New Aberdeen Report spotlights “Offer Optimization: Using Customer Analytics to Improve Marketing Performance”. In this study, they reveal that companies are increasingly harnessing the power of customer analytics to improve the effectiveness of their marketing investment. This enables them to make smarter decisions and obtain greater control over their marketing outcomes.
Every company weathering the current storm needs to understand their customer’s behavior and act upon that information to deliver the best mix of product offers for each customer. Furthermore, it is key to know the efficacy of campaigns to squeeze more profit out of the same marketing dollar. Companies need to continuously advance the frontier of data modeling and actionable insights in their quest to optimize returns in a challenging economic environment.
Jeff Zabin, research fellow at Aberdeen, researched 200 diverse enterprises engaged in data-driven marketing improvements. The study starts by highlighting the striking performance disparities between Best-in-Class, Industry Average and Laggard companies. In the second part, it benchmarks the various technologies, organizational resources and performance metrics adopted by the companies for success. The report concludes with a roadmap for marketers, identifying the analytic capabilities and business processes required to help spur performance improvements in data-driven marketing with a line of sight to making Offer Optimization a reality.
Read More...
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks company, is the leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action. Founded in 1988, Aberdeen has established the market leading position as the “voice that matters”.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
American Express to sell insights from its database
American Express announced the launch of its Business Insights division, a new analytics organization that will draw on the company’s global network to help business customers develop better informed growth strategies.
Business Insights will analyze its transactional data to identify spending patterns on its 90 million cards in force across 127 markets. Currently, the credit card giant offers AmEx partners data-driven insight on where they should advertise and locate stores. This new unit will offer the service to any business willing to pay for it.
Read More...
American Express, also known as AmEx, is a diversified global financial services company headquartered in New York. Founded in 1850, it now operates in over 130 countries across the globe.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Business Insights will analyze its transactional data to identify spending patterns on its 90 million cards in force across 127 markets. Currently, the credit card giant offers AmEx partners data-driven insight on where they should advertise and locate stores. This new unit will offer the service to any business willing to pay for it.
Read More...
American Express, also known as AmEx, is a diversified global financial services company headquartered in New York. Founded in 1850, it now operates in over 130 countries across the globe.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Book Review: Competing on Analytics
I recently read an interesting book that resonates with the soul of Indus Insights – “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning” by Tom Davenport and Jeanne Harris. The essence of the book is that analytics is the cornerstone of sustainable competitive advantage in today’s business environment. The authors foresee fact-based decision making playing a central role in future business competition; and I couldn’t agree more.
Overall, the book is divided into two parts – one addresses the “Who”, “What”, and “Why” and one discusses the “How” of analytical competition. Part One exemplifies the nature of analytical competition and illustrates how it is key to business success in today’s economies. The authors persuasively put forth their argument through existing research, success stories and the results of their own surveys. Part Two highlights the ingredients and recipe for developing analytic sophistication. Picking on themes from the book, this article is a glimpse inside the toolkit of an organization that embraces analytics:
An Enterprise Approach - The authors champion the use of Analytics through success stories of Capital One, Harrah’s, Marriott, Progressive Insurance, Amazon, Vertex, Cemex, Netflix, UPS, etc. Rigorous quantitative techniques pervade all business functions within these organizations, including Human Resources and Marketing. As referenced in “Good to Great”, the power of "breakthrough results come about by a series of good decisions, diligently executed and accumulated on top of another".
The Right People – You are your people. The culture of analytical thinking has to be inculcated in employees across all rungs of the corporate ladder. Executive sponsorship is key to spreading analytical orientations throughout the company. Senior executives need to be passionate about fact-based decision making and lead by example; Managers need to emphasize the value of analytical problem solving by basing decisions on hard facts; and Talented employees with strong analytical skills are required to drive the development of analytical programs.
Core Competency – Large US Airlines were “pioneers in adopting analytical approaches”, but were unable to overcome other hurdles, such as obsolete business models. An organization cannot outperform its peers based solely on its systematic and extensive application of analytics. The analytics have to be in support of a strategic, distinctive capability – because without one, there is no clear activity for analytics to support.
Technology – Competing on Analytics is often seen synonymous with competing on technology. Now that data has become such a commodity, the frontier for using data has shifted dramatically. Now, having data to analyze is a start, but it needs to be harnessed through business intelligence software, computing hardware and reliable data warehousing tools to squeeze out more insights.
The book makes a compelling argument for adopting fact-based decision making; but more discussion on some pitfalls would have been welcome:
Some companies have built their very businesses on their ability to collect, analyze and act on data. Every company can learn from what these firms do. – Thomas H. Davenport
Overall, the book is divided into two parts – one addresses the “Who”, “What”, and “Why” and one discusses the “How” of analytical competition. Part One exemplifies the nature of analytical competition and illustrates how it is key to business success in today’s economies. The authors persuasively put forth their argument through existing research, success stories and the results of their own surveys. Part Two highlights the ingredients and recipe for developing analytic sophistication. Picking on themes from the book, this article is a glimpse inside the toolkit of an organization that embraces analytics:
An Enterprise Approach - The authors champion the use of Analytics through success stories of Capital One, Harrah’s, Marriott, Progressive Insurance, Amazon, Vertex, Cemex, Netflix, UPS, etc. Rigorous quantitative techniques pervade all business functions within these organizations, including Human Resources and Marketing. As referenced in “Good to Great”, the power of "breakthrough results come about by a series of good decisions, diligently executed and accumulated on top of another".
The Right People – You are your people. The culture of analytical thinking has to be inculcated in employees across all rungs of the corporate ladder. Executive sponsorship is key to spreading analytical orientations throughout the company. Senior executives need to be passionate about fact-based decision making and lead by example; Managers need to emphasize the value of analytical problem solving by basing decisions on hard facts; and Talented employees with strong analytical skills are required to drive the development of analytical programs.
Core Competency – Large US Airlines were “pioneers in adopting analytical approaches”, but were unable to overcome other hurdles, such as obsolete business models. An organization cannot outperform its peers based solely on its systematic and extensive application of analytics. The analytics have to be in support of a strategic, distinctive capability – because without one, there is no clear activity for analytics to support.
Technology – Competing on Analytics is often seen synonymous with competing on technology. Now that data has become such a commodity, the frontier for using data has shifted dramatically. Now, having data to analyze is a start, but it needs to be harnessed through business intelligence software, computing hardware and reliable data warehousing tools to squeeze out more insights.
The book makes a compelling argument for adopting fact-based decision making; but more discussion on some pitfalls would have been welcome:
- Managers must keep sight of the tradeoff between the cost of gathering evidence (such as time to market) and the evidence's importance to the decision making process.
- The value of “Gut Feel” must not be undermined in light of the broad generalizations or concrete examples accompanying the book. Analytic strategy is not a fact-versus-intuition debate. Rather, leaders need to consult their experience to understand the evidence in all its forms.
Some companies have built their very businesses on their ability to collect, analyze and act on data. Every company can learn from what these firms do. – Thomas H. Davenport
Friday, November 6, 2009
Police Department uses Analytics Technology to combat crime
Canada’s Edmonton Police Services (EPS) is deploying business analytics technology to prevent crime and increase public safety. Crime data analytics is a powerful tool that enables law enforcement officials to sift through historic incident, offense, arrest and call-for-service records to accurately pinpoint crime rates and patterns. The quick access to relevant information allows commanders and frontline officers to be better equipped and intelligence-led when problem solving and dealing with day-to-day responsibilities.
The initiative that began as an effort to provide accountability of public dollars has now amassed enough data to identify crime trends and locations. The agency’s investment recently helped them deal effectively with a potential increase in arson activity. By quickly comparing new information with data from previous years, the police service was able to ascertain that the trend was likely to increase from March to July. Police efforts were ultimately successful in nearly eliminating arsons in that particular area during this period.
In the future, the force hopes to take advantage of mobile devices to directly disseminate relevant information to officers, regardless of location. The end goal is the ability to place resources in advance, to put police into certain areas of the city because they predict crime will take place in that area and be able to mitigate that crime with the police presence, said John Warden, BI project team lead for EPS.
Today, the EPS is better trained, better educated and more diverse than at any other time in history. Our technological capabilities allow officers and support staff to be better equipped and intelligence-led when problem solving and dealing with day-to-day responsibilities.
Read more...
Edmonton Police Services is a leading police organization that is responsible for over one million residents in Alberta. They are well respected and highly regarded across Canada for their members’ professionalism and integrity.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
The initiative that began as an effort to provide accountability of public dollars has now amassed enough data to identify crime trends and locations. The agency’s investment recently helped them deal effectively with a potential increase in arson activity. By quickly comparing new information with data from previous years, the police service was able to ascertain that the trend was likely to increase from March to July. Police efforts were ultimately successful in nearly eliminating arsons in that particular area during this period.
In the future, the force hopes to take advantage of mobile devices to directly disseminate relevant information to officers, regardless of location. The end goal is the ability to place resources in advance, to put police into certain areas of the city because they predict crime will take place in that area and be able to mitigate that crime with the police presence, said John Warden, BI project team lead for EPS.
Today, the EPS is better trained, better educated and more diverse than at any other time in history. Our technological capabilities allow officers and support staff to be better equipped and intelligence-led when problem solving and dealing with day-to-day responsibilities.
Read more...
Edmonton Police Services is a leading police organization that is responsible for over one million residents in Alberta. They are well respected and highly regarded across Canada for their members’ professionalism and integrity.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Marketers find comfort in numbers
The days when marketers could get away with trusting their gut feelings are coming to an end. The data-driven marketing revolution is upon us. Marketers are overwhelmed by the need to use data to make marketing more effective and efficient. Data has become the lifeblood of all organizations, according to a new white paper published by Aberdeen “Data Driven Marketing”. The study identifies exactly how the Best-in-class organizations are using data to impact marketing.
Top performing companies are predominantly using data to segment and target the market to develop more impactful delivery of multi-channel campaigns. These companies saw a 13% growth in customer profitability, while Industry Average companies had an increase of 1%, and Laggards had a decrease of 12%! Ian Michiels, Research director at Aberdeen, surveyed 272 organizations from all industries and company sizes to benchmark the current use of data-driven decisions in marketing. How do organizations use data, and what are some of the biggest challenges facing the market today?
Identifying return on marketing investment was rated as the top pressure for 49% of all respondents with respect to data-driven marketing. The difficulty in properly allocating sales to marketing investments leaves many marketers wondering which combination of marketing channels deliver he biggest bang for the buck. For many marketers, the challenge with data-driven marketing is not the lack of data, but the lack of actionable insight that can be derived from that data. An inability to translate data into business insight was one of the top three challenges for 47% of all respondents. Data quality issues and disparate data silos were also cited among the top hindrances to fostering a data-driven approach.
Read More...
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks company, is the leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action. Founded in 1988, Aberdeen has established the market leading position as the “voice that matters”.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Top performing companies are predominantly using data to segment and target the market to develop more impactful delivery of multi-channel campaigns. These companies saw a 13% growth in customer profitability, while Industry Average companies had an increase of 1%, and Laggards had a decrease of 12%! Ian Michiels, Research director at Aberdeen, surveyed 272 organizations from all industries and company sizes to benchmark the current use of data-driven decisions in marketing. How do organizations use data, and what are some of the biggest challenges facing the market today?
Identifying return on marketing investment was rated as the top pressure for 49% of all respondents with respect to data-driven marketing. The difficulty in properly allocating sales to marketing investments leaves many marketers wondering which combination of marketing channels deliver he biggest bang for the buck. For many marketers, the challenge with data-driven marketing is not the lack of data, but the lack of actionable insight that can be derived from that data. An inability to translate data into business insight was one of the top three challenges for 47% of all respondents. Data quality issues and disparate data silos were also cited among the top hindrances to fostering a data-driven approach.
Read More...
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks company, is the leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action. Founded in 1988, Aberdeen has established the market leading position as the “voice that matters”.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Analytics versus Creativity
This is an interesting article by Mark Ritson of Branding Strategy Insider. It debates whether businesses are ignoring the qualitative and going too far with data-driven decision making?
Mark Ritson argues that data dulls creativity. The rising emphasis on using analytics to guide marketing decisions could be stifling marketers’ creativity. Creativity should be at the root of all marketing campaigns. The analytical route is more suited for an established brand. The article debates that creative and analytical skills are at opposite ends of the spectrum and should be applied depending on the stage of the product life-cycle.
I would suggest that this is not an either-or question; rather the two go hand-in-hand. Marketing is a blend of art and science. It requires both out-of-the-box thinking as well as the capacity to analyze a campaign’s results and tailor strategies based on those insights. It is about ‘focused creativity’. Analytics are required to mine the right markets, products, customers, and competitors; Art is required to develop a creative that resonates with the customer’s mindscape.
In recent years, there is a pronounced shift towards incorporating data into the decision making process. A recent report from Aberdeen provides evidence that the marketers are increasingly seeing analytical expertise in a whole new light. Companies looking to survive this uncertain economy cannot afford to spend their marketing budget on inspiration, without attending to the bottom line.
With an explosion in choices, the fierce battle for consumer attention can only be won by strategies driven by both creativity and analytics.
From the article: 30 Seconds on…Analytics Versus Creativity
Mark Ritson is an associate professor of marketing and consultant to some of the world's biggest brands.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Mark Ritson argues that data dulls creativity. The rising emphasis on using analytics to guide marketing decisions could be stifling marketers’ creativity. Creativity should be at the root of all marketing campaigns. The analytical route is more suited for an established brand. The article debates that creative and analytical skills are at opposite ends of the spectrum and should be applied depending on the stage of the product life-cycle.
I would suggest that this is not an either-or question; rather the two go hand-in-hand. Marketing is a blend of art and science. It requires both out-of-the-box thinking as well as the capacity to analyze a campaign’s results and tailor strategies based on those insights. It is about ‘focused creativity’. Analytics are required to mine the right markets, products, customers, and competitors; Art is required to develop a creative that resonates with the customer’s mindscape.
In recent years, there is a pronounced shift towards incorporating data into the decision making process. A recent report from Aberdeen provides evidence that the marketers are increasingly seeing analytical expertise in a whole new light. Companies looking to survive this uncertain economy cannot afford to spend their marketing budget on inspiration, without attending to the bottom line.
With an explosion in choices, the fierce battle for consumer attention can only be won by strategies driven by both creativity and analytics.
From the article: 30 Seconds on…Analytics Versus Creativity
- ‘A big part of our innovation process is iteration. We try something, get a lot of feedback, then try something new. We let the math and the data govern how things look and feel.' Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search, Google
- ‘You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.' Steve Jobs, chief executive, Apple
- ‘Long-gone is the day of the gut-instinct management style. Today's business leaders are adopting algorithmic decision-making techniques and using highly sophisticated software to run their organizations.' Ian Davis, worldwide managing director, McKinsey
- ‘Let me suggest an alternative trend - the rise of heuristics over algorithms; qualitative over quantitative research; judgment over analytics; creativity over crunching. Smart executives are recognizing that the analytic approach to business has overreached.' Professor Roger Martin, dean, Rotman School of Management.
Mark Ritson is an associate professor of marketing and consultant to some of the world's biggest brands.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Netflix prize awarded, Sequel announced
The Netflix Prize was an open computing challenge for the best algorithm to recommend movies to subscribers. The winning team, Bellkor, has improved Netflix’s own cinematch algorithm by 10.05% and will be awarded $1M for their success.
Clearing the hurdle wasn’t easy. Thousands of teams from more than 100 nations tackled the problem for more than three years, sharing their results and algorithms along the way. CEO Reed Hastings said in an interview “You look at the cumulative hours and you’re getting Ph.D.’s for a dollar an hour”. The contest is an example of Prize economics, where competitive incentives are offered as an alternative to in-house research and development. This was a tremendous research bargain for Netflix.
Netflix analyzes customers’ choices and ratings on the movies they have rented and recommends movies in a way that optimizes both the customer’s taste and inventory conditions. Automated recommendation algorithms are seen as a key competitive edge in e-commerce, allowing retailers to guess the types of products and services customers are seeking by looking at their past behavior. For Netflix, a 10% improvement on its algorithms could help move substantially higher numbers of movies and increase customer satisfaction, with a direct boost to profits.
The company’s analytical orientation has already led to a high level of success and growth. Netflix announced it would run a second competition, with shorter time spans of 6 months and 18 months to prize awarding. The new challenge will use demographic data rather than previous ratings as data to base predictions on.
Read More...
Netflix is the world's largest online movie rental service, with more than 11 million subscribers. It has revolutionized the way people rent movies - by bringing the movies directly to them.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Clearing the hurdle wasn’t easy. Thousands of teams from more than 100 nations tackled the problem for more than three years, sharing their results and algorithms along the way. CEO Reed Hastings said in an interview “You look at the cumulative hours and you’re getting Ph.D.’s for a dollar an hour”. The contest is an example of Prize economics, where competitive incentives are offered as an alternative to in-house research and development. This was a tremendous research bargain for Netflix.
Netflix analyzes customers’ choices and ratings on the movies they have rented and recommends movies in a way that optimizes both the customer’s taste and inventory conditions. Automated recommendation algorithms are seen as a key competitive edge in e-commerce, allowing retailers to guess the types of products and services customers are seeking by looking at their past behavior. For Netflix, a 10% improvement on its algorithms could help move substantially higher numbers of movies and increase customer satisfaction, with a direct boost to profits.
The company’s analytical orientation has already led to a high level of success and growth. Netflix announced it would run a second competition, with shorter time spans of 6 months and 18 months to prize awarding. The new challenge will use demographic data rather than previous ratings as data to base predictions on.
Read More...
Netflix is the world's largest online movie rental service, with more than 11 million subscribers. It has revolutionized the way people rent movies - by bringing the movies directly to them.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Hotelier uses Business Analytics to optimize marketing spend
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) recently licensed a Test & Learn Management system to enhance their business analytics platform. This product suite is going to be used for seven hotel brands, including Holiday Inn, InterContinental, and Crowne Plaza.
This solution, which is currently used for its hotel management, guest services and marketing programs, will enable users to identify statistically significant results and build models directly from these results to predict the impact of future decisions. Specifically, hotels can determine the impact of any marketing initiative, from television advertising to online media, and can also measure the incremental value of pricing changes and how the changes affect different guest segments.
The impact of this collaboration will be assessed using key performance metrics such as Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR), bookings, guest satisfaction, and ROI.
Read More...
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, more than 4,200 hotels and over 620,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands, and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty program.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
This solution, which is currently used for its hotel management, guest services and marketing programs, will enable users to identify statistically significant results and build models directly from these results to predict the impact of future decisions. Specifically, hotels can determine the impact of any marketing initiative, from television advertising to online media, and can also measure the incremental value of pricing changes and how the changes affect different guest segments.
The impact of this collaboration will be assessed using key performance metrics such as Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR), bookings, guest satisfaction, and ROI.
Read More...
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, more than 4,200 hotels and over 620,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands, and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty program.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Demographic Shifts present Opportunities and Challenges
Actuaries are some of the most successful analytics practitioners when it comes to predicting future events in very specific or individual ways, so this article describing the difficulties many actuaries are having given demographic shifts and the mercurial economic climate reminds me that my own analytics ideas, whether “standard” for all projects or custom tailored to a specific model, should be reviewed and where necessary revised.
Many models I have built have excluded age as a discreet or continuous independent over concerns regarding sensitivity to outliers (sometimes it is however include with grad decade as a proxy). This article presents some interesting information that while I already knew, had never considered in respect to my work: U.S. population is working longer, pushing retirement age higher and higher.
The implications I believe are both explicit and implicit. Directly, the trend towards working longer may necessitate a change in traditional assumptions of major gift work. Often there are general demographic “sweet spots” in age, relatively consistent from institution to institution. Certainly donors in their 70’s and 80’s have different giving behavior than those in their 30’s and 40’s. You may consider these “stages” in a donor’s life where they may have different attitudes towards making a major gift, or a planned gift, etc.
I have not observed a “rule of thumb” regarding major gifts and retirement age. Some individuals like to give while still working full time, others wait until retirement “settles in”, and some even use a major gift as a “kick off” to their transition from employment to retirement. American’s working longer on average impacts all three phenomenons.
Less directly, it may be important to consider the effect of older Americans working longer on younger generations of the American work force. Certainly with a glut of highly experienced employees choosing to remain past the average age for retirement, it may be suppressing the career growth opportunities of younger generations. The boomers will retire however, and this may also produce a vacuum effect of leadership and experience. Younger generations, who may have felt stalled by the logjam “at the top” may suddenly find themselves advancing at a rate greater than predecessors.
Maybe its time I reconsider how to use this most consistent and measureable longitudinal variables in my work.
Read More...
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Many models I have built have excluded age as a discreet or continuous independent over concerns regarding sensitivity to outliers (sometimes it is however include with grad decade as a proxy). This article presents some interesting information that while I already knew, had never considered in respect to my work: U.S. population is working longer, pushing retirement age higher and higher.
The implications I believe are both explicit and implicit. Directly, the trend towards working longer may necessitate a change in traditional assumptions of major gift work. Often there are general demographic “sweet spots” in age, relatively consistent from institution to institution. Certainly donors in their 70’s and 80’s have different giving behavior than those in their 30’s and 40’s. You may consider these “stages” in a donor’s life where they may have different attitudes towards making a major gift, or a planned gift, etc.
I have not observed a “rule of thumb” regarding major gifts and retirement age. Some individuals like to give while still working full time, others wait until retirement “settles in”, and some even use a major gift as a “kick off” to their transition from employment to retirement. American’s working longer on average impacts all three phenomenons.
Less directly, it may be important to consider the effect of older Americans working longer on younger generations of the American work force. Certainly with a glut of highly experienced employees choosing to remain past the average age for retirement, it may be suppressing the career growth opportunities of younger generations. The boomers will retire however, and this may also produce a vacuum effect of leadership and experience. Younger generations, who may have felt stalled by the logjam “at the top” may suddenly find themselves advancing at a rate greater than predecessors.
Maybe its time I reconsider how to use this most consistent and measureable longitudinal variables in my work.
Read More...
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Dairy Queen applies analytics for its mobile rewards program
Consumers walking into the Dairy Queen in Rochester, Indiana, have been offered something beyond ice creams and hamburgers: A pile of RFID tags that can be activated and affixed to their wallet, watchband or mobile device. The technology can track customers’ purchases and make customized coupon recommendations when they enter the store.
“Our goal is to get a better understanding of customer behavior, and build customer loyalty based on that information” said Jamie Guse, International Dairy Queen Manager. This identification system will provide the retailer with detailed visibility into a customer’s purchase history and coupon redemption rates. Dairy Queen will analyze this information to send targeted marketing and promotional offers via mobile coupons redeemable in-store. The ice-cream merchant will measure the performance of their campaigns via real-time validation and reporting.
Other retailers that are also leveraging analytics to dial into the mobile coupon space include Burger King, Victoria’s Secret and Unilever (through ShopRite). The program is intended to deliver the benefit of a mobile system without the hardware and software integration challenges of having to deal with multiple phone manufacturers and competing carriers.
A total of 900 people have joined the loyalty program since its inception 20 months ago. The RFID tag test, expected to run through the end of the year, is already making a measurable impact to year-over-year traffic and revenue. Eventually, Dairy Queen intends to expand the test and later take the program national.
International Dairy Queen (IDQ), headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, develops licenses and services a system of over 5,600 stores in the United States, Canada and foreign countries. The quick service restaurant offers dairy desserts, hamburgers, hot dogs and beverages. The 69-year-old $2.6B dessert merchant is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
US Wine Distributor to analyze customer spend
Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) is implementing a new online reporting tool to track and measure consumer purchase behavior. Through deployment of this solution, RNDC will be able to use analytics to predict customer behavior and look at real time marketplace trends, price points, and opportunities for spirits, wine, and beer sales.
Data will be collected from point of sale systems for 14 markets in the US
The information we now show our customers (restaurants, bars, etc) is real, fact based, and applicable to their unique market, said RNDC Assistant Corporate VP Wine, Ken Rosenberg.
RNDC is the second largest distributor of premium wine and spirits in the U.S.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Retail businesses can use analytics to flourish despite economic crisis
Retail businesses rarely see the kind of economic stress that is facing them in their markets today. The economic crisis has forced consumers to be very selective about buying. The most successful retailers will be those who are adept at data optimization using advanced, database-driven analytics.
Companies have uniquely valuable information assets which, when examined and leveraged through detailed analysis, can contribute dramatically to positive performance.
So, specifically, on what type of analytics should retailers focus? Bill Franks offers ten tips on programs that can engage the shopper. Learn which relationships to fight for, which to grow and which, if any, may be futile.
Read More...
Bill Franks is Managing Partner of the Retail Advanced Business Analytics Practice for the Americas region at Teradata Corporation. Bill has extensive background helping clients derive value through the use of data analysis and modeling.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Best Buy uses analytics to boost sales
Best Buy’s enterprise-wide approach to analytical decision-making has contributed to maximizing its financial performance. Most recently, they have introduced free financing offers for entire shopping cards full of items – rather than one product at a time.
As the recession spiraled, consumers’ spending habits changed dramatically. Many stopped spending altogether and those who were still hitting stores showed some disturbing patterns. The number of customers signing up for financing on such purchases as big-screen TVs and computers surged. At the same time, the number of shoppers spending over $1,000 per trip plummeted. In response, the electronics retailer introduced the free financing offer to convert as many shoppers to Best Buy purchasers as possible. Best Buy Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge said "We realized that storewide financing could be a powerful differentiator in the marketplace.”
When the economy was booming a few years ago, Best Buy decided to forgo short-term revenue to dig deeper into customer habits. They removed the annual fee from its bonus card and nearly 10 times more shoppers signed up. Armed with more customer data, the company understood its shoppers better and was able to align merchandise accordingly. In another instance, Best Buy collected data on 60 million US
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Best Buy is the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S., with about 20% of the $170 billion market. With the 2009 acquisition of 50% of the Carphone Warehouse's retail operations, the firm increased its stake of the $700 billion global consumer electronics market to roughly 6%. The firm also operates under the Future Shop and Five Star trade names in Canada and China, respectively, and Magnolia Home Theater, Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath, and Geek Squad in the U.S. It was formerly known as Sound of Music, Inc. and changed its name to Best Buy Co., Inc. in 1983. The company founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota.
Indus Insights is a specialized consulting firm that assists organization in leveraging analytics to drive business performance. They use state-of-the-art mathematical and statistical techniques to unlock game-changing insights hidden in data; and then translate these insights into actionable strategies.
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