Have you nailed the two Cs?

After attending yesterday’s Summit sessions (#SMSS10 if you’re so inclined in the Tweetsphere) I realised something that’s being bubbling under in my subconscious for such a long time.

It concerns you and how you can be bigger, better, smarter and more appealing to your customer.

It is actually two words. They both begin with C.

They are:

• Customisation
• Community

When you’re developing a product or service, you always think of what your target customer wants. In marketing parlance, that’s the persona – you might have four or five personas that you pitch your stuff to, and in some cases those personas are very detailed (right down to paper they read, colour of hair, etc). In some extreme – but innovative – cases these personas are founded in cardboard and adorn the company so anyone, anywhere, knows who their ideal customer is.

But why do you stop thinking about the customer’s individual needs once your product or service is out there?

No, no, no no no.

Wherever possible, you need to tailor everything you do to every different customer. And quite the opposite of being confusing and laborious, you can actual control customisation through well thought-out processes. Seriously: despite what you may think about the word ‘process’, it fits perfectly with the adage of creating many different types of experiences of interactions with a set of consistent instructions (individualising something might, to you, be addressing your client by name and giving them a different colour pamphlet to make them feel special. It doesn’t have to be etching their new MP3 player in gold leaf or making them a dog-shaped bun on the birthday – unless you’re so inclined).

Doing things different – exceptional, even – builds community. And once you have community – a bunch of individuals tantamount to your disciples/brand advocates – you have the chance to spread your message far and wide through the power of word and mouth.

Customisation and community. Too much to ask?