Standard colors, flavors, styles, and business practices were ... well, standard. But it worked out, because lifestyles were pretty standard as well.
Of course, this kind of uniformity was, considering the age of the universe, a pretty new thing. It took the Industrial Age of the 18th and 19th centuries to make it possible for shoes, cookstoves, blankets, books, sewing machines, and Fords to be made in batches rather than as individual hand-crafted units. Until then, from the beginning of human history virtually everything had been custom-made.
No more "off the rack"
The trouble with standardized products has always been that one size doesn't ever really fit all. Gradually, "standard" commodities have diverged from the norm. Now you can buy silk neckties covered with Tweetie Birds, no-fat sugar-free raspberry truffle ice cream, and Barbie-theme telephones that answer themselves -- not only on Sundays but, at least in urban areas, 24 hours a day.The expansion of consumer choices was the harbinger of today's most compelling new marketing style -- mass customization. But some companies, who jumped on the bandwagon before it was in gear, misinterpreted the phenomenon and made a costly mistake. These companies incorporated what they perceived as "mass customization" into their long-term planning as a way to expand customer choices. But, as mass-customization gurus Don Peppers and Martha Rogers point out, "Customers don't want more choices. Customers just want what they want." The slogan of LikeMinds Inc., a personalization technology company, says it another way: "Every individual is a market."
Mass customization is as different from "more choices" as it is from standardization, both of which originate with the product purveyors. Mass customization is a form of marketing that originates with the customer. Companies that market this way -- called "1:1 [one-to-one] enterprises" by Peppers and Rogers -- focus not on their products and processes but on their customers, one at a time. Companies like Levi Strauss, which now sells custom-manufactured "Personal Pair" jeans, gain an advantage over competitors when a customer reveals her measurements and preferences. Assuming she's pleased with her new jeans -- probably the first pair she's ever owned that are just the right size in the hips and waist, just the right length, and just the right color and fabric -- why should she start over with another supplier?
Hallmarks of one-to-one enterprises
Peppers and Rogers and other industry observers characterize one-to-one marketing as bringing products to customers instead of customers to products. Consumer demand, rather than forecasts, drive production. Rogers predicts companies will soon have "customer managers" instead of "product managers."In addition, one-to-one enterprises:
- Form strategic alliances with complementary businesses to meet more customer needs.
- Thrive on "learning relationships," which grow with every customer interaction.
- Can be immensely profitable (consider the Capital One individualized-credit- card example, which has given the company year after year of above-20-percent earnings growth).
- Can often make products for less, partly because there's no inventory molding in the back room
Smart business owners and managers are already contemplating issues like "should I adapt my current processes or just start over?" and "should I compete with an established one-to-one enterprise or develop my own unique niche?" Now is the time to ask the questions ... just don't expect to find ready-made answers.
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Recommended reading: "Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition," by B. Joseph Pine II, Harvard Business School Press, 1999 |
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Recommended reading: "The One to One Future : Building Relationships One Customer at a Time," by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., Doubleday, 1997. |
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