The Future Of Marketing Is Bespoke Everything

For 40 years, Burger King has been offering customers the opportunity to “have it your way.” But technological limitations have long prevented personalization from moving beyond food service and into the consumer-product market. If you go to the drugstore to buy face wash, picking up a version blended just for you would require it to be made on-site, just like your Whopper. Shopping for one-of-a-kind things has been the province of the wealthy—those who could afford bespoke suits and customized cars while the rest of America bought off the rack. Now, aided by advances in manufacturing and the direct-to-consumer nature of online shopping, personalization has become the hot new thing at much more accessible prices. That’s especially true in the wellness industry, where Prose is one of a slew of new companies offering everything from custom-blended face creams to individualized vitamin cocktails. Together, these brands have attracted millions of shoppers (and millions of dollars in venture-capital funding) by tapping into something powerful: the idea that we’re all fancy and special enough to have something made just for us. Read more at The Atlantic.