A new series from me, kicked-off with a really exciting new product design/manufacturing/distribution company, Zazzle. Billed in Fast Company as the potential new “Amazon of custom goods” Zazzle is a really exciting company to have a look at. One of the problems I feel sometimes with projects I work on is that we often ask companies to customise a product, create a new product etc. However, clearly for clients this does cause issues, they can’t just flip the switch on a machine and get it to create something slightly different. My gut feeling is that Zazzle could provide this service to these companies at a fraction of the cost.
Although it seems pretty basic on the face of it, zazzle.co.uk, there is plenty of potential depth to the site and opportunities. Keds is the first obvious example, although Disney were actually the first brand to use the company. Keds allows shoppers to customise all elements of their shoe to give every single customer their own unique shoe. “Zazzle integrated both software and hardware into their factory in China”. There is clearly a massive commitment from Zazzle to make this work, something that all potential retailers/manufacturers could think about.
I see a number of different ways brands could use this, here are some of them:
1) Creating customisable prizes to competitions. Imagine Little Big Planet allowing customers to design a new character and then the one which is most voted is turned into a vinyl toy. Little Big Planet could then go on to sell this in stores like Magma and Forbidden Planet.
2) Creating customsied, campaigning t-shirts. Giving consumers who participate in a campaign the opportunity to print their own tshirts based on numerous designs. This could have been perfect for something like T-Mobile Trafalger Square where all users could have customised t-shirts to say “I was there”
3) Customised products. We talk alot about co-creation, but often brands treat it as a nice to do and don’t follow through. The Zazzle platform would allow brands to truly co-create and customise with consumers. I see it being pretty efficient as well.
p.s. you can order that t-shirt here on Zazzle
http://www.zazzle.co.uk/digigen_youve_read_the_blog_now_get_the_shirt-235530760484313059
