This is good news for the nonconformists, the sports fans, the gift givers. In order to get that competitive edge marketers must pay attention to this growing trend - the store of YOU and add something different, something personal to their branding options.
Driven by increasingly demanding consumers empowered by the Internet and new technology such as digital printing and online ordering systems, the shift to personalized production represents such a departure from tradition that the retail industry has been forced to come up with new terminology to describe it.
Owning one-of-a-kind sneakers, clothes, jewelry, wine, and even credit cards goes beyond keeping up with the Joneses. It is the need for individuality, expressing your own personal taste, personality, and lifestyle is the new sign of success and luxury.
At the same time, personalization is a form of frugality which is well suited to the current economic downturn. By customizing, shoppers can get the most out of less frequent splurges. This trend is not restricted to those with money—it spans ages, income groups, and regions.
Custom-made products were once so labor intensive, he says, that only the wealthy could afford them. While the printing and ordering technologies to customize for "the masses" have been available for at least a decade, only now is the trend really taking off as customers have come to realize it's available. Customers are no longer satisfied with generic items when they can get everything from M&Ms to shoes and even furniture distinctly tweaked to their liking.
This "me-tailing" instead of retailing has been a growing market for at least a decade. Visit Optimum's logomall to get a better idea of the thousands of customizable personalized products available.
