The Path To Individualisation
A White Paper produced by Broadsystem examining the
development of Marketing Communications from Personalisation to
Individualisation.
As consumers, we have become used to expecting more than
being just addressed by name (personalisation). We expect companies
to have some idea about the particular flavour of service or
product (individualisation) that is relevant to our specific need.
For marketers that strive to meet their customer acquisition or
value targets, the distinction is too important to ignore.
Personalisation is just tailoring certain aspects of a
communication so it is personal to an individual, such as name,
address, detailing their interest in specific hobbies or making
reference to past purchases etc.
Individualisation is the end goal of the way direct marketing has
been evolving for many years. The key steps in that evolution have
been from mass marketing - sending out hundreds if not thousands of
mail shots to anyone on the database despite their age, address or
lifestyle and even worse addressed 'Dear Occupier' - to
personalisation. From here, as technology such as digital print has
evolved, we have experienced mass customisation, the ability to
personalise communications but on a large scale - for example
merging more personal information such as previous purchases into
communications. Individualisation is the next progressive step. But
what is the purpose of doing it? And what are the practicalities
around getting it right?
