the four faces of mass customization

Joseph Pine, in his book Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition, really describes and develops the term "mass customization" as a model for business that could potentially bring mass production efficiency to the scale of individual customization.

In a 1997 Harvard Business Review article, 'The Four Faces of Mass Customization', by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore, the perceived four areas of mass customization are described, as detailed by Wikipedia:

• Collaborative customization - firms talk to individual customers to determine the precise product offering that best serves the customer's needs. This information is then used to specify and manufacture a product that suits that specific customer. For example, some clothing companies will manufacture blue jeans to fit an individual customer.
• Adaptive customization - firms produce a standardized product, but this product is customizable in the hands of the end user
• Transparent customization - firms provide individual customers with unique products, without explicitly telling them that the products are customized. In this case there is a need to accurately assess customer needs.
• Cosmetic customization - firms produce a standardized physical product, but market it to different customers in unique ways.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_customization
http://www.madeforone.com/