why personalisation is key to competitive advantage

It’s not you, it’s me.Why personalisation can give

brands a competitive advantage

Did you know that on average we spend 120 hours a year looking at ourselves in the mirror?

We love hearing the sound of our own name…

…and even choose our partners who remind us of ourselves

Dale Carnegie rightly said:“Talk to someone about

themselves and they'll listen for hours.”

Admiring and talking about ourselves has always been a

bit of a taboo…

…until now

Blending in and keeping your head down is no

longer seen as a virtue

We want to be recognised for the individuals that we are and our

differences celebrated

Connecting to customers on a

personal level has become key to a brand’s success

“Attention is the rarest & purest form of generosity”

Simone Weil

Personalisation has become a top trend worldwide

Here’s a brand that’s done it particularly well

The campaign, as we know, has become a worldwide success

It earned a total of 18,300,000-plus media impressions, and traffic on the Coke Facebook site increased by 870%

The hashtag #shareacoke has been used 29,000 times on Twitter

Source: Marketing Magazine

“The success of the campaign lies in offering an affordable

personalised product that exists in the real and virtual world”

The Guardian

So what implications will personalisation have on brands and

industries in the future?

In a world obsessed with its own image, there is an opportunity for

retailers to engage their customers through

personalisation

Brands and retailers such as Net-A-Porter who can extend their offering to online recommendation or personalised styling service would appeal to time-poor customers

A good example is Stitch Fix which uses algorithms to select and send items according to customers’ profile without them having to spend hours browsing the virtual rails

What if an ‘online stylist’ concept can be applied to

retailers in other industries, such as food?

For online retailers such as Ocado, who operate in a competitive marketplace of

grocery shopping, personalised suggestions could pave the way to a strong competitive

advantage

Personalisation makes products more relevant to

customers

Which helps grow sales!

Conclusion

Brands who help their customers make a

choice that’s right for them become winners

in the long run

So by being personal and expressing your brand

through your customers

You are helping your customers express themselves through your

brand