People like purchasing products that have their own name on them. If there’s one major marketing and sales campaign that’s gone to prove this, it’s Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. This saw a variety of names printed directly onto the labels of coke bottles and onto coke cans. This personalisation saw sales for the company rise significantly for the first time in ten years. But why did this happen?

Well, as Lucie Austin, one of the brand’s executives in Australia says, “our name is the most personal thing we have. It’s our fingerprint… our identity… in one word.” Put simply, people see their name and feel a sense of affinity to an object. It is already labelled as belonging to them, so they are much more likely to pick it up and want to take it home. The option to personalise also makes purchasing gifts for other people easier – it makes a standard product feel more thought out and intimate. So, apply the same logic to your own business practices and ventures, and consider personalising the products that you have on offer!

Personalising Goods

The best means of personalising the products that you sell will depend entirely on the type of products that you are selling. If your goods are made of fabric or material (whether they are clothes, teddy bears, or blankets), you could embroider names onto them. If your items are metal (such as jewellery), you can engrave them with an etching laser. If you sell paper goods (notebooks, cards, or letter sets), you can print names. Find the best option depending on what you are already offering the consumer market.

Set Names vs. Made to Order

When it comes to personalising goods, you tend to have two options, making up products with personalised names already attached, or offering plain goods and adding the option of having them personalised before they are sent out to customers on a “made to order” basis.

Set Names

The benefit of having set names is that you can make final products up, stock them online or in stores, and they can be purchased by clients in person on the day that they are seen, or immediately online. This offers convenience – the customer can receive the item extremely quickly, meaning that they have less time to change their minds, mull the decision over too much, or search elsewhere for a cheaper alternative. If you opt for this approach, it is generally best to opt for common names within the demographic that you intend to sell to.

Made to Order

The alternative is to make goods to order. This allows you to cater to more people’s needs, as people with alternative names, names with less common spellings, or couples will be able to make purchases. Sure, products could take longer to reach them (as they will have to be made once they have been paid for and then delivered), but you will generally gain higher levels of satisfaction.

Personalised goods really could be a great money making scheme for you. So, consider incorporating them into your small business!