Optimal Database Marketing: Strategy, Development, and Data Mining [Hardcover]

Chapter 3 – The process of building a marketing database begins with a definition of what the database is expected to achieve in both the short and long term from a marketing perspective. Among other things, this chapter discusses the determination of the data requirements needed to meet the marketing objective including internal, external, demographic, psychographic and census level data.

Chapter 4 – A properly maintained database is key to cost efficient and effective marketing campaigns. In this chapter you will read about the standard database maintenance routines used by major direct marketers for purposes of scrubbing the data.

Chapter 5 – In most organizations, marketing is not responsible for establishing the technical specifications of the database. However, marketing personnel should have a basic understanding of database technology. With such knowledge, they will be in a better position to establish marketing specifications for the database that are reasonable and maximize effectiveness.

Chapters 6 & 7 – Proper sampling is key to ensuring marketing test results received are reliable and actionable. Once conducted you will want to determine what separates responders from non-responders, attritors and non-attritors, etc. In these chapters you will learn how to become intimate with the customer data for purposes of exploiting the information to its fullest predictive potential.

Chapter 8 – Segmentation is an essential component in marketing planning. Segmenting the customer file allows a direct marketer to more effectively and efficiently market products and services to consumers or other businesses. In this chapter you will learn why and how to segment the customer database and the various quantitative techniques employed including RFM analysis, cross-tabulation analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis.

Chapters 9, 10 & 11 – The use of modeling arms a direct marketer with a powerful tool for identifying the customer most likely to order, pay or attrite. In these chapters, you will learn in an easy to follow format geared for the marketing what a regression model is, how to build a regression model, how to validation the model and how to create and use the gains or lift chart for purposes of making a marketing decision.

Chapter 12 – Key to the establishment of proper strategy for any database marketer is the tracking of customer counts, activity, demographics and value over time. Without such analyses a database marketer will be unable to make the best long-term decisions regarding names sourcing, offers or treatments.

Chapters 13 & 14 – Testing is the foundation upon which a direct marketer builds their business. Unfortunately, many direct marketers lack the necessary skills to properly design and analyze their test plans. In these two chapters you will be taught how to establish marketing tests that will yield reliable and actionable results and how to properly interpret those results. In addition, you will be taught the proper way to design your outside list tests and how to interpret test results with small sample sizes.

Chapters 15 & 16 – Many direct marketers are conducting business on-line as well as off-line in today’s competitive environment. These chapters focus on basic database concepts, both strategy and analysis, as applied to the Internet.

Chapters 17 – Marketers have to consider more than potential profitability when developing, maintaining and utilizing databases. Global, social and legal factors also need to be considered. This chapter examines these issues in addition to future trends in the marketing environment.

Who Will Benefit From this Book: - Marketing managers wishing to gain more understanding of database marketing practices to further their careers. - List managers wanting a more thorough understanding of database marketing practices. - Direct marketing executives requiring a solid overview of database marketing practices applied today. - Academics wishing to provide students with a strong foundation in database marketing applications and strategies. - Quantitative analysts desiring more understanding of the analytical process step by step. - Consultants wanting to better service their clients.