Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

One of the marketing trends starting to come to the fore is personalisation. Siemens have offer some interesting insights on their R&D website. Here is a key snippet:

Experts expect an enhanced customer loyalty through personalizable products and, hence, a competitive edge for the relevant providers. The personalization of a product can be carried out in two ways: Either the customers themselves change the properties or the appearance of the product or the technical system adapts itself automatically to the practices of its owner.

A really good example of this in action is the recent launch of Ryanair’s Car Insurance offer - No Nonsense Car Insurance. One interesting aspect of the launch that wasn’t covered is after you go through the process of getting your quote you can change some features to get a cheaper premium. For example, if you are involved in an accident you might have to cover the first 500 euro. As a young driver though, if I am involved in an accident I would be more likely not to go through the insurance process in order to keep my no claims bonus. So I can raise the amount that I am will have to pay if I am involved in an accident and as a result benefit from a lower premium.

For me this is a deal maker unlike some other personalisation services which are designed to be attractive features. For example, a number of Irish banks are offering debit cards which customers can personalise with their own picture. It’s unlikely to get people switching banks in their droves, but certainly makes the bank stand out from the crowd. In this case, as the Siemens white paper points out, these personalised features bring “increased customer value and improved user-friendliness.”

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