The Rise of Personalized Items: How Customization Drives Sales, Adds Value, and Boosts Social Engagement

by Marketing Team June 25, 2023

One number you can take to the next board meeting: Faster-growing companies drive about 40% more of their revenue from personalization than slower-growing peers, according to McKinsey, evidence that tailored, customized experiences translate directly into topline growth. Sources: McKinsey, Business Chief, and CleverTap.

In April 2025, Coca-Cola brought back one of the most recognized personalization campaigns in modern marketing, printing first names and nicknames across cans and bottles in a rolling global launch that the company confirmed would reach more than 120 countries. Coca-Cola positioned the revival squarely at a new generation, pairing the physical packaging with QR codes and digital experiences designed to move Gen Z from a shelf to a phone screen, as reported by Marketing Dive.

The company tied the effort directly to performance. In its own reporting, Coca-Cola stated that the relaunched program contributed to single-serve transaction growth for the category, and Marketing Week reported executives crediting the campaign as part of a marketing transformation built to test, learn, and scale faster. The lesson for a marketing leader is direct: a personalized detail as small as a name on a bottle can carry a full customer journey when the brand strategy behind it is disciplined.

Personalization has moved from a differentiator to a baseline expectation, and the research quantifies the stakes. It is one of the clearest growth levers available to a CMO, and the brands that treat customization as a system rather than a gimmick are converting attention into brand equity, average order value, and earned media.

Personalization is now the expectation that drives growth

Research from McKinsey found that 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and McKinsey reports that personalization most often drives a 10 to 15 percent revenue lift, with company-specific gains ranging from 5 to 25 percent depending on sector and execution. McKinsey also observed that faster-growing companies drive 40 percent more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing peers, a signal that customization sits close to the center of a healthy growth engine rather than at its edges.

The purchase behavior follows the expectation. Research from Epsilon found that 80 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when a brand offers a personalized experience, a finding widely cited across marketing and ecommerce coverage. For a CMO weighing where customer experience investment produces the strongest return, personalization reaches the customer at the moment of intent and improves conversion, customer retention, and customer lifetime value at the same time.

The marketing lesson: personalization has graduated into table stakes, so the advantage now belongs to the brand that executes it as a measurable discipline connected to revenue, not as a seasonal campaign flourish.

Coca-Cola turns a name into a customer journey

The strength of Share a Coke is that it converts a mass-produced product into a personal object. Finding a familiar name on a shelf creates a reason to buy, to photograph, and to share, and the 2025 relaunch extended that instinct into digital experiences that invite Gen Z to search for names, unlock content, and personalize virtual bottles, as reported by Marketing Dive. A single package becomes an entry point into a longer customer journey that a brand can measure and build on.

The social layer is where the economics compound. When a customer posts a personalized bottle and tags the brand, the brand earns reach it did not buy, and that user-generated content carries the credibility of a peer recommendation. Coca-Cola built the 2025 program across more than 120 countries precisely so that this earned media effect could scale market by market while the core brand identity stayed consistent.

The marketing lesson: a personalized product becomes a distribution channel when the brand designs deliberate moments for customers to share it, turning individual purchases into audience growth and brand awareness.

Oreo builds participation into the product

Oreo extends the same principle to the cookie itself. Through its OREOiD platform, customers design their own cookies, selecting colors, flavors, and packaging to mark birthdays, holidays, and gifts. The act of designing gives the customer authorship, and authorship deepens the emotional connection that keeps a brand top of mind.

That participation feeds a steady stream of shareable moments on social media, where customized creations reach new audiences and reinforce a community around the brand. Oreo pairs the customization with a personality that stays consistent everywhere the brand appears, from its Instagram feed to the retail shelf, and that brand consistency is what lets a playful product carry a serious marketing engine.

The marketing lesson: when customers help create the product, they invest in it, and brand consistency across every touchpoint turns that creative participation into durable brand equity.

Veuve Clicquot uses personalization to deepen brand equity

Personalization also serves the top of the market. Veuve Clicquot pairs its instantly recognizable yellow label with personalized ice jackets and engraving that let customers mark a celebration with a name or message, giving a gift a sense of occasion that matches the price point. The customization reinforces exclusivity and gives the recipient a reason to display and photograph the bottle, feeding aspirational content across channels such as the brand's Instagram.

The willingness to pay for that added meaning is measurable. Research from Medallia found that 61 percent of consumers are willing to spend more for a personalized experience, which maps directly to higher average order value in premium and gifting categories. For a luxury brand, personalization protects margin while strengthening the aspiration that sustains long-term brand differentiation.

The marketing lesson: personalization lifts perceived value, and in premium categories that added meaning supports pricing power, average order value, and the aspiration that anchors brand differentiation.

The Broader Takeaway

The through line across Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Veuve Clicquot is that customization performs on the metrics a CMO already tracks. It raises conversion at the point of intent, as Epsilon's data shows, it lifts revenue in the 10 to 15 percent range McKinsey documents, it grows average order value in premium categories per Medallia, and it generates earned media that compounds audience growth. Personalization also produces first-party data with every design a customer creates, feeding a measurement framework and a personalization loop that improves the next campaign.

The thinking travels well beyond soft drinks, cookies, and champagne. Any brand that can attach a name, a preference, or a moment to its product can convert a transaction into a relationship, and the discipline of measuring that lift is what separates a memorable campaign from a repeatable growth program.

If your team is ready to turn personalization into a measurable growth engine, our marketing agency builds brand strategy and customer experience programs on exactly this principle, grounded in a measurement framework that ties every customization to conversion, retention, and customer lifetime value. Book an hour of marketing consultation and you can pressure-test your idea with our team.

References

McKinsey & Company, "The value of getting personalization right, or wrong, is multiplying," https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying
Business Chief, "McKinsey: Prioritise personalisation for 10-15% revenue lift," https://businesschief.com/technology-and-ai/mckinsey-prioritise-personalisation-for-10-15-revenue-lift
Beringer Tame, "The Value Of Getting Personalisation Right (McKinsey Next in Personalisation Report)," https://www.beringertame.com/news/the-value-of-getting-personalisation-right-mckinsey-s-next-in-personalisation-report/
Epsilon, "New Epsilon research indicates 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences," https://www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/new-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences
Nosto, "Personalization benchmarks for ecommerce," https://www.nosto.com/blog/ecommerce-personalization-statistics/
Forbes Technology Council, "The Power Of Personalization In E-Commerce," https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2024/08/30/the-power-of-personalization-in-e-commerce/
Medallia, "Medallia Research Finds 61 Percent of Consumers Are Willing to Spend More for Personalized Experiences," https://www.medallia.com/press-release/medallia-research-finds-61-percent-of-consumers-are-willing-to-spend-more-for-personalized-experiences/
Marketing Charts, "Would Consumers Pay More for Personalized Products?" https://www.marketingcharts.com/customer-centric/spending-trends-234018
DemandSage, "79 Personalization Statistics (Latest Marketing Trends)," https://www.demandsage.com/personalization-statistics/
The Coca-Cola Company, "Iconic 'Share a Coke' is Back for a New Generation," https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/iconic-share-a-coke-is-back-for-a-new-generation
Marketing Week, "'Share a Coke' relaunch is driving growth, claims Coca-Cola," https://www.marketingweek.com/share-a-coke-growth-coca-cola/
Marketing Dive, "Coke refreshes 'Share a Coke' to reach Gen Z with digital experiences," https://www.marketingdive.com/news/coca-cola-share-a-coke-campaign-refresh-gen-z-digital-experiences/743648/