Case study: E.piphany plus e-mail equals easy marketing

Reflect.com always had the technology to create customized products for its customers. "What we needed was to bring our outbound programs up to the same level of sophistication," says Reflect.com's Vice President of Engineering Jonathan Grayson.

Using E.piphany's customer relationship management software to handle analysis, campaign management, and real-time personalization of the Internet experience, Reflect.com has brought its marketing technology in line with the rest of the company.

Now the marketing department has a number of e-mail campaign-management options, none of which requires a full-time technology expert to implement.

For example, the marketing department may decide it needs to send e-mail to customers who have blond hair and live in areas with more swimming pools than ocean access. A query to the E.piphany data mart via Reflect.com's intranet would generate an e-mail piece (developed and written by the marketing department) that goes out to all the selected customers offering them a special price on conditioner that keeps blond hair from turning "swimming pool green" from prolonged contact with chlorinated water. Brunettes, redheads, and blondes living close to the Pacific Ocean would receive no e-mail.

Lisa Napell Dicksteen is president of LMN Editorial, which handles writing and editing as well as marketing and public relations consulting.