• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 7, 2010

Email marketing is a lot like a guy trying to get a girl's interest -- even when it doesn't seem from their personal likes and dislikes that it is going to happen.

In a presentation at Email Insider Summit, Chris Marriott, vp of Acxiom Corp. showed a clip of the movie "Groundhog Day" featuring Bill Murray as a TV weatherman and Andie MacDowell, as his new producer.

Trying to move in on his new producer, Murray is at a bar ordering "Jim Beam, ice, water", with McDowell ordering "sweet vermouth". Later Murray changes his usual bar order with McDowell, and also orders "sweet vermouth".

Another scene has Murray offering McDowell some white chocolate. She says "I hate white chocolate." Then, aside to himself, he makes a note: "No white chocolate."

Marriott says this is how email marketers should adjust. "Never offer this person white chocolate every again," says Marriott. "You need to have smart data and personalize the data."

Later on Murray couldn't anticipate what toast McDowell wanted to hear. "That's where we come in," says Marriott. "We should be able to anticipate that."