Brogan: Custom Is Everything - Do You Agree?
/Custom Is Everything- Do You Agree
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One of the areas where social media will excel is in the opportunity to make things our own, to give them our own look and feel. Remember when you got your first personal computer? Remember changing the background picture? Remember when you could change the theme? The world is pushing further and further into a desire for customization, and I think social media gives us a chance at custom communication/interaction.
The photo above are Disney’s Vinylmation toys (note: Hanes brought me to Walt Disney World for an event, but I wasn’t paid by Hanes or Disney for any of my thoughts on their workings or properties). I thought the toys were really clever, but then I found the do-it-yourself ones. Those really caught my eye. Because once you see what others had created, your next thought (or mine, at least) was, “well, what could I do to make it look different?”
Social media allows us to customize our communication. I can talk directly to Jon Swanson, and not to preachers. I can have conversations with Glenda Watson Hyatt and not just people interested in accessibility. That means, if interested, I can talk specifically about things that matter to them, and not to crowds.
Custom is everything.
Look at these flowers. The Disney Imagineers made them for the Hanes event:
They’re made out of socks. First, it’s cool because they look like flowers. Second, it looks like a fun craft you could do with kids. Third, it’s something that didn’t have to be there. And yet, because it was, the dinner looked custom to the rest of the Hanes Comfort Crew and me. Disney SAW us. They knew we were there.
Custom is everything. Do you agree?
Brogan writes that custom is everything. Custom is great, I agree, but there are some hurdles:
- As people customize their goods they will start realizing that what they create (with their own custom specifications) is not as good as what was created by the professionals.
- This realization of personal inadequacy will manifest in a resentment to the provider of the customizable good/service.
Companies must realize that they themselves are the experts of their goods/services. Do not let a customer run wild with your new customizing feature, guide them, tell them when they are wrong, be a coach and co-create.
