Coventry University graduate Yihao Duan devised a system to satisfy personalization desires of Mercedes-Benz customers. Citing the huge potential of the customization market, Duan’s design provides users with an abundance of choice in the chassis, material and color — each can be individually tailored to give buyers a high level freedom.
“Many vehicle manufacturers provide customization services and try to satisfy customer’s need as much as possible,” says Duan, who conducted research into how products are personalized today. “People’s consumption concept develops in three directions: externalization, personalization and naturalization — a wide variety of organizations use personalization to improve customer satisfaction.”
The Customization Vehicle System consists of a frame, cabin and chassis, each individually chosen and purchased by the customer. The cabin itself offers the customer the greatest freedom of expression through a bespoke personalization service that caters to the user’s hedonistic needs, while the chassis can be kept, adapted or changed over time.
By offering a highly personalized cabin structure that can be moved from one vehicle typology to another, giving users a choice of which car type they wish to be seen on any particular day, Duan’s bespoke customization vehicle service would give consumers the ability to tailor the vehicle to even higher levels.
The concept is inspired in part by Nike’s ID creation platform, which brought in over $100 million in revenue in 2009. “This proves that this service is successful in the modern market,” adds Duan. “The vehicle personalization market has great potential.”
