Customize It and Customers Will Gladly Pay

Posted by Michael Donahue on 11/14/06 in Marketing

I’ve often mentioned how effective personalization is as a marketing and product feature. In other words, by allowing the customer to customize his/her purchase you not only differentiate yourself from competitors but also can enjoy a better price for your item.

Of course, what you currently sell can be limiting insofar as customizable options are concerned. But at this time of year especially, gift-wrapping as an option is the perfect upsell.

Think about products that you could sell that offer the buyer the option of making it uniquely their own…and they will gladly pay.

How much? Well, I found this quote in an article in Fortune from Motorola chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior (wonderful name!) very revealing:

We made $2 billion providing ringtones to service providers. It’s interesting that people will pay $2 now to get two lines of a song to play when their phone rings, but they resist paying 99 cents for a full song on their PC or MP3 player. Why? Because it’s personalizing the device. It makes a statement about who you are…

Also, if you’re thinking about gift-wrapping and are gift-wrap challenged…here’s a source that makes it easy.

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One smashing comment for this post.

  1. fLufF Said:
    November 14th, 2006 at 10:24 pm

    Lillian Vernon of mail order fame says in her book _An Eye for Winners_ that she got started by placing one magazine ad. She took her father’s leather handbags and belts and customized each by applying the buyer’s initials.

    She no longer helms the eponymous company but it hasn’t strayed far from its roots, offering dozens, if not hundreds, of inexpensive personalizable items each season.

    Re: gift wrapping upsells. If you do decide to go that route, make it a separate kit or flat box the buyer can set up. Folks want to see the gift to make sure it’s okay before the final flourishes go on.

    fLufF
    –

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