Michael J. Berry - Data Mining Techniques: For Marketing, Sales, and Customer Relationship Management

Data Mining Techniques: For Marketing, Sales, and Customer Relationship Management

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Copyright 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-65093-6

ISBN: 978-1-118-08745-9 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-08747-3 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-08750-3 (ebk)

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To Stephanie, Sasha, and Nathaniel. Without your patience and understanding, this book would not have been possible.

Michael

To Puccio.

Grazie per essere paziente con me.

Ti amo.

Gordon

About the Authors

Gordon S. Linoff and Michael J. A. Berry are well known in the data mining field. They are the founders of Data Miners, Inc., a boutique data mining consultancy, and they have jointly authored several influential and widely read books in the field. The first of their jointly authored books was the first edition of Data Mining Techniques , which appeared in 1997. Since that time, they have been actively mining data in a wide variety of industries. Their continuing hands-on analytical work allows the authors to keep abreast of developments in the rapidly evolving fields of data mining, forecasting, and predictive analytics. Gordon and Michael are scrupulously vendor-neutral. Through their consulting work, the authors have been exposed to data analysis software from all of the major software vendors (and quite a few minor ones as well). They are convinced that good results are not determined by whether the software employed is proprietary or open-source, command-line or point-and-click; good results come from creative thinking and sound methodology.

Gordon and Michael specialize in applications of data mining in marketing and customer relationship management applications such as improving recommendations for cross-sell and up-sell, forecasting future subscriber levels, modeling lifetime customer value, segmenting customers according to their behavior, choosing optimal landing pages for customers arriving at a website, identifying good candidates for inclusion in marketing campaigns, and predicting which customers are at risk of discontinuing use of a software package, service, or drug regimen. Gordon and Michael are dedicated to sharing their knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for the subject. When not mining data themselves, they enjoy teaching others through courses, lectures, articles, on-site classes, and of course, the book you are about to read. They can frequently be found speaking at conferences and teaching classes. The authors also maintain a data mining blog at blog.data-miners.com.

Gordon lives in Manhattan. His most recent book before this one is Data Analysis Using SQL and Excel , which was published by Wiley in 2008.

Michael lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition to his consulting work with Data Miners, he teaches Marketing Analytics at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Credits

Executive Editor

Robert Elliott

Senior Project Editor

Adaobi Obi Tulton

Production Editor

Daniel Scribner

Copy Editor

Paula Lowell

Editorial Director

Robyn B. Siesky

Editorial Manager

Mary Beth Wakefield

Freelancer Editorial Manager

Rosemarie Graham

Marketing Manager

Ashley Zurcher

Production Manager

Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Associate Publisher

Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover

Katie Crocker

Proofreaders

Word One New York

Indexer

Ron Strauss

Cover Image

Ryan Sneed

Cover Designer

PhotoAlto/Alix Minde/GettyImages

Acknowledgments

We are fortunate to be surrounded by some of the most talented data miners anywhere, so our first thanks go to our colleagues, past and present, at Data Miners, Inc., from whom we have learned so much: Will Potts, Dorian Pyle, and Brij Masand. There are also clients with whom we work so closely that we consider them our colleagues and friends as well: Harrison Sohmer, Stuart E. Ward, III, and Michael Benigno are in that category. Our editor, Bob Elliott, kept us (more or less) on schedule and helped us maintain a consistent style.

SAS Institute and the Data Warehouse Institute have given us unparalleled opportunities over the past 12 years for teaching. We owe special thanks to Herb Edelstein (now retired), Herb Kirk, Anne Milley, Bob Lucas, Hillary Kokes, Karen Washburn, and many others who have made these classes possible.

Over the past year, while we were writing this book, several friends and colleagues have been very supportive. We would like to acknowledge Diane and Savvas Mavridis, Steve Mullaney, Lounette Dyer, Maciej Zworski, John Wallace, Paul Rosenblum, and Don Wedding.