Come on, let’s face it. We all think we’re kind of special. Deep inside the human psyche, we all want our life to have meaning. To know we are individuals, unique and important in our own way.

For thousands of years, only the ultra-wealthy could afford customized products. Everyone else had to settle for what was available.  Then came the invention of things like the personal computer, internet, 3-D printing, home delivery, and social media. Now anyone anywhere can interact with the world on their own terms. Whether that be sitting in your underwear gaming with people around the world, being the next YouTube sensation or Instagram model, designing our own sneakers and ordering specific culinary delights from your smartphone and having them delivered wherever we want.

The move towards digital socialization and product customization is now at hand. And if your business is not offering some experience that makes a customer feel served on a personal basis than your probably not keeping up with your competitors or market trends. Here are a few examples and studies to make the point for personalization.

Business Trends: Personalization of everything

Rashan Dixon in the article: 5 Business Trends That Will Continue to Rise in 2019, quotes a number of examples:

• Dunkin’ Donuts recently reported a 3.6 percent redemption rate for a mobile coupon campaign aimed at a competitor’s customers in Rhode Island. What’s more, ten times the number of redeemers took a secondary action, such as mentioning it on social media.
• Another type of personalization that’s sure to pay off is a “channel of choice” communication strategy. Consumers are turning away from live conversations in favor of services that don’t require talking, such as SMS and social media. Automated channels are also growing in popularity, with 49 percent using chatbots or automated assistants at least once per week. With that said, 45 percent of consumers are open to any channel, as long as the service is effective.

An interesting article that takes a unique look at companies on the forefront of personalization, These 7 Brands Take Personalized Marketing to a New Level, was written by Amanda Zantal-Wiener and has some great examples.

• Target: A Target customer is assigned a Guest ID number after the very first interaction with the brand. That ID is used to store the customer’s demographic information, ranging from ethnicity to job history, and to track buying behavior. And by doing the latter, specifically with those who had baby registries with the store, Target’s marketing analysts were able to form a “pregnancy prediction” score, which allowed them to determine which purchasing patterns indicated a customer was in the early expectant stages…
• Coca Cola, in 2011, launched its famous “Share a Coke” campaign in Australia, bringing it to the U.S. in 2014. It was an effort to reach millennials, in which each bottle contained one of the most popular first names assigned to that generation. Eventually, bottles contained semi-personal labels beyond first names, like “better half… Putting first names on Coke bottles was a successful move. In the U.S., it resulted in increased sales volume for the first time in roughly four years…
• Twiddy, a vacation rental company…began to more closely examine was how rental volume and demand shifted from week-to-week. Noticing those trends allowed the company to start making “pricing recommendations” to homeowners…on the basis of market conditions, seasonal trends, and the size and location of a home…It allowed the owners of its managed properties to start experimenting with pricing for that particular week as early as January. Not only did it benefit the customer — setting more realistic prices for lower-demand periods actually increased the bookings made for them… Since the brand began to use this data to help homeowners with decisions like pricing, its portfolio increased over 10%…

Personalization research

Another mention from the previous Dixon article includes the mention of a research effort made by Epsilon company in 2018.

Epsilon helps clients create connection between brands and consumers, and they released an interesting research article entitled: New Epsilon research indicates 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. Basically, the simple online survey targeted online consumers ages 18-64 and found:

• 80% of respondents were more likely to do business with companies who offer personalized experiences.
• 90% found the idea of personalizing products and services appealing.

Here are a few interesting quotes taken from the Epsilon findings: “To dive deeper into the relationship between personalization and actual purchasing behavior, Epsilon linked the survey data to transactional data from Epsilon’s Abacus^® Cooperative, which spans more than 2,700 members and billions of transactions. Findings from the transactional analysis indicate that consumers who believe personalized experiences are very appealing are ten times more likely to be a brand’s most valuable customer – those that are expected to make more than 15 transactions in one year. Additionally, those respondents who believe companies are doing very well on offering personalized experiences shop more than three times more frequently…”

 “Digital transformation is no longer optional… “Yet, many brands are still lacking the end-to-end digital maturity required to be successful, including a customer-centric organizational structure, connected and integrated marketing technology and actionable data-driven insights…”

Personalization per industry

Additional findings from the report highlight personalization opportunities for specific industries:

Grocery/Drug Store Websites/Mobile Apps

• 90% of respondents say they are much/somewhat more likely to do business with grocery/drug store websites/apps offering personalized experiences but only 71% say grocery/drug store websites/apps are currently delivering personalized experiences very/somewhat well.
• Respondents ranked the following personalized experiences as the first- and second-most motivating to do business with a grocery/drug store: providing offers or coupons based on consumer’s physical location (29%); providing offers or coupons based on past purchases or preferences consumer set (29%); sending consumers customized communications (25%).

Travel & Leisure Websites/Mobile Apps

• 87% of respondents say they are much/somewhat more likely to do business with travel websites/apps offering personalized experiences but only 64% say travel websites/apps are currently delivering personalized experiences very/somewhat well.
• Respondents ranked the following personalized experiences as the first- and second-most motivating to do business with a travel and leisure brand: providing offers or coupons based on consumer’s physical location (35%); home page automatically shows best fares / hotel deals in frequently-travelled cities (32%); providing offers or coupons based on past trips or preferences consumer set (28%).

Automotive Industry Websites/Mobile Apps

• 86% of respondents say they are much/somewhat more likely to do business with automotive websites/apps offering personalized experiences but only 55% say automotive websites/apps are delivering personalized experiences very/somewhat well.
• Consumers ranked the following personalized experiences as the first- and second-most motivating to do business with an auto brand: storing purchase or maintenance history (49%); reminders of upcoming scheduled service needs (44%); allowing consumer to set up recurring maintenance for a vehicle (38%).

Personalization is not a business fad, it’s what customers now anticipate.

Years ago McDonald’s had the slogan: Have it your way. Looking back they seemed ahead of the times. So to ensure you are meeting customers expectations, here are a few suggestions to help you personalize your customer’s experience.

Make them feel special: Hold a brainstorming effort and come up with ideas to personally interact with your customers individually and not as a group (and batch emails with their names inserted in the text does not count).

Keep accurate data: You need to know who your customers are, where they live, what they do etc. Its hard to reach people on a personal level with impersonal information.

Experiment: Perform a few limited runs before you initiate full scale. Focus on a few selected customers and make sure you get their feedback (don’t guess).

Keep it simple and straight. Confused customers will cease being customers. Complicated coupons and discount incentives, multiple options and hard to follow instructions will stop even the most dedicated customer in their tracks.

Use Social Media: Don’t try the shotgun approach but target your customer according to their demographic and social media sites they most likely use.

Think outside the box: This can be done by adding new services, modifying existing services, adding features to products, targeting new customers outside your comfort zone, finding niche markets, reaching the unreached etc.