 by Gianluigi Cuccureddu
These are the three concepts/components how - in
essence - how future (online) travel business will be shaped and how new
opportunities, models and markets can be created. Seen from an abstract point of view, personalization is the front-end
of the process, customization is the back-end of the process and
collaboration is how these two interact and ultimately benefit from
co-creation or at least create a win-win situation.
Personalization
Basically it’s a strong travel market need and
demand and the consumer trend is - people want it...
when they want it and where they want it.
Travellers want to get personalized content/products/services served based
upon preferences specified in the process like interest, location or
any other measurable characteristic which can be used to describe the
personalization.
Besides the benefits of personalization, which are relevancy
and time-efficiency amongst the most important ones, personalization
still has many challenges to overcome. The most important one is privacy and the acquisition of data, on which personalization is effectuated.
There are three methods to achieve personalization, through the implicit, explicit and the hybrid way.
Implicit personalization makes use of tracking the users’ purchases, or
click paths or any kind of habit that characterize the user.
Explicit personalization makes use of explicit information which can be
found in forms, itineraries and other means of extracting information.
Hybrid personalization is a combination of the two above-mentioned methods and is - for instance - deployed by Amazon.com .
Examples of personalizations are:
* eBay’s Selling form which adapts it functionality based upon the learning curve the user is going through
* Amazon’s product recommendation engine
* Google Reader
* Google Search and its increasing personalized SERP’s
Customization
Customization is the back-end of the
production-process. It's IT abilities that make it possible to serve
and produce content/products/services on the personalized needs and
demand of the Traveller, it’s not yet always profitable, due to scaling
and the market, but the first steps are being made.
(Mass) Customization can refer to two areas of applications:
First of all, customization refers to the context within the same range
as personalization, where travellers can modify the website to their
needs and only display what is wanted.
Secondly, Mass customization can be defined as a complex business
strategy, which goal is to produce goods and provide services on a
large scale, customized to the individual needs of every traveller with
the efficiency of mass production. (Mass) customization can be aimed at
maximizing customer satisfaction because they purchase their
content/product/service customized by their individual preferences.
The Internet is the perfect medium to support mass customization in keeping the costs at a minimum level. Areas of application for mass customization are:
* Travel
* Content delivery
* Transport means; cars, bikes.
* Shoes
* Software
And many more.
Both personalization and (mass) customization are powerful means to
attract travellers and customers, increase loyalty and retention, which
paradoxically is achieved by the input of the customers themselves.
Collaboration
Collaboration is the initiated way of conducting business amongst each other and towards travellers. Think dialogue instead of appointing, think prosumerism instead of production. Having in mind personalization and
customization, collaboration is the effect of the two. Throughout the
process the customer mingles in, to get its personalized needs, and
co-creates together with the producer the travel content/product/service which
is enabled by the customized infrastructure and processes, fully
customized to individual travel preferences.
Whilst the utopian hypersegmentation or
1-on-1 marketing might be far from reality, but more and more markets
are becoming niches based upon refined corresponding characteristics which create smaller and smaller segments and inherently become more hypersegmented.
What is your opinion, will these three concepts shape future business or are it are other or extra ones?
What will the impact be of the three in terms of competition?
What pre-conditions needs to be altered before real mass customization can be effectuated?
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