Randolph and Kish knew from relentless focus groups and A-B testing on the Web site that customers enjoyed their visits to Netflix and understood how to use the site. But their main customers—the coupon-wielding buyers of DVD players—often would not plunk down their plastic and actually pay for rentals when their free disks ran out. There seemed to be no solution for failing to convert the free offers to sales, and it consumed them. As Netflix’s first birthday loomed, the marketing team tested new software that allowed them to personalize e-mails to consumers to prod them to return to the
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