Getting to Know You

Whether a customer rejects or accepts the offer, Grayson says, herresponse is fed back into the Epiphany system. This way, she won't bebombarded with offers for products in which she's not interested, andReflect.com can alter the segments of customers to which certainoffers are targeted based on the type of women who have responded tothem.

To date, Reflect.com has created about 3.5 million unique products,according to Grayson, who says that the cost of customizing isslightly higher than mass-producing similar high-end beauty products.Since it first launched, Reflect has received $85 million in fundingfrom Procter & Gamble and Redpoint Ventures. Grayson says the companyis on target toward profitability, but he declined to release specificfinancial numbers. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, Reflect is thelargest beauty products site on the Web.

Companies that don't customize their own products but want topersonalize their marketing and sales campaigns can use the sameapproach. Access to information in different systems is key when itcomes to tailoring interactions with customers, says Grayson. With it,companies get a more detailed understanding of their customers'preferences, which "allows you to tailor messages that don't lookcursory or thrown together," he adds.

A Doctor on Board

Personalization is not just for B2C companies. PSS World Medical, anup-and-coming distributor of medical supplies and diagnostic imagingequipment, is finding that the power of personalization works as wellin the B2B space.