My Poptarts, Myself

Customization. It bothers me. I don't know why and I can't quite get my head around it, but let me at least try.

There is this new (well hardly new, but novel) trend among digital marketers to customize web experiences for their users.  The most obvious way to do this is through location identifiers. Sure, I get it, it is more useful if you get an ad from a pizza place in your neighborhood, than in Kentucky. TV does the same thing (although I believe Hardees made a mistake as I always saw their commercials as a kid and never saw one in real life). But they are moving beyond these simple mechanics designed to streamline the user exeperience.

Witness: just a few months ago Urban Outfitters got into big trouble with its shoppers for immediately directing girls to the women's section, when the girls, in fact, wanted to browse the men's section. (duh...since when was UO so hetero-normative?) Examples such as this have not quelled the trend. According to the NYTimes, half of the largest online retailers in the United States used some personalization techniques last year, compared with about 33 percent the year before.

Econsultancy.com just published an article on best practices for increasing sales with web personalization. I think the idea is that you can tailor your content through algorithms that determine how to target your users based on search behavior. Yeah, Amazon does this, and they aren't so great at it.  Recently called out by SmartMoney.com, too often the algorithms come up with products that are less than perfect. "Here are some wacky recommendations listed by this customer on Amazon's online forum: Dockers men's original pleated khaki pants "recommended because you rated Star Wars Trilogy" and pure cotton handkerchiefs "recommended because you added Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking to your Wish List."

I suppose anyone who is familiar with the OKCupid.com dating algorithm wouldn't be surprised to hear that sometimes the robots make strange mistakes.

Ok, so those are the online examples we have, but what about in real life. Don't tell me you haven't noticed this trend towards obsessive personalization - did it start with Starbucks? I mean, you've been in line when the person in front of you ordered a half-caff, soy latte with non-fat vanilla syrup, whip cream, at 182 degrees, right? And a glass of ice on the side...

Or maybe it started with customized shirts in WWII? But that's just what logosoftwear.com says and who trusts what you read on the internet these days....What about Chipotle? Nothing is made until you specify what you want. You determine the proportions of all components. I mean did you know that you can order your own personalized poptarts? I think they are like $30 a box, but still...pretty awesome if you are a millionaire looking for a special breakfast. I have some, I just wont eat them. Maybe I'll frame them.

So what happens to the best fit line? Do marketers ever think about what will happen once they segment their markets so entirely? Will we be able to see the larger trends? Or will we be busy coming up with products that are designed for the purpose of being customized? Perhaps that's not a bad thing. But there is something about a shared cultural experience that I talked about in an earlier post. There is something to that. We want to hate and to love and to enjoy things together. And in someways, over-customization alienates us from one another, depriving us of the communal experience. Remember when your mom said, "you eat what I put on the table?" And how you hated it then, but when you cook her chicken enchiladas now and make your kids eat them, you feel close to who you are? You remember who you were. And the experience you shared.