There’s a quiet revolution going on. Some see it as a third industrial revolution. The first gave us steam power, factories and railroads. The second brought new sources of power, new materials and the assembly line. The essence of both was mass production; the new industrial revolution turns that concept upside down. In the process it will radically change the ways in which we advertise and promote products, as marketing to the masses is transformed into marketing to the individual.

Additive manufacturing, more commonly called “3D printing”, has been evolving for more than a decade, largely beneath the radar of the general public. In its simplest form, additive manufacturing involves laying down successive layers of a material or materials, under computer control, to construct a solid object. Initially, these were simple shapes like chess pieces, but things have come a long way since those early days. Modern systems can combine different materials, such as metals, plastics and glass, to “print” components and even complete, working products. In some cases they are able to make parts that are lighter and stronger than those made by a subtractive process (e.g., milling and machining) and perform better at handling certain materials, such as titanium.

Not yet a threat to replace traditional manufacturing technologies for economic production in large quantities, 3D printing is already being used for low quantity production or to make highly customized products for such industries as aerospace, defense, automotive and medicine. Jay Leno uses it to produce otherwise unobtainable parts for his fleet of antique cars. Affordable 3D printers and printing services have enabled hobbyists and artists to make anything they can model on a computer.

The technology is still in its early days, but we’ve certainly learned that it is unwise to underestimate how quickly a disruptive technology can become mainstream. There are already simplified design packages available that anyone can use, and online marketplaces, such as Shapeways, Thingiverse, and Sculpteo, where original designs can be printed and offered for sale.

Bespoke Manufacturing

Advertising and marketing were spawned by the Industrial Revolution and grew along with it. Centralized mass production leveraged lower cost in order to replace locally made, custom products, and it employed communication to create and homogenize the demand for its products. 3D printing holds the potential of removing production from the factory and putting it in the hands of the retailer and the consumer – at least for things that are open to personalization and custom design. One company has already succeeded in printing a shoe; imagine being able to print out a garment that fits your body perfectly, and doesn’t even have seams.

All this, of course, will radically change the marketing paradigm.

In the world of mass production, marketers study consumers in the aggregate to determine their needs in order to define a set of product parameters and features that will best appeal to broadest segments of the market. Whatever variables exist for the product, such as size or color, are produced in quantities that correspond to projected sales.

When customization and production move to the home or retail outlet, the role of the marketer changes. The “product” being sold is now intellectual property: the data files needed to modify and then produce the product. And we all know what pitfalls there are when it comes to protecting intellectual property in the digital age. File sharing changed the music industry; is there any reason to doubt that 3D printing will have an even more profound effect on the hard goods industry? Losing control of production is to lose control of both the product and the brand.

New Directions for Marketing and Advertising

No one is about to start printing out a pound of nails just to avoid a trip to Home Depot, and mass production is not going to disappear any time soon. For products that beg to be individualized, however, the time may soon come when digital product designs are sold like iTunes or apps, and product design will be in the hands of small, innovative businesses and individual entrepreneurs. Most of us, however, will be unlikely to keep a deep and varied supply of raw materials around the house. Nor will we wish to continually reinvest in the latest 3D printing technology and equipment. This will very probably give rise to service centers, specialized or generalized, where we can bring our customized version of a design and have the physical object printed for us. Production for these products will have moved from the factory to the actual point of sale.

While still relevant for mass-produced products, mass media will be less so for advertising the service centers. This is almost certain to be digitally based, given the growing ability to direct the right online message, to the right individual, at the right time. When looking for a new pair of shoes you will go online and search for a design you like, download the file for a modest fee, and then customize it based on personal preference and scans of your feet. Once you download that design, you’d better be ready for some intense marketing by service centers that specialize in printing out quality footwear (are you listening, Zappos?).

The symbiotic evolution of mass production and mass media is now being reflected in the linked development of single-unit, custom manufacturing and targeted one-to-one communication. Marketing and advertising will have no choice but to keep pace. Some of the basic tools already exist, although they will undoubtedly change and be added to very quickly.

Data analytics, of course, will be key to identifying prospects and matching them to relevant products and messaging. Social media networks, as they continue to evolve, will provide platforms for generating buzz, interest, and consensus (because without mass advertising to tell consumers what a product represents they will turn to peer groups for definition and validation).

Projecting the effect that any disruptive technology will have on business or culture is always highly speculative, and the nature of the full marketing mix with the new business model as they emerge and evolve. I can’t recall anyone accurately predicting the pervasive presence of today’s Internet 20 years ago. It was apparent, however, that it would be huge, and I see no reason to believe that the impact of this new revolution will be anything less.