flexistuff

Design Your Own Nina Shoes

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:07:00 -0500

Renowned New York shoe brand Nina has joined the mass customization parade and is now allowing shoe lovers to design their own. The easy-to-use flash-based interface allows you to pick from four classic, elegant styles. Select your preferred heel height (which varies with the shoe), then choose colours to customize different sections.

Like with Payless Shoes’ “Unforgettable Moments,” Nina’s customizable shoes are all satin, but Payless offers a far wider variety of shoes to pick from, and at a much lower cost. With Nina’s DYO shoes costing US$199.95, you’d better hope that they not only fit perfectly, but that they’re also comfortable, as there are no returns on your unique design!

Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by the increasingly wide number of choices in this ever-expanding mass customization market, but I think that Nina could have more options, in regards to both the selection of shoes as well as the customization of the individual shoe:

Continue reading "Design Your Own Nina Shoes"

Design Your Own Natural Skin Care Products

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:34:00 -0500

Grateful Body, a holistic and chemical-free skin care manufacturer since 1998, now offers customers the option of creating their own individualized, 100% natural, facial care products. The line includes a cleanser, an aquative and a moisturizer.

All the products are made with chemical-free organic ingredients. The company also has a cruelty-free policy, and the products are suitable for vegans or people who have multiple chemical sensitivities. The products are custom blended upon order and shipped immediately.

These products are good for people who suffer from acne, rosacea, hyper-pigmentation, sun damage, ultra-dry skin or sensitivity. You can choose the level of hydration your skin requires, as well as a product that is unscented or one of several scent blends made with pure essential oils.

Here’s how the online process works…

Continue reading "Design Your Own Natural Skin Care Products"

Mass Customization Comes to the Home

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:57:00 -0500

UK-based company Rug Couture launched their new website in August 2009, allowing clients to customize the rug of their choice quickly and easily online.

The interface itself is nicely set up and easy to use. Your first step is to choose the style — abstract, animal print, circles, figurative, flags, graphic, stripes, and more. Then choose your specific design. Next, “paint” your rug by first selecting from a wide array of colours, then clicking on an area of the rug to colour it.

One problem with this step is that some of the colours didn’t work on one of the designs, which led me to believe that those colours were incompatible with that design. However, when I went back later to try it again, it worked!

Once you’re happy with your design and colours, you specify the size you want, which will automatically generate pricing. My rug, at 175cm x 250cm, would cost £578.59 for tufted quality, £764.75 for hand-tufted, or £1,127.00 for hand-knotted quality (all rugs are made with pure New Zealand Wool).

Want to know how that translates in to Canadian funds?

Continue reading "Mass Customization Comes to the Home"

Hallmark Launches Personalized Party Plates

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:24:00 -0500

Hallmark Cards has launched Personalized Plates, an initiative that gives consumers the ability to design attractive, high-quality, paper plates with full-color photos and integrated text. More than 200 plate designs, including birthday, wedding, graduation, pet birthday, baby celebration, retirement and anniversary, are available at www.HallmarkParty.com. Consumers can add their own photos, write their own personal message or choose from among more than 700 unique suggested messages.

The durable, nine-inch paper dinner plates come in packages of 10. Each package retails for $10 US. The plates are shipped directly to the customer after the five-day production period. Personalized Plates are available in three different configurations: photo only, text only, or photo and text. Consumers can enhance the party experience by selecting solid-color accessories such as dessert plates, cups, napkins and table covers on the site to go with their personalized dinner plates.

Curious about this interesting initiative, I decided to give it a try...

Continue reading "Hallmark Launches Personalized Party Plates"

Create the Next Label for Flavoured Vitamin Water

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:07:00 -0500

Featured prominently on the Season 2 premiere of the popular CW series Gossip Girl, Vitaminwater is quickly becoming the drink of choice for many — celebrities and plebs alike. Now Vitaminwater is offering its fans the chance to create the next label, the grand prize being $5,000. The winner will be chosen by musicians Carrie Underwood and Fifty-Cent, both of whom are already fans of the beverage. In fact, according to Wall Street Journal blogger Marisa Taylor, Fifty-Cent, also an investor in Vitaminwater, has already co-created his own grape flavor, “Formula 50.”

According to MediaPost Publications, the idea behind the contest is this: Vitaminwater fans will formulate their variety in three steps via the Facebook “Flavor Creator Lab” app: 1) flavour, 2) functional benefit and 3) the label design. In step one, you can help choose the flavour by logging onto Vitaminwater’s Facebook page and voting for your favourite flavour. In step two, you will play a series of games and answer quiz questions to help Vitaminwater determine what the majority of people really need, which will then help the scientists come up with a new concoction of vitamins and nutrients. Step three is a contest giving you the chance to name the new variety, design the label, and write copy for the bottle, including the name, personality, and look.

That’s all great but…

Continue reading "Create the Next Label for Flavoured Vitamin Water"

Customized Cookies – Made to Order in Just 2 Minutes

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:45:00 -0500

“Warm delicious cookies, your way in just minutes!” That’s the motto for Toronto-based custom-cookie store Sweet Flour Bake Shop. According to Springwise, over 15,000 cookie options face the customer. Need I say more? Who doesn’t love a freshly baked cookie?

The fact that Sweet Flour now allows you to customize your favourite by choosing your dough (Original, Peanut Butter, or Oatmeal) and from over 20 ingredients of the highest quality (including dried fruits, nuts, varieties of chocolate, candy), and then bakes it for you in 2 minutes? Well, that’s just the lemony icing on my made-to-order blueberry peanut butter cookie. No, really — I could order that if I wanted.

This is yet another example of mass customization in the food industry, a trend that I’ve written about many times before.

As well as offering cookies bedecked with Rolos and pretzels (again, this is actually an option if that’s what you like), Sweet Flour also lets you customize your own breakfast. Muffin tops (original or bran), yogurt parfait, warm granola, or steel-cut oats are all on the menu, and are all customizable with your choice of mix-ins. They also have crispy cookie sandwiches customizable with your choice of spread (salted caramel, chocolate ganache, and raspberry jam, among others).

Don’t have time to sit and enjoy your cookie in their cosy Bloor West shop?

Continue reading "Customized Cookies – Made to Order in Just 2 Minutes"

Online Tool Allows You to Create Your Own Personalized Zines

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:09:00 -0500

British Columbia-based ZinePal allows users to create their own zine quickly and easily by choosing their own URLs from which to draw stories. This is yet another service of a number that I've written about before where you can be both the editor and publisher.

I created my 5-page zine in under 5 minutes! It’s that easy. You enter the content of your choice, selecting from from blogs, Atom/RSS feeds, and any other websites, check off the stories you want included, and say “Create”!

If you want to get a little more involved in the editorial process, you can customize your stories individually with fonts, colours, and formatting. This is a little more time consuming, but that’s to be expected. You do have to register, but that’s a process that’s as fast as entering your name and email address.

Once you’ve previewed and are happy with how your zine looks, you select your delivery method: what days you want it, what time it should arrive, and how many new stories should be included. Or you can have just the one copy emailed to you right away (comes in PDF format). If you have a Kindle account, you can have it sent there so you can read it on the go. You can also choose to publish and share it with the general public.

You can enter in keywords for easy search, and give it your own title, complete with introduction, logo, and formatting. Including advertisements is also an option. Check mine out: “One of a Kind Publishing’s Zine,” a compilation of 5 of my latest blog posts. The logo is actually a link to my blog! As you can see, I didn’t play around too much with the formatting, but if you want to take the time, the options are virtually limitless.

There was a little glitch though…

Continue reading "Online Tool Allows You to Create Your Own Personalized Zines "

Be the Star in Your Own Personalized Sports Commentary

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:29:00 -0500

If you’ve ever dreamt of starring in a world-class soccer match, complete with commentary and screaming fans, give Be a Football Hero a try. (Of course, we call it soccer in North America, but across the pond it’s called football.)

This personalized audio product is the brainchild of a UK based company called Voice Express, essentially an agency for voice talent. It’s a wonderfully creative idea that makes you the star in your own your own soccer match – providing a unique and entertaining gift for a sports fanatic.

Here’s now the easy online process works…

Continue reading "Be the Star in Your Own Personalized Sports Commentary"

Milk or Sugar: The Portal for All Things Customized

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:05:00 -0500

After decades in development the reality of mass customization is finally in the mainstream. And, to keep track of all of the great new product launches, Milkorsugar.com has launched a customization portal. It is a central site that provides a directory of companies that offer customizable products to consumers. The site is an initiative of ILUMY Amsterdam, which is an agency for designers and entrepreneurs.

In the era of mass customization, buyers are now designers. It’s more than just picking a colour or a print. Consumers have the choice to assemble or create their own shapes, they can choose the sizes and the materials used, and they even have the option to create textures and blends.

As long as a product can be completely ordered, paid for and shipped online it can be found on this site. Everything from customizable sleeping bags, Samurai swords, drums, wallpaper, skateboards, watches and clothing to anything else you can imagine can be found on Milkorsugar.com.

The site is user-friendly and provides information on pricing, shipping destinations, payment options and the number of basic models offered for each vendor. All of the products are divided into categories for easy searching. Another useful feature this site offers is user reviews. Each product has a section where readers can look up posted reviews or post their own experiences with purchasing a particular customized product.

The site also has an interesting rating system to let readers know what they like and what they think is a waste of time. It's a little quirky...

Continue reading "Milk or Sugar: The Portal for All Things Customized"

Save the Environment by Making a Statement With Your Own Personalized Water Bottle

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:17:00 -0500

With the recent concerns about banning products made with Bisphenol-A, or BPA, reusable water bottles have become a trend that’s here to stay.

Based out of Colorado, Bottle Wraps allows consumers to design a personalized skin for their reusable water bottle. These skins are made from high-quality vinyl that can withstand daily use. They are said to be scratch and tear resistant, water-proof and dish water safe.

The skins are easily used by peeling and sticking them to your desired water bottle. The site provides useful diagrammed directions on how to use the skins. There is also a helpful tip for removing them. The company recommends users fill the bottle with hot water, wait 15-20 minutes, and then simply peel off.

Here’s how the online process works…

Continue reading "Save the Environment by Making a Statement With Your Own Personalized Water Bottle"

Karma Kraft Offers Not only Print on Demand Fabric, but Cut and Sew on Demand Too!

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:45:00 -0500

Remember Spoonflower and Fabric on Demand, the sites that I wrote about that allow you to design your own fabric? Well, I stumbled across another one that really sets itself apart: Karma Kraft.

Registered in the state North Carolina, USA and operating out of China, Karma Kraft not only allows you to design your own fabric (they stock 17 different fibres, but they can get almost anything if you have a special request), but they also provide cut-and-sew services for those of us who don’t know the sharp end of a needle from a spool of thread.

Choose to have your custom fabric incorporated in pillow shams, scarves, reusable grocery bags, or table cloths, tell them the dimensions you’d like, and there you go! They also offer to make “personal apparel” items for you. If the product you would like to make is not on their website, let them know what you would like and they will cut and sew it for you. Simply send them a picture of the product with the measurements and they will make it. Pretty cool, right? This service appears to actually allow anybody to be a designer!

Fabric prices per square yard vary from $20 to $33 US — about the same as the other sites. And the cut-and-sew prices vary from $10 to $18 US for the products listed; something of your own design would probably cost a little more, depending on the complexity.

Here’s another difference…

Continue reading "Karma Kraft Offers Not only Print on Demand Fabric, but Cut and Sew on Demand Too!"

Create and send FREE personalized printed postcards

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:01:00 -0500

What do you get when you combine online and offline customer interactions, user generated content, user endorsed advertising and global print-service-capabilities? You get Hippopost.

Based out of Canada, and founded up by ex-RIM employees, Hippopost is an online service that allows users to create and send FREE personalized printed postcards using their own photos.

There are 3 ways to send postcards:
- HippoMobile, using your smartphone
- HippoSocial through your Facebook account
- HippoOnline using their website

The benefits to the user are quite obvious. In exchange for having a small ad on the back of the postcard, you get to send one for free, using your own content and your own photos. For the advertiser, they get a highly targeted, highly measurable new media campaign with a viral element that is modelled on pay per use basis.

Curious about the service, I decided to give it a try using the HippoOnline method…

Continue reading "Create and send FREE personalized printed postcards"

I finally received a marketing piece with a PURL on it! Have you?

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:42:00 -0500

It was last year when I first wrote about PURL marketing. Just in case you need a refresher, the acronym refers to a Personalized URL, a unique web address that is generated for each recipient. PURLs are used either in direct mail or email marketing and points users to an individual landing page that is personalized with their own data (such as name, address, or other information) that resides in that marketer’s database. These microsites typically have a 4 page structure, a landing page, an information page, a survey page (to collect even more data), and a thank-you page.

Better pay attention to PURL marketing because marketing personalization is where it’s at! Why?

According to print industry expert Heidi Tolliver-Nigro and author of a recent report Personalized URLs: Beyond the Hype, “It started as a trickle and now it’s a flood—the promotion and use of personalized URLs is the latest way to grab attention and market products.”

MindFireInc, just one company that specializes in integrated marketing solutions also agrees that personalized URLs are the hottest thing in 1:1 marketing. The benefits of such an approach is that it improves marketing responses rates, identifies more qualified prospects and converts high quality leads into revenue – all while results are monitored in real-time.

Last year when I wrote my article I said that I was early awaiting a marketing piece with a PURL on it. Well, I finally got one…

Continue reading "I finally received a marketing piece with a PURL on it! Have you?"

Custom Branded Beverages: By the People, For the People

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:36:00 -0500

Australian company Brewtopia has come up with a seemingly novel idea: a company “Built by the People for the People.” Seems obvious, right? In order to make the customers happy, give them what they want! In 2002, Brewtopia created their first beer by allowing thousands of people all over the world to vote on every aspect of its development, the result — apart from huge success — was a European-style Lager, custom-branded for each individual consumer.

Since then, Brewtopia has expanded their beer selection to include Pale Ale, and they have branched out with water and wine, offering three each of reds and whites, and two Champagnes. Much of their focus is on the corporate and hospitality sectors. For example, hotels and cafes could carry their own custom brand, or you could order customized beverages branded with your logo for a launch or promotional event. Custom bottles of Champagne would also be a great idea for weddings!

So, how does it work?

Continue reading "Custom Branded Beverages: By the People, For the People"

Coke Vending Machine Dispenses 100 Drink Options: Could Beverage Customization Be Next?

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:06:00 -0500

Customizable food has long been a feature of my blogs — from candy to protein shakes to breakfast cereal, it has always been a popular choice for people to express their individual tastes (pun intended). Now Coca-Cola has joined the brigade with their new “Freestyle” fountain dispenser, a self-serve machine that offers over 100 different drink options — including varieties of waters, juices, teas and sparkling beverages that up until now have been unavailable in North America.

According to their press release, the Coca-Cola Freestyle dispenser (code named the “Jet”) uses PurePour Technology to make the roughly 120 drinks, but only takes the same amount of space as the current eight-valve machine. Radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags will be incorporated in order to keep track of the syrup the machine uses so that retailers will know when to refill. On top of that, it will also allow Coca-Cola to see which flavours and locations are the most popular, thereby giving them valuable insight into which drinks would be most successful if offered for sale individually in bottles or cans.

Customers will use the touch-screen interface to choose their drink based on calorie content, caffeine level, or brand. However, the drink mix is preset, so experimentation and real customizable content (combining different flavours to create new ones) are not options.

But I can see taking this concept to the next level, offering the mass customization of beverages…

Continue reading "Coke Vending Machine Dispenses 100 Drink Options: Could Beverage Customization Be Next?"