One of the best new business lessons I ever received was from a CEO I used to work with, who used a term “other people’s children” to explain how we should present ideas to prospective clients. The theory goes something like this – if you show a prospect pictures of your children, they may be interested for the first couple of photos; if you show them photos of their children, they will be engrossed (or a little bit concerned, but let’s not go there). The CEO was using this lesson to explain why a creds deck should never contain more than two slides about your company and even those should always be contextualised. I like to use it as a great example of the power of customisation.

Customisation is essentially the ability to tailor something to specific requirements. You know the score – you buy a flat and the first thing you do is paint it; buy a car and you add furry dice (or the like). This trend has been seized upon by brands that include Nike. Nokia and Lego, which allow customers to create completely customised/personalised versions of their products. Heck, you can even buy customised IKEA products in the Sims now…

Anyhow, seeing as how last week was my birthday, I thought it would be nice to revisit this theme and see what sort of great ideas are out there. Three examples below: one an example of customising a product, one of customising a service and the other an example of how customisation has allowed an organisation to turn a product into a service. Get your laughing gear around THAT.

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Moonpig (http://www.moonpig.com/)
We’ve seen how quickly and easily the greetings card industry adapted their process to allow consumers to send eGreetings cards. Moonpig goes one step further, allowing users to select from a wide range of designs and customise both the outside and the text inside. The price may seem steep (c£3 per card) but it’s only the cost of a pint and having been on the receiving end, getting a personalised birthday card is just plain class!

My Monopoly (http://www.mymonopoly.com/home.php)
Monopoly is an institution; so much so that there are a huge range of localised variants: Yaleopoly (for students at Yale); Oxfordopoly (for Oxford Students) etc. In a recent fit of genius, Hasbro launched a website a couple of years ago that allows users to personalise a board and the streets within it. The campaign was launched with a great idea – GPS enabled taxis acted as ‘pieces’ driving around London (a real life monopoly board) and their position uploaded to a website where you could track your ‘piece’. Users earned points for every hotel they pass. The interface is simple and easy to use, the cost is a tad high (@ c£50 a pop) but I promise you, it makes for a brilliant gift.

Bob Books (http://www.bobbooks.co.uk/)
We all know that a picture speaks a thousand words. One of the problems with digital photography is that people tend to take a huge number of photos, but then do nothing with them. Anyhow, having recently returned from a wedding in NZ, I was interested in understanding whether it was possible to created a journal of our travels. With Bob Books, you can do that and more: using a simple downloadable tool, users are able to develop a hand stitched book using your digital photos and some witty commentary. I know that there are other companies that do this, but how many stitch the books in Switzerland?? Class.