To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, "the reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in customizing the world to himself and his values."
"Customization" is the latest loyalty value to insert itself into virtually every product and service category. The convergence of two trends has morphed into an increased desire from consumers for more customized products and services. One trend is consumers' heightened feeling of control about virtually every aspect of their lives. The second is that with the commoditization of almost everything there is a natural craving from consumers for customized things that represent them.
The short, two-paragraph history of how we got here involves the Customer Satisfaction Movement (companies decided that it was better to satisfy customers than piss them off), the Total Quality Movement (companies decided that products and services should indeed do what they said they were going to do), and the Process Re-Engineering Movement (companies decided that if they were going to satisfy customers, they might as well do it in a more efficient manner).
Once everyone did that, the products and services mostly turned out just fine. And, they were all pretty much the same. Thus, in a world of where differentiation was hard to come by, to avoid becoming a commodity products and services looked for values that they could "own."
We have a saying around our shop. "Numbers are the product of counting, quantities are the product of measurement, and values are the product of consumer-generated analyses." In this case—looking at the 57 categories and nearly 400 brands Brand Keys measures in our Customer Loyalty Engagement Index—we found that the average percent-of-contribution "customization" makes to product and service engagement, adoption and loyalty (and, therefore, profitability) is currently 18%, or nearly five times what the value was when it was first measured in 1997.
You don't have to look hard for the obvious examples. You can go online and design your own running shoes right down to the color of the shoelaces. Or customize your new automobile. Or put your child's graduation picture on your credit card, while you select the time of month you want your statement to be sent. Or pick from any of the 8,000 customized coffee combinations currently available. How do you customize your computer right down to your screensaver photo of your trip to the Great Barrier Reef? Let me count the ways. It's something most consumers take for granted today.
Of the 57 categories that make up the 2008 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, the top 10 where customization has become one of the largest brand differentiators are:
And those are only the top 10. If you take a long hard look at your category, you may discover customers are perfectly "satisfied" with what they're getting. If so, the question from the consumer may then become "What have you done for ME lately?" It's an important question when consumers are going to judge you with their wallets and pocketbooks.
At first blush it may seem like a perfectly unreasonable request. But, to finish Mr. Shaw's quotation, brands may find that "all progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people."
Robert Passikoff, Ph.D. is founder and president of New York-based Brand Keys
