Target Case Response to Questions 1. The case describes the data mining approach used by Target Corporation to predict when a woman is likely to be pregnant. What types of data/indicators would be helpful for Target to track for identifying changes in consumer buying behavior during other life stage events such as getting a divorce, leaving for college, or preparing for marriage?
According to the case, the key to identify a life stage event that will influence purchase traits/decisions are to identify relationships, hidden patterns, exceptions, and anomalies that may other wise be overlooked (Alexander 2012). There are several ways to identify a shopper who is experiencing a divorce. The first one would be deduction in quantity of goods
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There are countless traits that could indicate a divorce; however, Target should be cautious, to collect sufficient indicators, before sending a happily married couple promotions for divorced goods.
2. What considerations should a corporate executive in industries such as banking, health care, or higher education investigate when deciding on implementing a data-mining program?
As a corporate executive of a banking institution, the first step to deciding on implementing a data-mining program should be to identify the goal of the data-mining program. The goal could be to determine the potential value of a customer, or to selling the right plan to the right customer at the right time, etc.… It is also important to determine the commercial value of such goal, or how will the bank benefit from it. With clear and reasonable incentives, the executive can then examine the relevant data and/or how to collect relevant data. Keeping in mind the discussion of ethical considerations before consumers gets irritated and turns away from the institution. More importantly, the executive should strictly abide the law to avoid and breach of federal restrictions.
3. Consider the pros and cons of data mining from the corporate perspective and the customer perspective for managerial decision making. Use the table below to format the response.
The husband and wife would support one another and would overcome obstacles, whether it was financial or emotional conflicts. Real culture began to surface later on when divorce was deemed legal, when divorce slowly became the norm. “As social historian Barbara Dafoe Whitehead has observed of this period, ‘divorce was not only an individual right but also a psychological resource. The dissolution of marriage offered the chance to make oneself over from the inside out, to refurbish and express the inner self, and to acquire certain valuable psychological assets and competencies, such as initiative, assertiveness, and a stronger and better self-image (Wilcox 2009).” This became common thinking in society during the 1960’s and 1970’s when the meaning of divorce blossomed into a new perspective.
2.1 Evaluate the decision making models which are used to support decision making 2.2 Identify those to be involved in analysing information and decision making 2.3 Evaluate methods of presenting decisions made
1. Given a business situation in which managers require information from a database, determine, analyze and classify that information so that reports can be designed to meet the requirements.
The internal stakeholders should include the board of directors, top managers, middle managers, and the staff. Their values and opinions towards the core purpose and values of DJJ are indispensable and important. Developing some surveys and organizing the meetings among the staff are helpful ways to learn and exchange ideas and thoughts about DJJ’s mission and values. The surveys may include the degree of staff satisfaction about the current mission statement and, in case if disagreement, include ways to change and improve the statement. Then, targeting the “customers” that DJJ would mainly serve and focus on is an efficient way to identify the external stakeholders and clarify the core purpose of DJJ.
3. Determine the fundamental obstacles or challenges that business management in general must overcome in order to implement data analytics. Next, suggest a strategy that business management could use to overcome the obstacles or challenges in question. Provide a rationale for your response.
It is expected that in dealing with divorce, there will be numerous questions and uncertainties involved. It is our objective to eliminate the confusions in order for you to forge ahead with confidence and plan for a better future.
Many couples see divorce as an easy way out of a marriage and they feel like they can deflect all the feelings that come with it. Medved says, “The grim stories of crippled couples who I have interviewed for this book got me thinking about the permanent distrust, anguish, and bitterness divorce brings” (665). After a divorce many newly single people find that they are unable to find happiness and the scars left by a divorce is the reason. For instance, many of those who divorce are not ready for the roller coaster ride that lies ahead of them. Medved asserts, “While everyone laments the immediate trauma of “going through a divorce” more discomfiting is the alarming news of it’s lingering emotional and psychological effects” (666).
The issues arising from such a system is the amount of data collected, the operational system in place gathering the data and the quality of that data. For example, in order to precisely identify costs related to a customer the bank should use the activity-based costing methodology, that will assign the costs of all activities of the customer towards the bank (products and services) and assign those costs to the actual consumption of each product and service. Such measurable data could be the income derived from interest paid on outstanding credit balances and loans, the fees paid by the customer, the risk score and the bank’s overhead towards the customer. In order to assess this data – usually they are suppressed in a computerized system that no one can use entirely – one should identify the specific measurable parameters. The bank will have to allocate resources for this task but it will pay off eventually. The data inputs will lead to product / service level metrics and will help the bank assess the profitability of each
It is estimated some over 2million people get married each year. Half of divorces occur with in the first seven years and one-third within the first four years of marriage (Shapiro, 2000) given the above numbers one might be inclined to believe so. Researchers however have discovered several other factors that come into play. To better be able to understand this topic, I have reviewed various types of literature on this and relating subjects, my finding will be discussed throughout this paper.
The history of divorce is a long windy road. At first separation was a personal
According to the Sociology text, over four thousand persons aged 15 and over were reported a century ago where many had regarded divorce as a mark of personal failure. Also, the marks on the chart are determined by the divorce rate rose during World War II, when many couples were separated for long periods of time. By the 1950s rates had dropped below three thousand divorces and rose by 1985. These rates are notified to be tripled over the past century.
Diverse ways of managing money, different financial incomes, and an absence of cash can create great tension in a marriage. In fact, statistics in a survey conducted by Citibank on the divorce rates in the United States suggested that more than fifty percent of divorced couples referred to financial problems as the cause of their divorce. If the couples have children, cash turns out to be significantly more crucial to the relationship. Many individuals refer to money as the reason for their separation. If there is not enough financial care, it causes a barrier in the relationship which is what essentially leads the couple to
How data mining can assist bankers in enhancing their businesses is illustrated in this example. Records include information such as age, sex, marital status, occupation, number of children, and etc. of the bank?s customers over the years are used in the mining process. First, an algorithm is used to identify characteristics that distinguish customers who took out a particular kind of loan from those who did not. Eventually, it develops ?rules? by which it can identify customers who are likely to be good candidates for such a loan. These rules are then used to identify such customers on the remainder of the database. Next, another algorithm is used to sort the database into cluster or groups of people with many similar attributes, with the hope that these might reveal interesting and unusual patterns. Finally, the patterns revealed by these clusters are then interpreted by the data miners, in collaboration with bank personnel.4
Part 2. How Business Analytics can be used to gain advantage in a competitive marketplace
“DIVORCE” – Just the sound of such word in any married couple or children’s ear can cause great agony that can even become terminal. Research and personal experience, has proven that in today's society, divorce is more common amongst newlyweds. Since 2009 the rate of divorce has increased to approximately forty percent, There are three out of every ten marriage that ends up in divorce before it reaches the stage of maturity, and the most prevalent results are – lack of communication and infidelity.