One In A Million

A quick analysis on hyper-personalisation and individualisation, and how the new normal will call for a 1:1 multi-channel dialogue between brand and customers.

By Jaime Teulón. International Marketing and Business Development Executive

We only know that we know nothing about the new reality after the crisis. Or next to nothing. We do know that there will be a lot of imposed restrictions, at regulatory, social, economical or personal levels.

Many industries will see their business decimated and their players fighting for recovery with renovated energies. As the competition grows, consumers will also be more conscious about their expenditure and most definitely more demanding on what they receive on every dollar. They will only reward the product closest to their tastes, expectations and desires.

How high can you climb in the Consumer orientation ladder?

We′ve come a long way since the father of the assembly line and the mass production said this:

“A customer can have a car painted any color he wants as long as it’s black.”

Henry Ford, 1909

After that, we discovered segmentation and how we could create several clusters of consumers and approach them via different products within our range. For instance, when Coca-Cola introduced Tab in the year 1963 to approach mainly a female audience, less prone to consume high levels of sugar.

As society became more diverse and eclectic, stereotypes were forsaken and segmentation became more complex. Later in the 90s, the rules for the 1:1 marketing were established, however these were very limited by technical capacities.

Digitisation was the last ingredient to the mix. Not only an upgrade , more than that a determinant part, it now provides the channel to establish that direct dialogue between brand and final consumer. This digital dialogue is not an invitation but a mandate to hyper-personalise. Avoiding or neglecting that increases the risk of losing competitiveness.

Today, with the rise of the Digital experience and the relentless fight for consumers, that hyper-personalisation will be a direct and unmissable train to success.

Capgemini defines hyper-personalisation as “an advanced and real-time customisation of offerings, content, and customer experience at an individual level. Designed to perfectly match a customer, hyper-personalisation leverages Big Data to deliver such tailor-made solutions in real time.”

There is big relation to that on the desire for co-authorship and the ambition for uniqueness in the minds of consumers. The individual is looking for maximum identity, also in what he/she consumes. There is a change of role from the passive subject to active demanding voice.

In the latest years, customisation and individualisation have grown through the consumer experience. It’s impossible to comply with everybody’s wishes through an ever limited range of products, but the experience presents many more dimensions to adapt to the consumer taste. The CX has been the brands favourite tool to add that premium extra to the consumer and the channels. It’s also much more cost efficient to articulate that variability around a service than around a product.

And then, how do you articulate that process of Hyper-personalisation? There are many examples in our daily life. Netflix and Amazon hyper personalise their offer based on the user profile. In this case, their goal is to ease the customer journey, filtering content and moving apart white noise. This concludes in a better user experience in the first case and in a better rate of conversion in the second. Starbucks also has his own tool that helps their consumers through innovative and renovated suggestions that match and analyse personal taste based upon past orders. Converse are supreme masters of customisation and generating unique products:

Simplifying it to the maximum, pizza delivery is possibly one of the oldest ancestors of the Hyper-personalisation, and that is possibly one of the keys for its global success . Maximise your range of recommendations and alterations, open customisation to the max and keep a good record of your customer’s previous orders in order to create fresh and new suggestions.

To elevate it to the next level and in order to build these singular offerings today, superior data and sorting criteria are necessary, and this is perhaps the most challenging part. Big Data, Algorithms and predictive models have come to the rescue.

Another challenge is the logistical and operational complexity of this structure, which should be embraced as a new requirement of this era. But it should be seen as a different investment that substitute offline retailing investments and as a unique opportunity for the brands to interact directly with consumers.

Size and lack of budget are not valid excuses to dodge this ball. Bigger companies will lean on more complex algorithms and tools, but smaller enterprises can always build around their CRM and customer intelligence, at first with simple actions, and then raising the bar with the most successful ones.

Sky′s the limit. How far should we go? There is a wide territory between Ford′s minimalism and reluctance to hinder his production line and a carte blanche that may betray our DNA and abandon our brand territory. This extreme would take us to a product or service that might have lost any links with the original one or just make it absurd. However, reaching an optimal point will indeed provide the customer with a perception of perfect understanding from the brand and generate adamant links between customer and product.

First, I propose you to consider these basic questions to open the game:

• What are the main virtues of your product (pivots that you shouldn’t alter)? What about its main or most widely demanded upgrades or demands ?
• What kind of customisation is made to our product by our consumers before or during its consumption?
• Can you go one step further than your competitors in your hyper-personalisation in order to differentiate yourself?

If your belief is that your brand is such a singular one , make your consumers feel unique, make them feel like one in a million.

Keep yourselves safe and sound.

From the bunkers,

Jaime Teulón