INFORMATION AS A CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR FOR MASS CUSTOMIZATION OR: WHY EVEN A CUSTOMIZED SHOE NOT ALWAYS FITS

„It is the customer who determines what a business is." In the very sense of Drucker’s (1954) analysis, the single customer has come more deeply into the firm’s focus than ever. Firms are faced by an uninterrupted trend towards individualization in all areas of life, as new Delphi studies predict. Explanations may be found in the tendency towards an experience economy, the growing number of single households, an orientation towards design and, most importantly, a new awareness of quality and functionality which demands durable and reliable products corresponding exactly to the specific needs of the purchaser. In particular, consumers with great purchasing power are increasingly attempting to express their personality by means of an individual product choice (an example is BMW's new „Individual Program" which emphasizes the fulfillment of individual fittings and equipment). Thus, many suppliers are forced to create product programs with an increasing wealth of variants right down to the production of units of one (differentiation by means of variety). In the final consequence, many companies have to process their customers individually (Glazer, 1999; Kahn, 1998).