What Comes After Personalization?

It strikes me that we’re in the middle of a letter-prefix fad. Have you noticed that everything from bras (no links for this one from me, but you’ve seen the commercials) to electronics begins with a lower case “i”? But I remember a few years back that everything started with an uppercase “X.” So what’s the difference?

Well, a few years back everyone was interested in marketing themselves as being eXtreme, and now we’re all marketing ourselves as interested in individualization. What’s next? What comes after individualization? I think it’s socialization. So what letter would stand for socialization? We should trademark it NOW to help fund all the R&D that we’ll be spending on social technology and social services (not THAT social services, but services that are social).

I can see it now… “Welcome to the sCat, the catalog that cares.”