One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted
One-to-one marketing was supposed to be the holy grail of customer relationship management.
Companies would no longer have to isolate us from the rest of world as a group to sell to us; they could actually do it on an individual basis. Problem is that we are hyper-social beings who prefer to operate within our tribes. We do not want to be isolated from our group so that sales people who know more about us than we feel comfortable with can give us the hard sell. We want the buying process to be a social process. We don’t trust companies to be on our side and prefer to get the information that will let us make sound buying decisions from our peers. The good news is that those hyper-social tribal peers cannot wait to help us and warn us about bad products and services.
As a team we may want to customize our group workspace, the tools we use, or the T-shirts we wear, but we don’t want one-to-one product customization. In fact we do not like too many choices. Research has shown that it significantly reduces our willingness to actually buy something. Even mass-customization leads to “mass confusion.”
Forget one-to-one, it never worked and never will because we do not want to be unique, we don’t want to have one-to-one conversations with companies, and we do not really want customization.
Now, wait – don’t throw that CRM system out just yet. While we may not like to have you try to sell us on a one-on-one basis based on all that rich data you have about us, we love it when we are actually ready to buy your product, or when we have a problem with your product and we call your call center, to feel super special by having you recognize us and treat us as if you were a long lost relative trying to help us. We also like it when “the system” (your ecommerce site or your online community) recommends content and people for us that is highly valuable because it’s based on what you know about us – much like Amazon will recommend us books, or the Apple Genius music.
Remember this – when we are ready to buy or when we have a problem with your product or service we want to be treated as an individual, when we are in the process of making a buying decision, we want to be treated as a member of our tribe. And yes, the logical extension of that thinking is that all your behavioral and contextual targeting campaigns are in fact a colossal waste of time and money. During the sales cycle you need to target our tribes!
Do you buy this argument? Please let me know.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I agree that the over-personalized sales approaches can get creepy. At least we don’t want to be reminded of how much of our lives are an open book to businesses seeking us out. How often do we even notice anymore the customized suggestions on Amazon? Trust is earned, and we want to feel WE know the source of the recommendation as well as the other way around.
I’m still thinking about the recommendations, but no question about the value of personalized service when we make the call or ask for help. I’ve no doubt it’s the only way Microsoft kept me as a customer during the Vista winter, from the roll out … including a call center rep who spent his own time at home trying to duplicate a problem, and then sending me a full set of default drivers so that we could be sure the issue wasn’t a quirk in the installation or corruption.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by francois gossieaux, comunidades. comunidades said: One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted: One-to-one marketin.. http://bit.ly/4vlQkF [...]
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
I’m sure we don’t want all the stuff we buy to be customized. But for some categories customization has already soft landed on our planet. How about cars? Computers? Kitchens? All ‘capital goods’, i.e. expensive stuff with high cost to sell. And soon customization will be mainstream for many other categories.
Have a look at http://MilkOrSugar.com, they review a stunning number of sites offering most any custom product, including custom coffee, custom bicycles, custom shoes, custom bags and custom shirts. Enjoy.
November 27th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I consider myself different than most consumers, especially when it comes to retail, but I really appreciate the one-to-one marketing and hard sell. I’m the type of person that doesn’t care to be different, I don’t like to go with the crowd and be a faceless number. I like to be an individual and I’m willing to put up with a hard sell because I know that I have all the power because I can always say, “no thanks.”
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 am
One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted…
One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted…
October 29th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
New blog post: One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted http://bit.ly/3MktwV
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
October 29th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
‘One-to-one mktg & product customization wave – the things we never wanted’ http://bit.ly/1ZBkvc from @fgossieaux (Brings back memories!)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
October 29th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
RT @fgossieaux One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted http://bit.ly/3MktwV
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
October 29th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted:
One-to-one marketin.. http://bit.ly/4vlQkF
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
October 30th, 2009 at 7:29 am
RT @ConversationAge One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted http://ow.ly/xqKy
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
October 30th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Good thots on Sell to tribe, serve the person: RT @ConversationAge: One-to-one marketing and product customization wave– http://ow.ly/xqKy
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
October 30th, 2009 at 8:13 am
RT @ConversationAge: One-to-one marketing and product customization wave – the things we never wanted http://ow.ly/xqKy // #wheelsturning
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
“…when we are in the process of making a buying decision, we want to be treated as a member of our tribe.” http://is.gd/4LIOM
This comment was originally posted on Twitter