If companies recognize that people are somewhat self-absorbed, they may be on to something. I'm fond of companies who attempt to ramp up involvement from the everyday population. Rather than try to market/design everything on their own, some reach out to their eager audience and ask them for their insight. Hooray for user-generated participation! It's kind of a win-win situation if you think about it – the company gets fresh ideas from real people, and the participants feel like they've made their contribution or have some form of ownership/bragging rights. Plus, if they do it in the format of a contest, you can even win some cool stuff in the process.
Sony recently took advantage of this and held a contest for their new Vaio line, where people can submit their own designs, and three lucky winners' designs go into full retail production. A nice $5K reward is an added bonus.
Check out the winners: http://vaiomygraphicsplash.com/
Sony's not the first to get in on user-participation – pretty sure we'll be seeing plenty of companies jumping on this methodology if they haven't already.
Dell also believes that their customers are all about artsy, cool designs, rather than the static, plain laptop – and offers multiple colors and different art designs for their Studio 17 line.
And finally, while watching Sportscenter, I was brainwashed by SkinIt.com to sign on now and get a load of all their skins you can use to customize your own laptop, cell phone, digital camera, a number of things you own. The idea is cool, although, I don't know why I would apply an image of Obama or McCain on my laptop though. That disturbs me, just a little. But the good news is you can also upload your own work-of-art for true personalization. So you could get away with a "Neener, neener, check out MY cool laptop" jab at your buddies.

