Customizing products through mass production once seemed to be an impossible endeavor. The approach of modular products and production systems has enabled the efficient individualization of products. As a consequence, individual customer needs can be met within mass production circumstances and at competitive prices.
How they do it: Spotify creates millions of playlists that are customized to the individual customers. These include for instance ”Release Radar”, a playlist personalized to the music taste of the respective user.
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How they do it: The many opportunities to take Lego sets apart and recombine the individual parts across sets to individual buildings, allow customers an unlimited amount of individualization opportunities with their Lego toys.
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How they do it: IKEA offers products such as shelves and closets that can be customized to individual needs. In stores, IKEA offers ”design assistants” in form of computers which let every customer design the closet to their needs and with different configurations.
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How they do it: Subway uses the advertising slogan ”Eat Fresh”, and focuses on how its sandwiches were made from freshly baked bread and fresh ingredients, in front of customers to their exact specifications and likings, by employees which Subway calls ”Subway Sandwich Artists”.
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How they do it: In their personal computer direct sales, Dell predefined which parts of the computer can be individualized / configurated and then pushes those predetermined options/configurations of their product to the customer. The customer can then individualize their product by choosing one of those options. This allows the company to let every customer individualize their computer but limiting the impact on the supply chain by predefining the possible choices.
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