The Growing Cult of Personalization

Why the death of mass production could actually be good news for brands

The age of mobility and digitization gave us soaring spires and enlightenment, while the industrial age accompanied smoke stacks with mass production. This mass production put industries on the path of progress, globally. With globalization, we are now entering a new era - mass personalization of products and services. This fruit of globalization has put tremendous power in the hands of the consumer who is now very genuinely - The King. This digital age symbolized by developments such as, the Wireless Internet and Mobile Applications has led to an Information Revolution where consumers, are choosing to reject the hitherto universal principle of "One size fits all." This is particularly true for so-called millennial consumers who desire a personal experience and embrace products or services based on their novelty value often sidestepping the standard products. This insight is radically altering the way brands are choosing to engage with its audiences. The examples of mass personalization are evident in the wake of customized offerings across domains such as travel, computer hardware design for cars, tele-medicine, financial products, mEducation, mHealth, on-demand content, etc.

Numerous studies have validated that consumer engagement is better if the product/ brand speaks to them directly as a starting point. And brands are actually looking to make this engagement a cornerstone in their outreach initiatives; take for example personalized cans of Coke. Similar, examples can be seen across categories in apparels, beauty products, laptops, and even smart phones, all pointing to a simple fact that any brand, regardless of its position has a significant chance of winning mindshare by engaging with its consumers directly.

Debate around Customization

The traditionalist perspective on brand, speaks of maintaining control and compliance; an approach still observed in institutional brands like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA, as well as some exclusive luxury brands such as Louis Vitton, Cartier and Prada. Whereas, there are brands like RED Bull, Coca Cola, Pepsi who are pushing the traditional envelope and creating the personal impact on the consumer. The way this thought process is evolving, it might one day become the essence of a modern brand far from being simply a necessary evil (consumers will always want individual service). In doing so, however, businesses will have to answer a fundamental question; will customization dilute the power of my brand or actually help unlock value from the same?

Customization, Categorization and its Benefits

Essential to the debate around customization is the availability of demographic information of consumers. In terms of availability of such information ,Credit card industry is perhaps at top of value chain because of the sheer value of information at its disposal while FMCG/ Insurance companies would constitute bottom rung purely because their connect with consumer is not so direct. Telecom companies however stand somewhere in the middle but have the capability to create magic because, of the availability of demographic information, behavior patterns and preferences. The first example of such personalization was Tata Docomo's "Pay Per Second" initiative built primarily on an insight that consumers will never be able to control the duration of their calls and hence liberating him from the worry of ‘unused seconds'. Such an initiative was considered as Industry best practice and therefore widely appreciated and accepted by consumers. In a way liberalization of tariffs was viewed as mass-personalization!

With the introduction of smart-phones, tablets and phablets, there was a sudden spike in use of data services and mobile apps. . Continuing with the same philosophy of "Pay Per Use", Tata Docomo introduced an industry first initiative, "Pay Per Site", where the consumer were charged for only the sites they surfed. Such customization initiatives were seen with changing trends, dynamic consumer usage patterns and spend patterns, considering that 96% of the mobile market in India is prepay. Mass personalization can also be scientifically designed, simply by using data analytics. Let's say for e.g. data consumption patterns were analyzed data during a specific period with a striking revelation that most of the brand's target audience, the youth especially, used apps like WhatsApp and FaceBook.

Tata Docomo products and service offerings have frequently broken convention, disrupted the status quo (as well as our competitors!) and put our customers firmly in control of their wallet Such analysis has helped Tata Docomo from time to time, create mass personalization services for its consumers. In recent times, with the rise of social media we are now taking the concept of personalization to social platforms. Tata Docomo has run successful pilot programs on Facebook, wherein on the basis of a customer's usage and his stage of life cycle we can target him/ her with dedicated messaging and engage in conversations relevant to them specifically.

Putting customers in control also makes business sense

Mass personalization is an opportunity for brands to not only develop and deepen relationships with each customer, but also to make them active co-producers and partners thereby moving them towards becoming loyal brand evangelists. Personalization can be a source of massive strength for brands in the coming decade and I believe that there are two clear pillars to back this assertion. First the unequivocal expectations of today's millennial generation. For a millennial, the attitude of a brand can be as important as the qualities of the product itself1. They embrace brands that embrace them, and they respond to personal exchanges. 56% of mainstream millennial believe it's important to find brand loyalty, and this perfectly reflects the more personal approach of this generation to cement brand relationships and is a pointer to what the next generation of consumer will seek from their brands. Paradoxically, they‘d want to be connected to brands that both boost their social status and set them apart; either way, it's not something likely to be available ‘off the shelf'.

Secondly, since people are busy sharing their lives on web, a vast amount of data is available to collaborate and co-create products which offer a distinctly personalized service than ever before. And for mobile operators, this is big news; imagine personalized Insurance plans, personalized shopping deals, Machine 2 Machine communications, the possibilities are endless!! With the wireless marketplace already cluttered with similar looking options, personalization will play the role of a catalyst for operators to attract and retain high value (ARPU) customers and maximize wallet share. And herein lies the opportunity for non-telecom brands to leverage personalization and reach out to customers with a set of customized offerings.

Well executed personalization, not merely demonstrates brand confidence, but has the power to help drive brand equity and loyalty and enhance all aspects of the business value chain. Brands that embrace personalization - despite its complexities and counter-intuition from a traditionalists' perspective - will drive unprecedented loyalty amongst customers and create powerful market differentiation for their products and services. In short, far from compromising or diluting it, the ability to personalize and customize will become the single most important brand promise of them all.

The author is GurinderSingh Sandhu, head, marketing, Tata Docomo