A middle path between a uniform run and a fully custom one

To see a customer’s needs clearly, and to make and sell a product that meets them, is a goal every firm is said to have, because profit can decide whether the firm lasts. The question, the writer says, is how to see those needs properly and how to meet them. Out of that difficulty, in a society that changes quickly, the idea of customization appeared. The notes also call it by the English word customization: the work of concentrating a firm’s capacity on needs that have been grasped with care.

Meeting the needs of countless customers, though, can constrain a firm in cost and time. So recent firms, the writer says, have used a mass-customization strategy. Meeting every different need is relatively hard, and sometimes impossible; it seemed more efficient to segment customers who share similar needs and to concentrate capacity on a target market. That path can draw more satisfaction than a uniform mass-production run that ignores differences, and is more economical in time and cost than a simple custom run that tries to meet every need in full.

Mass customization, the notes say, was first introduced by Alvin Toffler. He did not use the word itself, but laid ground for the idea that the concept would later take shape for firms. No year is given for that introduction, and none is supplied here. The unique body then turns to two cases the writer discusses: Amorepacific and Adidas Korea.

A 2004 market, a 2008 forecast, and a May 2004 launch

Korea’s cosmetics market, as of 2004, was about 5.26 trillion won in size. It was reported that some 360 cosmetics-related firms existed in the country; that count is not tied to a year in the unique body, and is left as the notes word it. As of 2008 the market was forecast to be about 6.2 trillion won. That figure stays a forecast made as of 2008, and is not treated as a later official total. In this field Amorepacific is described as holding a solitary first place, with recognized research and brand power, and as being followed by LG Household & Health, Coreana Cosmetics, and Hankook Cosmetics. After the market opened, well-known global firms such as Estée Lauder and L’Oréal also joined; the unique body breaks off there, and the rest of that thought is not invented here.

Cosmetics, the notes say, sit on the body itself, so they draw on basic sciences and applied techniques and can be called a precision chemical industry as well as a high-technology one. They also meet a wish for beauty, and legal limits run through production, distribution, sale, and use. At the same time they are typically made in many kinds and small lots, a fashion trade that has to move with trends. Product life is short, and whether a new item succeeds can weigh heavily on total sales.

In May 2004 Amorepacific, whose predecessor was Pacific Cosmetics, launched a custom cosmetic, Amorepacific Custom Blend Makeup, at its flagship store, D’Amore Gallery. From existing products through color cosmetics, well-known makeup artists gave one-to-one counseling, and items were made and sold to fit each customer’s tendency and skin, as a cosmetic born for a single person. From late 2002 a continued shrinkage of consumer sentiment had been reported, and it reached the cosmetics trade; firms needed a new opening in a sharper contest, and interest grew in customization that could offer a distinctive experience as the idea of emotional consumption appeared. That backdrop stays in 2002. Amorepacific, the writer says, meant the custom line to meet exacting needs, to find a way through a sluggish market, and to firm its place in a more competitive field.

How the custom cosmetic was made, and what is said of Adidas

A custom cosmetic, as the notes define it, starts from data on a customer’s skin: the firm diagnoses the skin, makes the product that fits it best, and sells it. The method had already been tried abroad. In 2000 the Japanese firm Shu Uemura set up a flagship called a Shu Uemura Factory at a Tokyo site the notes name Bis Port. That year stays in 2000. Estée Lauder, an American firm, already made foundations to a customer’s skin tone and color cosmetics to suit the face; no year is given for that practice, and none is supplied here. At D’Amore Gallery, a device measured the skin, well-known artists taught methods of makeup, and a counselor, using a specialized program, advised on the present state of the skin and on the functions a customer needed, then recommended the makeup that fit the type best.

Adidas Korea is taken up at one concrete step. A customer and a helper in the store discuss, together, insoles, the underside of the shoe, and inner parts that bear on how the shoe feels and how it performs, and they choose as they talk. The unique body does not narrate the rest of the Adidas program, and the rest is not invented here. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. A student report on mass customization, with cases at Amorepacific and Adidas Korea.
2. A Korean cosmetics market of about 5.26 trillion won as of 2004, and a forecast of about 6.2 trillion won as of 2008, left as a 2008 forecast.
3. A May 2004 launch of Custom Blend Makeup at D’Amore Gallery, a late-2002 shrinkage of sentiment left in that year, and a 2000 Shu Uemura flagship at a Tokyo site the notes name Bis Port.

Last updated: 14 November 2026