Customization: What It Is, Why It's Needed, and How It Works

Customization is the process by which a mass-produced product or service is altered to meet the individual needs and preferences of a specific customer.

Below, we will examine in more detail what customization is and how it works.

Example of customization by Street Pizza

It allows the buyer to tailor the product to their preferences, personalizing it as much as possible. For example, they can choose the color and material of furniture or create their own fragrance composition to craft a unique perfume. Almost any detail can be customized: appearance, set of functions, technical specifications.

Sometimes it's challenging to satisfy all customers with one product. Instead of developing many different models, companies let buyers decide what the product will be like.

Benefits of customization

Customization prioritizes the personal preferences of each customer. Forget testing and surveys — here, you engage in a direct dialogue with the buyer.

How is customization beneficial for your business?

Higher competitiveness: Satisfied customers are loyal customers. This strategy distinguishes you from competitors and strengthens brand loyalty.
Efficiency: With mass customization, businesses maintain high production volumes. Individualization of the product often occurs at the final stage, reducing production costs. Additionally, storage costs for large quantities of unsold finished goods are minimized.
Increased profits: Customization allows you to raise prices even for mass-produced items. Calculate the cost, set a reasonable price, and devise a sales process to boost company profitability.
Closer customer relationships: You create products based on individual requests. This approach fosters closer interaction with customers and strengthens their attachment to the brand. At the beginning of the relationship, customers are rarely willing to share personal information — address, phone number, hobbies. Customization gradually reveals these preferences.
Better brand recognition: Satisfied customers become brand ambassadors and recommend it to their acquaintances. Such recommendations are the most reliable source of information for most people, leading directly to increased revenue.

How customization works in marketing

Customization is a clever strategy that sets companies apart from competitors. It creates a sense of involvement for the customer and increases loyalty.

This is a powerful marketing tool. By analyzing customer preferences and behavior during customization, companies can show them personalized advertisements that are highly relevant to their interests. Below, we'll look at the types of customization typically used by brands.

Types of customization

1. Co-Creation

The company closely collaborates with the customer to create a product that fits them perfectly. Example: A furniture store offers a wide selection of materials, fittings, and upholstery, allowing the customer to design their dream sofa.

2. Adaptive Customization

The company offers a standard product with the possibility of modification. Example: Lego, a set of colorful pieces that can be assembled into countless unique models.

3. Personalized Marketing

The company produces a standard product but promotes it in different ways to various target audiences. Example: A tracksuit advertised as stylish attire for urban strolls to casual users and as functional gear for professional athletes.

4. Transparent customization

The company offers unique products to individual customers without emphasizing customization. Example: A streaming service that recommends movies or playlists based on user preferences.

Recommended playlists on a streaming service

Who customizes products

Uniqueness comes at a price. Customized products, whether clothing, technology, or interior items, are always more expensive than mass-produced counterparts. Creating a product based on individual preferences requires additional time, materials, and effort. However, the desire to own something special that reflects their style makes many customers willing to pay the premium.

Here’s who customizes products:

Such opportunities are offered by companies of different levels today. For example, major manufacturers like the car company Honda allow customers to choose the body color, interior materials, and additional options.

Local brands are also keeping up. A small workshop making handmade bags offers the choice of leather, hardware, and individual design for future products, turning them into extensions of your wardrobe.

Customization can also be done independently. For example, computer builds: today, many electronics stores allow customers to choose components for their future computer. This approach gives users complete freedom of choice, allowing them to build a powerful gaming computer or a quiet work PC.

Another example is custom-designed cards offered by some banks.

Customization or personalization?

Customization is a process where the customer decides what the product will be like. They choose colors, materials, features, and other parameters that match their tastes and needs.

Personalization in marketing is an approach where the brand adapts to the customer's preferences. Through various methods such as analyzing purchase history, geolocation data, or reviews, the company creates an offer that it believes is most interesting to a specific group of customers.

In customization, the person actively participates in the process of creating the product, while in personalization, the brand itself determines the characteristics based on its understanding of the customer's desires.

Example:

Customization: You choose the color, fabric, and style of jeans in an online configurator on the company's website.
Personalization: The online store recommends jeans to you based on your purchase history and previously viewed items.

Both strategies have their advantages:

Customization provides customers with a product that fits them perfectly.
Personalization saves time and simplifies the choice.

The choice between customization and personalization depends on many factors:

Type of product;
Target audience;
Company’s business model.

It’s important to understand that customization and personalization are not mutually exclusive. Many companies successfully combine both strategies, offering customers the opportunity to both influence the product themselves and receive recommendations. Additionally, some companies organize customization contests and use customer-created designs as UGC (user-generated content).

Customization methods

Below are the most common methods.

1. Design customization

The gaming company ASUS ROG offers laptops with customizable cases and lighting.

The same method is used by confectionery manufacturers. Pastry companies offer printing on cakes and pastries with greetings, names, or favorite images.

2. Functional product customization

Computer manufacturers offer custom-built PCs based on individual requirements — selecting the processor, graphics card, memory size, etc.

3. Interface customization

In browsers like Chrome and Firefox, users can install extensions and themes to customize the appearance to their liking.
Social networks allow users to personalize their news feed, view content from favorite creators, and hide unwanted information.

Conclusion

Customization has become an excellent way for companies to stand out and earn customer trust. Now, people can choose how a product looks or functions. Mass production is gradually giving way to an individual approach that considers each customer's desires.

Customization is not just about changing the design; it applies to a wide variety of products and services. Thanks to customization, companies better understand their customers and build stronger relationships with them.