The Store of YOU

Why buy off the rack when you can customize? Modern shoppers design everything from clothes, candy and even credit cards. Personalization has come a long way from those checks with Looney Toons on them that your grandmother had.

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.

GPS Winners!

Optimum staff members, Brandi, Joe and Ember were recently at the 2008 TBA Conference in San Diego at booth #504 to promote Optimum Southwest and to give away 2 brand new GPS systems!



Here are Brandi & Ember with one of the lucky winners!

Optimum Companies Corporate Caring

Companies foster community pride by supporting those in the community who advance our quality of life. Optimum Companies are proud to support several organizations. One of these is Kids 'n Kamp.

Kids 'n Kamp was founded in 1982 and is dedicated to children who have cancer and their families. In the early years, Kids 'n Kamp provided only a small group of cancer kids with a weekend camp, but has now grown to a full-service non-profit organization providing over 300 Ohio Childhood Cancer families (patients, siblings and parents) the opportunity to participate in much needed programs and services. All programs are free for kids ranging in age from infants to young adults who are either receiving chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments now or have finished treatments and are in remission. Kids 'n Kamp also maintains a close and active relationship with families who have lost children to cancer and continues to offer them all programs and services.

This summer, several Optimum employees and their family members helped with unloading supplies and assisting in craft projects for a weekend camp. This organization is special to our CEO, John Martin, who is a cancer survivor. Having been afflicted as a teenager with a brain tumor he knows first-hand how important these services are to a family stricken with cancer.

Kids 'n Kamp has fund raising events such as a Mystery Night and Auction in the fall and the Quilt Auction at the 'Shoe'. If you would like more information on Kids 'n Kamp, please call 614-262-2220 or visit www.kidsnkamp.org.

Over the next several months, we will be spotlighting other organizations which are a part of Optimum Companies' Corporate Caring.