Marketing Monday #4: Custom-I-zed
Time: Monday February 12th 2007, 10 AM
Place: Furniture Store, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (51.436,5.4781)
A: Hello, Madam, can I help you?
M: I would like to have this one, but with the looks of this one. However the leather of this one I prefer, because the dog will kill the leather of that one within one day.
A: I’m sorry ma’m, but this only only comes in this colors for this leather. However I you really want this leather you should come with me and take a look at the one on the other side of the store. I’m really sure you are going to like this one.
M: Ow yes my son, I love it, but my man doesn’t want me to bring this one in pink.
A: Okay, now I get it, so you prefer a warmer colour!
M: Yes I think so.
A: There you go my lady… And let me tell you something my dear, this one has a special price, because I can offer you a 10% discount.
M: Okay, that sounds good to me, and I’m sure my man will love the colour. I hope he won’t bother so much about the size and the leather. Well he is the one to take care of the dog. He’d better learn that dog to sit next to the couch.
A: I’m sure ma’m, he will love this one. Should I also include the we-bring-everything-to-your-house-service?
M: Yes, that would be great. When can I expect the couch at my house?
A: Next Monday will be able to drop of the couch at yours madame. Unfortunately it’s peak season lady, this week we are already running out of time!
M: Ow that is too bad. Monday morning will leave for a short holiday until Friday afternoon. Can you deliver it the Monday after?
A: I’m sorry ma’m… All our staff has a day of that Monday. But we can deliver it on Wednesday morning, is that a problem?
M: Well I promised a friend to come over, however I rather invite her over to my house, so she can see the new couch as well!
A: Okay ma’m, well that’s it, I would like to thank you purchasing this lovely couch at ours. I’m quite sure you will enjoy this one for the next couple of years!
M: Thank you my son. I’m looking forward to it!
A: Bye ma’m. Thank you very much!
Probably most of you are at least familiar to this kind of conversations. Which raises the question. Wouldn’t it be nice to just be able to customize the goods to your demands? Come on guys… this has to be the future!!! Customization. Products customized to what I want and when I want it. Yes I certainly believe in it. No more bullshit like mentioned above. Buying a $1000 couch and returning it only the color you wanted. In the future I will get what I’m looking for…. Wait a second… What am I looking for? Well the lady was looking for a couch, in a nice color with some doggie-proof leather. However, when we look to the physical possibilities, this lady might has to choose between 1200 potential couches. Which one would be hers?
Right now we are not even mentioning what could happen when people don’t know what they want!!! Are there any?? Yes there are! About 95% of the people out there just don’t know what they want. They like to be guided, they want their hands to be hold, their options to be controlled. There is one thing they definitely don’t want… Confusion!!! 95% of the people out there also like to pay you, to blame you when their friends don’t like the just bought product. They just can say… Yes I do agree with you, purple would have been way better, however the store didn’t have one.
We all know how these things go. Now for me the big question is: Will the human I-being permit his/herself to show their true personal preferences? What as a result could lead to growth/loss of personal status? Are we willing to risk our status for some more freedom to choose?
This might sound a bit exaggerated, however the small group of people that does participate in customization at the moment are likely to be part of the 5% who just don’t give a damn about their personal status or whatever being influenced by the choices they make. Because marketeers and designers (the current group of enthusiastic customization supporters) are more likely to be part of this 5%. I start asking myself: will the majority be waiting for the opportunity to decide all things on their own? Or are they likely to shift some responsibilities?
At this point of time I truly don’t know what it will be. That’s why I would like you to comment on this column and mention your pro’s and con’s about customization. Did you ever participate in customization? Do you recognize yourself in preferring to give away responsibilities? Are you afraid of the loss of status? Do you kick on the status gained by making the right choices? Do you play safe or are you willing to take a risk? Or just mention some good customization examples. (here is one from me: Fiat500)
This final question probably sums it all up the best. Will there be enough people globally to take the risk of customization to turn it into a success or is there a true 95% of the population, to scared to make their own decisions? Personally I do believe in customization, however I’m still not 100% convinced.
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February 20th, 2007 at 23:27
Personally I truly believe in customization, I’m sure it’s going to be the next big thing. However the question is how to go about customization. Everyone customizes, don’t you pick own clothes everyday, decide what to eat and where to go. This is customization of your life, how you want to shape it, by making choices. Customization is all about making choices, having options. The more options, the higher the amount of customization, and complexity or the product. Companies will play around with customization and their production process in the future, the will present it to the customer as if they really make a unique product while they are not. However where is this fine line between a custom product and a you picking 1 product from a catalogue with over 1000 products to choose from. I believe that putting your own text on a M&M’s is customization, I think customizing your own pair of Nike’s is customization too, but buying a car and picking a colour and fabric is customization too isn’t it, it’s just about the level of customization and the way it’s presented to you. To sum it up:
“Customization is just having the choice to choose between a number of options, the more options you can choose from the more customization you get, presenting this process of choosing options in a pleasurable way is up to the designers, marketers and visionairs of the 21st century”
February 21st, 2007 at 2:36
hmm, i’m gonna throw some food for discussion on the table here before i hurdle myself into full-commenting-mode;
i don’t really see customization as having a choice in options. customizations refers to more than just the options presented to you. “to customize” means “to modify or build according to individual or personal specifications or preference”. in a sense this is what you do when you select the color for your car, but you’re still not really “customizing”.
i believe that customization deals with creating one-of things; adapting them to your own style. to use the example of the car again; truly customizing it would mean creating your own color-scheme and visuals [i'll safe the 22" rims and crocodile leather interior for later].
customization is a very important part of today’s world. no one wants to have the same looking product as everybody else. the market jumps into to this by creating those custom options for you. especially with visually-oriented products people like to be different. and i feel that we need to give the customer more control over certain product’s features that have room for tweaking.
the discussion wetter choosing from what is offered or creating it yourself is customization is a bit subjective. however, i truly think that we need to stretch some customization borders. look at that custom car business; i can’t figure a better example of customization.
reflecting on the thing written above i wonder if it really is a distribution of 5 to 95 in favor of the non-customizers. i agree that the bigger majority of people out there are ignorant unknowing idiots, mindlessly following that whichever gets thrown into their hands [or car]. there will always be a need for standard products, ready to be sold. with a lot of things we just don’t wanna think too much on details.
but to open up the possibility for customizations there should also be a customization-option for almost every product [unless you create one-of products that to your all-knowing design-eye need only one version].
customization broadens the market to more people. but customization can also be expensive. to pump out an entire line of red chairs is easy and cheap. but if customers suddenly want weird patterns you’re gonna need to customize some machinery, which will cost some money.
i myself am a big fan of custom stuff. i try to be something else. losing status is something i never considered, if someone else doesn’t like my shoes or car it’s not gonna be my problem, is it? taking risks is more my deal, why show everybody [including me] yet another copy of something?
to finish things off i am a bit confused by your final question. how can someone take the risk of customization? do we need the entire public to commit to customization? [i mean, i don't wanna spend more than 1 minute finding a role of tape, no need to spend time on the width, pattern, color, stickyness, dimension, or any other modality for that matter]. can’t we just offer both versions and see what happens? no need to force something upon the public.
that’ll be all for now…
February 22nd, 2007 at 17:59
The thing about customization that scares me is risk. Every one of us has had a bad subway day, where the mix of meat, vegetables and sauce just didn’t match at all. That’s not a big problem. But when you’re buying a car, and the interior colour just doesn’t match the exterior paint, than you have a problem. What’s your vision on that?
February 25th, 2007 at 21:30
I think all of you got some point here. And although I could all give you a customized reply I would like to bring up one little example, of what I think, illustrates customization and it’s potential.
tattoo’s:
there are three groups here:
1) the ones that design there own tattoo’s and ask tattoo-bob to tattoo it on their skin
2) the ones that enter tattoo-bob’s shop and order a nice chinese dragon that presents there courage
3) the ones that don’t even think about getting a tattoo
July 16th, 2007 at 18:16
[...] hate it or love it… I’ve been discussing this topic before (Marketing Monday #4: Custom-I-zed). But that column left some dust in the air. Marketing Monday #4 described if customization was [...]