8th Day of Christmas

The 8th Day of Christmas = Eight Personalization Strategies


This is a difficult one, isn't it?


We've been hearing about personalization for twenty years.  Usually, personalization came from the vendor/math side of the spectrum.  "Imagine if a home page looked exactly the way you want it to look, with products and services customized for you, based on your past purchases and preferences?"


Quick:  Name one company that you believe accomplishes this ... one e-commerce company that offers you a truly personalized experience that meets or exceeds your needs?


Personalization is seldom accomplished by computer algorithms, though it can sure receive a nice assist from computer algorithms.


In 2012 and beyond, products and services are increasingly personalized ... in fact, personalization "becomes" the product.  Take Flipboard as an example ... a personalized mobile magazine, if you will ... but personalized because you personalize it, not because an mathematician does it for you.


If you want to have fun, find eight personalization services (using Google, it should take all of three minutes to accomplish this, speaking of a mathematical algorithm that personalizes search results for you) that you would consider using.  Create a presentation around the services ... think hard about how your business would personalize content for your customers.  And I'm not suggesting "creating three versions of a catalog with a customized merchandise assortment and your own personalized landing pages that you arrive at via a QR code.", though that may work just fine.  I'm asking you to take it further than that ... in 2014, how could your customers communicate with you, how could they integrate your content with other content (think Flipboard) in a way that works for the customer?