The Power of Personalization
March 16th, 2009 by Jeb Foster
A coworker and I recently attended a lunch-hour marketing seminar here in Denver. Well, it was billed as a seminar, but it was more of a product demonstration. (The company hosting the lunch makes printers and copiers.)
We knew going into the event that the ‘free lunch’ hook meant that it wasn’t going to be a pure learning or networking opportunity, but we wanted to get out of the office, and we were determined to leave the lunch with one thing—just one thing—that we could honestly say we learned. And we did.
When we arrived, we approached the sign-in table and gave our names. Then we received some rather spiffy pre-made name tags. No Sharpie on a white sticker—no, this was pretty cool. They were well designed, with our names actually a part of the graphic. We were impressed.
While we ate our lunch, one of the speakers from the company showed us how he made the name tags using their own proprietary software. Then he handed out a calendar to each attendee (there were about 30 of us) with our names emblazoned on the top. The letters of each of our names were made out of snow. (It’s hard to explain—it was a mountain scene and the letters were three dimensional and made of snow.)
So yeah, they were trying to sell their software, but they made a great demonstration of the power of personalization. Personalization is a form of flattery—which, as everyone knows, will get you very far. When we saw our names, we were thrilled that they had taken the time to give us a personalized gift. And that was their point—people love to see their own names. We appreciate and respect it when strangers take the time to learn them and use them.
After all, we all see ourselves as individuals, not as faceless customers.
