Getting more out of data & Data Mining
Most organizations have a wealth of data that is not used properly, it can be a technical problem e.g. inaccessible databases; or purely be lack of a suitable resource.
A retailer may not know the profile of purchasing over a day or a week; but if the till-roll or credit card transaction files were analysed useful trends emerge about basket size and loyalty.
A manufacturer has ex-factory dispatches that can be used on one hand to look at transaction shares; and on the other to be merged with retail audit data and provide a "pipeline stock analysis".
A mobile phone provider can analyze his files to help understand the barriers to continuing loyalty and "churn".
Using many sources of information (ex-factory, retail audit, advertising, price etc) combined together and inputted into a mathematical model, it's possible to understand pricing and advertising effects so these can be optimized within the Marketing Budget.