Part II: The Most Interesti...

Gifts: Hallmark Cards has launched Personalized Plates, an initiative that gives consumers the ability to design attractive, high-quality, paper plates with full-color photos and integrated text. More than 200 plate designs, including birthday, wedding, graduation, pet birthday, baby celebration, retirement and anniversary, are available at www.HallmarkParty.com. Consumers can add their own photos, write their own personal message or choose from among more than 700 unique suggested messages. The durable, nine-inch paper dinner plates come in packages of 10 with each package retailing for $10 US. As is evidenced by my numerous blog posts on the subject, many of the recent initiatives for mass customization and personalization have come from start-ups. However, it’s great to see major brands such as Hallmark getting into the personalization game.

Home Decor: Design Your Own Fabric at Spoonflower. Based in North Carolina, Spoonflower is the online custom-fabric store has over 15,000 users who have uploaded their designs. The site offers an amazing online interface that is incredibly easy to use, and super fun to play around on! Upload your image and edit it if you like (or create one in the user-friendly editing program with text, images, and different effects), choose your layout, and order the amount of fabric you want. Prices are $5 US for a swatch, or $18 per yard — pretty reasonable as far as I’m concerned, considering the last time I tried to buy fabric the cheapest I could find was roughly $20 per metre, and I couldn’t even find a pattern I liked! Now I can create the exact fabric design I want, in the colours I like, for about as much as I would spend on something mass produced.

Food: Customized Cookies – Made to Order in Just 2 Minutes. “Warm delicious cookies, your way in just minutes!” That’s the motto for Toronto-based custom-cookie store Sweet Flour Bake Shop. According to Springwise, over 15,000 cookie options face the customer. Need I say more? Who doesn’t love a freshly baked cookie?

The fact that Sweet Flour now allows you to customize your favourite by choosing your dough (Original, Peanut Butter, or Oatmeal) and from over 20 ingredients of the highest quality (including dried fruits, nuts, varieties of chocolate, candy), and then bakes it for you in 2 minutes? Well, that’s just the lemony icing on my made-to-order blueberry peanut butter cookie. No, really — I could order that if I wanted.

On top of being an already fabulous idea, Sweet Flour also supports local and organic products! You know that the cookie you are buying (for a reasonable $2.50) is made from only the best ingredients (local and organic where possible), and that the milk or coffee you are sipping with it is also local, organic, and — for the latter — fair trade. This is truly comfort food for the body, mind, and soul.

Personal Care: Design Your Own Natural Skin Care Products Grateful Body, a holistic and chemical-free skin care manufacturer since 1998, now offers customers the option of creating their own individualized, 100% natural, facial care products. The line includes a cleanser, an aquative and a moisturizer. All the products are made with chemical-free organic ingredients. The company also has a cruelty-free policy, and the products are suitable for vegans or people who have multiple chemical sensitivities. The products are custom blended upon order and shipped immediately.

These products are good for people who suffer from acne, rosacea, hyper-pigmentation, sun damage, ultra-dry skin or sensitivity. You can choose the level of hydration your skin requires, as well as a product that is unscented or one of several scent blends made with pure essential oils.

Pricing for these products really depends on how many boosters and what scent you choose. Base prices for the products are: Cleanser: $20 120mL, Aquative: $24 120mL, Moisturizer: $30 60mL The boosters range anywhere from $6-$15. Scent options range from $5-$27. When you add in all the options the price does add up quickly. However, in comparison to other skincare lines the price isn’t too high and the products would make a lovely personalized gift.

There you have it - a quick review of 2009. I can't wait to see what 2010 brings in terms of mass customized and personalized goods, and also personalized marketing initiatives.