包（即消费者向平台参与者提供价值）产品、服务和内容以及品牌可以应用的明确定义的框架中获取价值组装不同类型的旗舰平台。作者评估了众包和众包对消费者-平台关系的影响，得出了原型关系状态的类型学，并制定了一套主张，以帮助线下诞生的产品品牌通过平台化蓬勃发展。和内容以及定义明确的框架，品牌可以应用该框架来组装不同类型的旗舰平台。作者评估了众包和众包对消费者-平台关系的影响，得出了原型关系状态的类型学，并制定了一套主张，以帮助线下诞生的产品品牌通过平台化蓬勃发展。和内容以及定义明确的框架，品牌可以应用该框架来组装不同类型的旗舰平台。作者评估了众包和众包对消费者-平台关系的影响，得出了原型关系状态的类型学，并制定了一套主张，以帮助线下诞生的产品品牌通过平台化蓬勃发展。