Understanding the Trend Towards Customisation

When we spoke to over 1,500 young people, two key stories emerged across the board. 

The first story these people were telling us was that they don’t feel a connection to big companies or societal institutions. The financial sector, the government, school, universities, media, religious institutions, companies, brands… you name it, most of the young people we spoke with said that could not trust at least one, if not all of them. 



The disconnect ran deep; only 30% of them said felt proud of Britain. This story links in with other research; the ONS for example, revealed that in 2012, young people’s belief in British democracy as one of the strongest in the world was lower than all other age groups!

The second story is a well-known one. Everyone is talking about it; today’s young people are increasingly self-reliant, individualistic and willing to take risks to forge their own destinies. When we spoke with young people, they confirmed this story with us; 54% believed that it is ultimately down to you as to whether you succeed in life and 40% said that to be successful, you have to take risks. Very few of them actively disagreed with this standpoint and most of them keenly felt a greater need to distinguish themselves from the crowd in some way or another.

A way in which these two stories have manifested themselves in their consumer habits is the almost zeitgeist trend towards customer-customisation of products. Today’s young people want to craft their own clothing, coffee, shoes, cars and general experiences. 

Look at Nike ID shoes, and the popularity of vintage clothing and vegetable allotments for it; look to the BBC mobile website; Look to Barclays LifeSkills campaign and HSBC’s First Direct option for it; Look at Coke putting people’s names on their bottles , Starbucks writing names on cups and McDonalds eschewing their logo on posters for it; the brands with their ear to the ground are finding new ways to distance themselves from large scale, corporate behaviour and to make their products ‘personalisable’ for people who want to get away from big institutions and create their own niche life; while continuing to use big names.

Understanding the back story to what our young people are feeling about the ‘big issues’ helps contextualise them as a target audience. Don’t forget the big stuff, when looking   to the little stuff. If you want to know how to reach them, first, you need to get where they’re coming from.