Title: Mass customisation as a marketing tool: Turo Tailor's Windowshop

Authors: Matti Sievanen, Linnea Peltonen

Addresses: Tampere University of Technology, Institute for Industrial Management, P.O. Box 541, 33101 Tampere, Finland. ' Marimekko Oyj, Puusepaenkatu 4, 00880 Helsinki, Finland

Abstract: Men|s suits have a high degree of potential for becoming mass-customised products. A tailor-made suit offers an excellent fit, but the price is too high for most people. On the other hand, an off-the-rack suit is low cost, but may not fit properly. Made-to-measure suits have always been manufactured in low volumes. This indicates that there is a market for mass-customised suits. Turo Tailor, the leading mass customiser in the Finnish apparel industry, had this in mind when it developed the Windowshop (WS) concept. Standardising the measurement and fitting-on process is one of the key factors of WS. Turo Tailor has received a lot of positive publicity through WS, which worked well as a marketing tool. The future will show if Turo Tailor can expand WS into a large-scale retail channel.

Keywords: mass customisation; apparel industry; communication strategy; marketing strategy; garment industry; clothing industry; mass-customised suits; Finland; tailors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMASSC.2006.010449

International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2006 Vol.1 No.4, pp.523 - 537

Published online: 22 Jul 2006 *

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