Personalization

Consumers today expect products, messages, and even time itself to center around their unique desires and needs.

Personalization means medicine customized for my body, television schedules customized with my TiVo, romance novels starring me as the main character. It means that my things should adapt to me, not the other way around.

Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes and the Reinvention of the American Grown-Up

Christopher Nixon

Rejuvenile redefines what it means to be an adult and encourages readers to be themselves by engaging in activities that make them happy, as opposed to doing things adults are "supposed" to do to be happy.

The Experience Economy

Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore

The authors write that "those businesses that relegate themselves to the diminishing world of goods and services will be rendered irrelevant. To avoid this fate, you must learn to stage a rich, compelling experience."

The Secret

Rhonda Byrne

The Secret claims that we as individuals are directly in control of our future, our lives, our health, wealth, and relationships. Each person has a unique direction in life and anything is possible

Curves International

Curves recognized that women of all types need a unique fitness solution, and moved to fulfill that need. They offer a relatively quick workout for busy women who don't have hours to spend at the gym. The premise is easily understood, and even women who haven't broken a sweat in years can quickly learn the routine.

Curves benefits from word-of-mouth marketing and a strong sense of community. It took Curves only 7 years to open 6,000 franchises, while it took Subway 26 years and McDonald's 25 years to do the same.

REI

REI started as cooperative with a goal of helping serious climbers obtain European mountain gear unavailable in the U.S. Although they began as a niche player, REI has grown into a retailer with 2.5 million active co-op members and a 50,000 product line. The secret to the store's success is its high-end clothing and equipment, and its recognition that customers have unique needs and want an experience, not just a product.

REI products are customized to fit particular body types, and stores include a library and information desk to help customers plan their next adventure. The Seattle store offers such features as a mountain bike track, climbing wall, and mini-hiking trail.

The company also offers REI-hosted adventure trips to locations around the world, and has tapped into the growing wedding industry by offering a wedding registry.

Caribou Coffee

Although Caribou Coffee is a distant No, 2 to Starbucks, they do not try to compete directly with the coffee goliath, and have seen great success creating their own niche.

Caribou gets customers out of an urban environment and into in a different world. Its stores represent the opposite of daily life, with no synthetic materials, all earth tones and wood, a daily trivia quiz, a kids' corner, and no mass-market advertising. The baristas know the regulars, and there is no "pretentious sizing".

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