Wharton Customer Analytics Accelerator Challenge

FYI much more detail at the link.

ANALYTICS ACCELERATOR CHALLENGE

Data problems? We can help.

The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative is looking to provide implementable solutions to companies who are ready to bring their most pressing marketing and analytics problems, and a committed point person, “to the table.”  WCAI wants to help push your company to the next level of critical decision-making, informed by your customer data and the Initiative’s deep knowledge of best practices in customer analytics methods.  Whether you have data to analyze or are in need of a road map to begin, WCAI wants to hear from you.

The 2018 Analytics Accelerator Challenge company application will open on Wednesday, August 15th.  To learn about last year’s Challenge and Summit click here.    ... "

Separating Better Data from Big Data

Interesting Podcast and transcript that leads towards operational considerations for analytics:

Separating Better Data from Big Data: Where Analytics Is Headed

Wharton's Eric Bradlow, Peter Fader and Raghuram Iyengar discuss what's next for customer analytics.

Ten years ago, the most forward-thinking companies were just starting to dive into the potential of data and analytics. Since then, brands have moved from using analytics to answer what customers are doing to exploring the how and why, and also to figure out what they will do in the future.

The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and has seen every step of that evolution. Knowledge@Wharton recently sat down with Wharton marketing professors Eric Bradlow, Peter Fader and Raghuram Iyengar to discuss how the field has developed over time, and what they expect to be the key trends over the next decade. Bradlow and Fader are the founding directors of WCAI, and Bradlow and Iyengar are the current co-directors.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows. ... " 

WCAI and Earth Networks

An interesting collaboration, reminiscent of work by IBM with the Weather Channel

Earth Networks and Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative Collaborate to Advance Weather-Driven Analytics Research

Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) Research Center will tap Earth Networks proprietary weather intelligence to expand commercial use cases of rich weather data assets ... "

Data Mining and Advertising Targets

How Data Mining Can Help Advertisers Hit Their Targets?

Wharton's Shawndra Hill discusses her research on TV ads and online search.

Podcast and text: 

Shawndra Hill, a senior fellow at the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, likes to dig into the details. As someone who studies data mining, she looks for new ways to apply what she finds to solve business problems. Hill’s latest research paper, “Television and Digital Advertising: Second Screen Response and Coordination with Sponsored Search,” focuses on TV ads, online search and the connections between them. The paper was co-authored with Gordon Burtch from the University of Minnesota and Michael Barto, a data scientist at Microsoft. Hill recently spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about what she found.  ... " 

Retail Marketing to Millennials

In Retailwire.  Good overview on the use of channel interactions by millennials in Retail, and discussion.   In the discussion, Peter Fader makes a good point:

Peter Fader
Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School of the Univ. of Pennsylvania

Allow me to expand on Ralph’s key point: “not all Millennials are alike” — in fact they’re vastly different. All these efforts to stereotype and target Millennials are doing more harm than good for retailers. Any effort to paint all consumers in a large demographic group with the same brush is a terrible mistake.

A modest proposal: let’s stop stereotyping and focus instead on finding/leveraging *meaningful* differences across consumers …  " 

(Link Fixed) -Wharton Customer Analyticast

Via Marin Hitch Associate Director, Marketing & Communications

Introducing the, "Wharton Customer Analyticast"
WCAI has launched a podcast, "The Wharton Customer Analyticast," where we'll have WCAI constituents share different opinions, observations, and speculations about the world of customer analytics. In our first episode, WCAI Co-Director Pete Fader, explains the concept of, “The U of Data Sharing.” 

New Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative Site

Via Marin Hitch of the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative:

New Website: Get to #KnowWCAI 

We launched a new site to showcase all the excitement around customer analytics at Wharton! You can keep up on our latest data projects with academic researchers and corporate partners, as well as WCAI events, student & alumni programs, and practitioner content. 

For over 7 years, WCAI has helped shape the definition of ‘customer analytics’ and in that time has become a hub for cutting-edge research, professional training, and global networking. Some of you have been with us for years, others we just met at our recent annual conference and student workshops. Whatever the case, we want you all to see the great work coming from one another and hope our new website offers more perspective into the dynamic, cross-industry landscape of customer analytics, both at Wharton and around the world. Thanks for your continued support of WCAI. 

- The WCAI Team 

Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative

A reminder about the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) , who we connected with from time to time via Peter Fader.  

" .... the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) is the preeminent academic research center focusing on the development and application of customer analytic methods. Acting as “matchmaker” between academia and industry, WCAI has a broad impact on the practice of data-driven business decision-making, and the dissemination of relevant insights to managers, students and policy makers.

Based in the Wharton School’s Marketing Department and designed to capitalize on Wharton’s longstanding strength in conducting empirical research, WCAI is an interdisciplinary effort that brings a passionate data-driven perspective unmatched by any other business school. ... " 

" ....  WHAT IS CUSTOMER ANALYTICS?
Customer Analytics refers to the collection, management, analysis and strategic leverage of a firm\’s granular data about the behavior(s) of its customers. There are several features that distinguish customer analytics from other types of data collection/analysis. ... " 

Book: Marketing Research Using R

Had not seen a book yet that looked at marketing research problems using the analytics language R, This is written by a Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) fellow and colleague.  I plan to get a copy.

R for Marketing Research and Analytics (Use R!) Paperback – March 10, 2015 by Christopher N. Chapman, Elea McDonnell Feit

They write:

   " ... This book is a complete introduction to the power of R for marketing research practitioners. The text describes statistical models from a conceptual point of view with a minimal amount of mathematics, presuming only an introductory knowledge of statistics. Hands-on chapters accelerate the learning curve by asking readers to interact with R from the beginning. Core topics include the R language, basic statistics, linear modeling, and data visualization, which is presented throughout as an integral part of analysis.

Later chapters cover more advanced topics yet are intended to be approachable for all analysts. These sections examine logistic regression, customer segmentation, hierarchical linear modeling, market basket analysis, structural equation modeling, and conjoint analysis in R. The text uniquely presents Bayesian models with a minimally complex approach, demonstrating and explaining Bayesian methods alongside traditional analyses for analysis of variance, linear models, and metric and choice-based conjoint analysis.

With its emphasis on data visualization, model assessment, and development of statistical intuition, this book provides guidance for any analyst looking to develop or improve skills in R for marketing applications. ... " 

Your Product and Word of Mouth

Word of mouth for any product?

MARKETING
Think Your Product Is Too Boring for Word of Mouth Marketing? Think Again
New Wharton research shows consumers communicate differently depending on the medium, providing food for thought for marketers chasing the ever-elusive word of mouth recommendation. ...

Consumer Psychology in Surveys

Via Wharton's Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI): "You're always going to want to understand the consumer psychology: why are people doing what they're doing," says WCAI's Eric Bradlow ... Listen to the NPR Morning Edition Story on Customer Surveys here: n.pr/NXGRNu

Successful Applications of Customer Analytics

It has been a while since I have looked at the Wharton Customer analytics (WCAI)  site.  I had the pleasure to give several talks there.  They are about to hold a conference, which is worth taking a look at:

SUCCESSFUL APPLICATIONS OF CUSTOMER ANALYTICS
On May 1, 2014, the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) will host its first-ever conference devoted to Successful Applications of Customer Analytics. As a research center positioned at the intersection between academics and industry, WCAI will be showcasing presentations that illustrate a high level of rigor but are also broadly accessible to practitioners. Case studies will be presented by MGM, Cleveland Indians, Pfizer/Kaggle, GE, Deloitte, Nielsen, and Visible World  .... 

Thursday, May 1, 2014
Inn at Penn, 3600 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
9:00 AM- 5:00 PM ... " 

Sign up, also look at the other useful information at the site.

Measuring Advertising

Measurement of outcomes is always interesting to me, so this led to the announcement below:

The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) and the SEI Center's Future of Advertising Program (SEI FoA) are pleased to announce a conference ( Thursday, May 16, 2013) focusing on new ways to measure advertising effectiveness. This fast-paced, one-day program will feature presentations on research projects that were selected to receive grants from WCAI and SEI FoA last year, along with commentary from a number of well-recognized practitioners. Presentations will cover a wide range of cutting-edge approaches to gauging advertising’s effectiveness including:

Field experiments
Advertising models: going beyond marketing mix and attribution
Combining experimental and non-experimental data
New measurement techniques: eye tracking and emotional response

To encourage a lively discussion on what these cutting-edge findings mean for today’s marketing analytics professionals, the program will feature short research presentations combined with panel discussions. The highlight of the day will be a keynote from Deb Roy, an expert in data-driven methods for analyzing and modeling human linguistic and social behavior, and founder of Bluefin Labs (recently acquired by Twitter).

The full agenda and registration information can be viewed here.

Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative
t: 215-746-4161 | e: wcai-mail@wharton.upenn.edu 
http://wcai.wharton.upenn.edu 

Marketing Experiments

Wharton WCAI has an upcoming free webinar on Marketing Experiments: From the Basics to the Cutting Edge.  On September 12.  I plan to attend.  More information and registration here.

Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative Mobile Talks

In the latest Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative newsletter there are a number of videos from a recent conference that deal with mobile customer behavior.  Here are the descriptions of the talks, the links can be found at the link above:" ... If you missed WCAI's conference, "Marketing on the Move: Understanding the Impact of Mobile on Consumer Behavior," or just want a quick refresh, the academic presentations are now available to view on WCAI's YouTube channel.  Check out the talks from Felix Oberholzer-Gee (Harvard), Martin Spann  (LMU Munich), Peter Danaher (Monash University), David Martens (University of Antwerp), and Sam Ransbotham (Boston College)..... "

If You Like Will You Buy?

From the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative:

Intriguing data and behavior analysis opportunity:

IF YOU "LIKE"  WILL YOU BUY? NEW DATA ON SOCIAL MEDIA EXPOSURE AND PURCHASE BEHAVIOR
A WCAI Research Opportunity Sponsored by a Multinational FMCG Company 
May 4, 2012, 12:00 – 1:00 pm EST
 Don't miss out on one of the best multi-channel advertising data sets to be made available to the academic community. Over the past two years, this major multinational Fast Moving Consumer Goods ("FMCG") company has carefully collected data for a specific product category in a Western European Country. Using household scanners, television monitors, and network card data capturing devices, the company has recorded what its panelists have bought, what they've watched on TV, their banner ad exposures, and what's been presented to them on their Facebook news feeds. The company's products can be found in all major grocery chains, and their brands have strong presence across television, online and social channels..... "