Customization

CUSTOMIZATION
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Customization and its importance
Customization is the act of building and or modifying products, services, procedures or processes according to individual preferences. Suthar, Burns, and Gupta (2018) add that this concept presents that the customer’s references come first before the wishes of the company. All this has to be in tune with the changing consumer trends. Customization is mostly important because it goes a long way in meeting consumer needs as they change. Customers have become more vocal about their needs hence customizing different needs helps to meet their needs. Furthermore, this has become a new trend in the consumer market that is closely followed by many companies. Following closely reputation of the company as many customers preferring bespoke products become aware of the companies offering such services hence an increased reputation (Ding and Keh, 2016).Effect of technology on product development
In product development, technology has been greatly used to increase the rate of product development. One of the ways this is hastened is through social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which holds a huge market potential. Sampling, evaluating and measuring customer feedback has been made possible through these platforms (Morrel and Morrell, 2018).
Mass customization
Mass customization is the alteration of customer needs to satisfy a specific portion of customers (Pollard, Chuo and Lee, 2016). They vary from minor changes like colour or specification to the development and introduction of a c completely new product.

Here, large consumer base with specific needs is targeted instead of specific customers. They fall in four categories: adaptive, collaborative, transparent, and cosmetic customization. Mass customization creates awareness to the entrepreneurs of the present consumer preferences, knowing that most of the consumers are willing to pay more for their needs to be wholly satisfied. For this strategy to work effectively, the company needs to have its own manufacturing plant as well as an efficient delivery and sales system. Lastly, social media has been the greatest enabler to this since it has facilitated real-time communication between customers and producers.
References
Pollard, D., Chuo, S., & Lee, B. (2016). Strategies for mass customization. Journal of Business & Economics Research (Online), 14(3), 101.
Morrell, L. and Morrell, L. (2018). Technology could speed up new product development. [online] Marketing Tech News. Available at: https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2014/dec/01/technology-set-speed-new-product-development/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].
Ding, Y., & Keh, H. T. (2016). A re-examination of service standardization versus customization from the consumer’s perspective. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(1), 16-28.
Suthar, S., Taei, P., Burns, S. and Gupta, A. (2018). 6 Reasons Why Customization Is the New Marketing Strategy – The Next Scoop. [online] The Next Scoop. Available at: https://thenextscoop.com/customization-is-the-new-marketing-strategy/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].