The value of digging deep
So, you have access to a lot of data (perhaps even ‘big’ data). Now what are you going to do next? You need some way to turn all those numbers into something useful. You need to see the correlations, the patterns and the relationships — and then model the results to derive some sort of actionable insight. Perhaps even make predictions.
That’s where data mining comes in. And it’s become incredibly useful for some of the country’s most successful businesses.
Who’s benefitting – and how?
Data mining is carried out via data analysis tools that enable businesses to determine the relationships among factors such as price, buying patterns, product positioning or staff skills, plus other areas such as economic indicators, competition and customer demographics.
Businesses can also ‘drill down’ into detailed transactional data and match the patterns in one dataset to another. For example, retailers like Tesco use point-of-sale records of customer purchases and data from loyalty cards to send targeted promotions based on an individual’s purchase history.
There are numerous other insights that you can mine data for. You can look at the behaviour of predetermined groups, clusters and market segments. You can examine sequential patterns to predict future behaviour. You can also use data analysis tools to unearth previously unknown associations, like ‘when people buy Product A on a Friday, they’re also 80% likely to buy Product B – but only 25% are likely to also buy Product C on a Monday’.
What about your own data goldmine?
At Ipsos Jarmany, we’ve spent a lot of time honing our data mining skills because we know they are key to delivering actionable insights like these that have an impact on decisions that drive sales. Get in touch and we’ll be happy to explain more.
