Back in December (before I had my blog), I heard this 'report' on CBC radio. A very one-sided (negative) report on the "threat of data mining". I've mentioned it to a few folks so I thought I'd provide the link:
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2006/200612/20061218.html
(scroll down to Part 2 to listen to the broadcast)
I was very disappointed that they didn't interview anyone in the data mining space for their side of the story. Actually this is more a story on data and privacy NOT data mining at all but it's important for us all to understand what the public is hearing.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Are we lacking innovation?
Is the Canadian marketing analytics community lacking in innovation?
I had an interesting conversation with an executive from the US yesterday; he was bemoaning the fact that he didn't see anything interesting happening in Canadian data mining community. He commented that it was all the "same old, same old"....lots of logistic regression response and propensity models and k-means clustering. He claimed that the US was miles ahead and doing much more interesting things. This certainly got me thinking.; I am not sure I agree with him... but I suspect that we are not as innovative as we could be.
Are we really pushing ourselves to try new things or are we happy with the status quo?? I know we are exploring more new ideas than we used to be; new tools have made coding less onerous and advanced statistics knowledge a little less critical. But are we given the freedom to explore truly new things?
Is this the fault of clients and executitves not giving data miners freedom to test new things? Or is the fault of data miners not pushing boundaries?
What do you think?
I had an interesting conversation with an executive from the US yesterday; he was bemoaning the fact that he didn't see anything interesting happening in Canadian data mining community. He commented that it was all the "same old, same old"....lots of logistic regression response and propensity models and k-means clustering. He claimed that the US was miles ahead and doing much more interesting things. This certainly got me thinking.; I am not sure I agree with him... but I suspect that we are not as innovative as we could be.
Are we really pushing ourselves to try new things or are we happy with the status quo?? I know we are exploring more new ideas than we used to be; new tools have made coding less onerous and advanced statistics knowledge a little less critical. But are we given the freedom to explore truly new things?
Is this the fault of clients and executitves not giving data miners freedom to test new things? Or is the fault of data miners not pushing boundaries?
What do you think?
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Customer Networks
I recently read some interesting stuff about analysing customer networks - the network of influencers and peers who are part of the buying decision (perhaps most applicable in the B2B and not-for-profit spaces).
Any good salesperson has always understood these influences and attempted, where possible, to reach them. What is different appears to be the attempt to apply some analytic rigour to this work. Social networks are a hot field in marketing right now - in fact, Gartner cited Social Network Analysis (SNA) as an emerging technology for the nex ten years (see: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=495475)
I'm not endorsing this company but at first blush it looks like they have some interesting ideas on how to approach this....anyone out there want to add to the discussion? http://www.comlytics.com/Home/
A related Harvard Business Review article:
http://www.comlytics.com/ID=2819/TYPE=1161/HBR-Network%20Selling.pdf
Any good salesperson has always understood these influences and attempted, where possible, to reach them. What is different appears to be the attempt to apply some analytic rigour to this work. Social networks are a hot field in marketing right now - in fact, Gartner cited Social Network Analysis (SNA) as an emerging technology for the nex ten years (see: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=495475)
I'm not endorsing this company but at first blush it looks like they have some interesting ideas on how to approach this....anyone out there want to add to the discussion? http://www.comlytics.com/Home/
A related Harvard Business Review article:
http://www.comlytics.com/ID=2819/TYPE=1161/HBR-Network%20Selling.pdf
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
A Culture of Learning
I was recently asked whether the culture of an organization plays a role in analytic sucess....here was my response.
"An emphatic “Yes”! I believe very strongly that, for analytic success, you must create a culture of learning across your organization. In many organizations the “creatives”, “suits” and “techies” work in independent silos interacting only when absolutely necessary. Cultures that embrace analytics encourage these individuals to work closely - learning from each other and sharing information.
The most successful analytics programs get analytics out of the cubicle and into the boardroom. C-level executives must see the value of analytics – and manage by the results; and the onus is on analysts need to become better communicators, sharing their approaches and their findings with the business.
For the true benefits of analytics to be realized, organizations must be willing to ask the hard questions: “Did it really work?”, “Can we do better?”, “If we take some more time, can we achieve a better result?” This type of self-examination only happens when organizations reward curiosity and measure everything."
Do you agree?
"An emphatic “Yes”! I believe very strongly that, for analytic success, you must create a culture of learning across your organization. In many organizations the “creatives”, “suits” and “techies” work in independent silos interacting only when absolutely necessary. Cultures that embrace analytics encourage these individuals to work closely - learning from each other and sharing information.
The most successful analytics programs get analytics out of the cubicle and into the boardroom. C-level executives must see the value of analytics – and manage by the results; and the onus is on analysts need to become better communicators, sharing their approaches and their findings with the business.
For the true benefits of analytics to be realized, organizations must be willing to ask the hard questions: “Did it really work?”, “Can we do better?”, “If we take some more time, can we achieve a better result?” This type of self-examination only happens when organizations reward curiosity and measure everything."
Do you agree?
Dumbing it down
Marketers have been patting themselves on the back a lot recently over their ability to customize and personalize direct marketing efforts. Great results have been acheived through personalized mailings and the customization of creative. However, I'd like to suggest that we need to exercise caution in using the information we collect on our customers.
In fact, I don't believe even customer permission is enough. Let me use an example to explain.
Just before the birth of my second child, I received a direct mail package from an infant formula company. As an advocate of leveraging data, I appreciated how well targeted it was; it spoke to me as an “experienced” mother, who had used infant formula before. In fact, it came with a free can of formula (valued at approximately $10). However, I did not buy the product, or even try the sample; I was so put off that I gave the sample to a women’s shelter and never considered the brand when feeding my new baby.
So what went wrong? In this case, the customer data was accurate but the use of it was inappropriate. I expect I willingly provided all the information that they used to target me - likely via a survey at a maternity store - and even gave permission for the contact.
But such intimacy requires more than just access and permission to use the information.
The communication came from a company I had no prior relationship with and they used information that I consider of a personal nature. The customization left me feeling violated, rather than understood.
Advocates of one-to-one have talked about “remembering for” the customers, but many marketers instead have been “remembering about”. I already knew I was having a baby and would need to use formula – telling me that was of no benefit to me. It just made me ask how they knew.
Maintaining customer data is a privilege and a responsibility. As marketers, we need to ensure that we are using it for our customers’ benefit, not to show how clever we are.
Even when we really do know something, sometimes we are better off to “dumb it down.” If instead they had sent me an innocuous mailing with a formula sample; still using the data to target the right customer at the right time but not making it so obvious that they know; I expect I would have accepted it willingly, would have read about the benefits of their new formula and considered it for my new baby.
This post paraphrases an earlier article. For the full article please go to: http://www.emmawarrillow.com/images/How%20Not%20to%20do%20CRM.pdf
In fact, I don't believe even customer permission is enough. Let me use an example to explain.
Just before the birth of my second child, I received a direct mail package from an infant formula company. As an advocate of leveraging data, I appreciated how well targeted it was; it spoke to me as an “experienced” mother, who had used infant formula before. In fact, it came with a free can of formula (valued at approximately $10). However, I did not buy the product, or even try the sample; I was so put off that I gave the sample to a women’s shelter and never considered the brand when feeding my new baby.
So what went wrong? In this case, the customer data was accurate but the use of it was inappropriate. I expect I willingly provided all the information that they used to target me - likely via a survey at a maternity store - and even gave permission for the contact.
But such intimacy requires more than just access and permission to use the information.
The communication came from a company I had no prior relationship with and they used information that I consider of a personal nature. The customization left me feeling violated, rather than understood.
Advocates of one-to-one have talked about “remembering for” the customers, but many marketers instead have been “remembering about”. I already knew I was having a baby and would need to use formula – telling me that was of no benefit to me. It just made me ask how they knew.
Maintaining customer data is a privilege and a responsibility. As marketers, we need to ensure that we are using it for our customers’ benefit, not to show how clever we are.
Even when we really do know something, sometimes we are better off to “dumb it down.” If instead they had sent me an innocuous mailing with a formula sample; still using the data to target the right customer at the right time but not making it so obvious that they know; I expect I would have accepted it willingly, would have read about the benefits of their new formula and considered it for my new baby.
This post paraphrases an earlier article. For the full article please go to: http://www.emmawarrillow.com/images/How%20Not%20to%20do%20CRM.pdf
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