While I was reading the blog “Customization vs. Personalization”, posted on The advertisInc Blog (UBC AdvertisInc), I realized that it would be a great topic for my weekly marketing blog post. In that post, Rachel brief described the meaning of the two words and gave examples for both customization and personalization with Starbucks and Dell. Here are some of my opinions on customization and personalization.
Some people may be confused with the terms: what is customization, and what is personalization? I would say, most of the time when you request something different from the standard offering , such as at a restaurant, it is considered customization. Whereas when your characteristics or preferences are considered or can be displayed in the product/service, it is personalization.
It seems that the people really enjoy personalization, and the feelings of satisfaction occurs when an individual has some kind of experience that the content adapts itself based on the person’s interests, opinions etc, and provides something new, different, and possibly unique and unexpected. I personally have always wanted to have a personalized iPod with my personal message engraved at the back of it as it is shown in the picture above. Because after the engraving, my iPod is unique, it is the only one in the world with my personal message on it, it is a personalized product.
Both customization and personalization make consumers feel welcome and both qualities foster customer loyalty, which vastly increases the chance of enormous potential for increasing advertising and sales revenue.The concept of personalizing for customers is certainly not new, the question is how, how can the product/service to be personalized or customized, so that both companies and consumers benefit the most from it.
“Customization vs. Personalization” The AdvertisInc Blog, UBC AdvertisInc
http://blog.advertisinc.ca/post/2830860118/customization-vs-personalization