Customizable Products

For this holiday season Oreo has launched an online store where you can customize a package of Oreo cookies for yourself or a loved one. I'm not particularly a fan of Oreos, but it piqued my interest.

You can choose from two holiday-themed, illustrated designs. (They even name the artist who created each one, which is pretty cool.) You can then adjust the scale of the design and how it is colored, although the color options are limited to four plus white. You also can add other embellishments and write your own gift tag.

Here's one I created:

Cute, huh?

I got to asking myself why this excited me so much given that I don't even remember the last time I ate an Oreo let alone bought them. And I would never consider dropping $15 (that's the cost of the custom package plus shipping) for them, although after making this one, I was really tempted to buy it. So, why is this so cool?

The term for this model is Mass Customization, and it's pretty much the result of more efficient and cheaper manufacturing technologies. It's a growing trend because it turns out consumers LOVE to customize products. This article sums up why consumers can't get enough of it...

"For customers, the benefits of mass customization are clear. A custom product allows them a wide variety of options to serve their exact needs. In the past, the benefit of a “perfect product” was often outweighed by increased delivery times or production costs. Today, the new technology at our disposal minimizes delivery times with real-time integration and also puts the costs more on par with a mass produced product.
Customers also love creating their own value proposition. With mass customization, their happiness is in their hands. Using a configurator to build their own products allows the customer to get creative. They become invested in the act of configuring and modifying each specification to their liking."

You've all probably come across examples of Mass Customization before. Are there any that have intrigued you or that you've used?

My second, more philosophical question is what do you all think the implications of Mass Customization are for designers?

I could see some designers scoffing at the idea that lay people should be designing their own products, especially ones that will carry a global brand's name and logo. But I think coming up with a way to design a product, package or whatever for consumer customization would be a really interesting and fun challenge. You have to basically think about each and every option of execution and coordinate all those things in addition to making it a fun experience that gets the buyer "invested" in what they're making.

...thoughts?