Article Translation and Summary: Mass Customization Seems to Become Nearly “Normal” in Germany
Funny enough, after I just recently posted my article about why mass customization is so much bigger in Germany than in the US, a German online magazine went so far as to describe mass customization nearly normal in Germany today. Here a quick summary/ translation of the article:
The article begins by saying that in order to remain competitive, businesses have to make their customers’ dreams come true. While mass customization has been the exception in recent years, “it now seems to become fit for the masses”. “Personalized products have great potential, are becoming ever more popular with customers, and increasingly startups cover niches with it”
Examples: It then mentions Woonio (online configuration of furniture) as an example for an extraordinary application of mass customization, and states that mass customization in food seems to be really taking off (mentioning, not surprisingly, chocri, since we just tripled capacity with our recent move).
The article then quotes Prof. Piller (whose blog you should read too, by the way), who gives the example of Harry Potter as a very successful mass product, saying that there will always be successful mass products. Prof. Piller also mentions the complexity and costs in e.g. apparel and fashion companies that design clothing that they can not be sure that their consumers actually want them. Later in the article, Prof. Piller is quoted again, arguing that loyalty is increased when consumers design their own product online, due to higher switching costs once the perfect configuration is found.
In an outlook to the future, the author Susan Roenisch makes four major points:
1) 3D printing will become ever more powerful as it becomes cheaper
2) Mass Customization is Web 3.0 - instead of just interacting with customers, companies now integrate their customers into product development and production
3) Mass Customization is still a Long Tail matter - there will be room for mass as well as customized products
4) The limit of Mass Customization is to a large degree production scalability , which is caused by the fact that mostly small companies are successful in the space, but also enabled by the fact that small companies have more flexibility in their production
