A new marketing approach to mass customisation

Abstract

Companies today have to adopt strategies that embrace both a closer reaction to the customers' needs and efficiency. Mass customisation meets this challenge by offering individually customised goods and services with mass production efficiency. According to a number of recent surveys, there is evidence for the increasing importance of this strategy in various industries. But what do the customers think? This paper addresses mass customisation from the customer perspective. If the market demand for customisation is not large enough, then all investments in a mass customisation system would likely be senseless. We will use the example of the footwear industry to provide insight into the consumers' demand for customisation in regard to fit, style and functionality. Also, we will comment on the willingness to pay (WTP) for customised goods. The analysis is based on data from the EUROShoE market study and a meta-analysis of other empirical studies in the field. Our analysis shows that better fit is regarded as the most important benefit by consumers of customisation, followed, by far, by style and functionality.