In all aspects of business, and branding makes no exception, are influenced nowadays by the trend of customization and personalization. Both are now hard to avoid and they are shaking hands with the new technologies.
The basic concept of branding will definetly remain unchanged — to create an emotional attachment between the consumer and a product — but the near future (or should I say present?) will demand from branding to adapt to consumers high demand for specialized – peronalized – customized products.
The new technologies are changing the way consumers interact with companies, or with other consumers for that matter, exchanging views, complaints, opinions and comments about products and services, about brands, about companies, about YOUR company.
On the other side there are companies already engaging creative customers in new ways. These companies are clearly aware that tapping into the collective intellectual capital of their customers yields great creative and “real” content. However, let’s not make the mistake to think that in the end these conversations will all be about communications and branding: how about extending this cooperation with consumers to virtually everything a corporation does, by making the customer an integral part of ALL creative and creational processes? There are companies inviting theis customers to engage in CUSTOMER-MADE goods, services and experiences?
Get ready for CUSTOMER-MADE: the phenomenon of corporations creating goods, services and experiences in close cooperation with consumers, tapping into their intellectual capital, and in exchange giving them a direct say in what actually gets produced, manufactured, developed, designed, serviced, or processed. Consumerism will never be the same!
Read a detailed analysis on the customer made trend.
More than that, Martin Lindstrom, a recognized branding guru and author of Brand Sense
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