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Tips, ideas and thoughts on digital and offline data strategy

Update: College Football Pickems Decision Model

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Sat, 09/22/2012 - 10:00

In a post last week I discussed my problem with picking college football games against the spread. After stating the problem (I was dead last in the standings) I walked through a very basic exploratory and statistical analysis by using probabilities from the first 2 weeks to develop a decision-making model for selecting my picks. And the results were...

Surprisingly good

As a recap, here is the model:

Market Basket Analysis

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Thu, 09/20/2012 - 18:00

While you may say the top two objectives of a business is to increase awareness and persuade prospective customers to purchase its goods and/or services, a complementary objective is to maximize the value of each transaction. Simply put, the higher the order value the greater the profit. This can be accomplished by cross-selling (selling more) or up-selling (upgrading).

Control Limits: Why You Should Know And Love Them

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Wed, 09/19/2012 - 18:00

As you can guess, I love data. I love data because they are the basic facts about your business that can be used to support your decision-making process. However, and being an analyst professional you may think this is hard for me to say, data can be used to make bad decisions. Data may not be accurate due to systemic issues within the data collection process, and/or the results of a report or analysis may be misinterpreted. One way to mitigate the latter problem is with the usage of control limits.

Using Google Insights To Forecast Demand: An Example

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Tue, 09/18/2012 - 18:00

In a recent post I briefly introduced Google Insights as a helpful tool for forecasting demand for your business. In this post I would like to continue that idea with an example. I will walk you through a scenario in which I am a young entrepreneur in Nashville, TN starting an income tax planning and preparation firm. So let’s introduce the problem.

Do Not Lead From Behind On Mobile Strategy

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Mon, 09/17/2012 - 18:00

It has been uncovered that Google is testing identification of mobile-friendly search results. This has the potential of drastically reshaping the organic search landscape. With mobile adoption surging, this could have a dramatic competitive impact for your business. If your website ranks below your competitor in organic searches then you are likely receiving fewer clicks.

Need Help With Forecasting and Planning? Try Google Insights.

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Sun, 09/16/2012 - 18:00

Google has a free tool, well several actually, but one I'd like to focus on in this article. Google Insights allows you to research search trends for categories and specific keywords. There are several applications for this tool with one being researching seasonality for an industry. Want to know when HVAC demand peaks? Need to know when to launch your holiday promotion? Google Insights can help you understand the seasonal trends that may impact such decisions.

Exploratory Analysis Of My College Football Pickems

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 14:00

It’s week 3 for College Football, which means another ego-crushing round of College Football Pickems. The first couple of weeks have not been too kind to me. Week 1 wasn’t too bad, but due to procrastination in week 2 I missed several picks for the earlier games. Now I enter week 3 tied for last in the standings. With two weeks worth of data at my disposal and bragging rights on the line, I think it is time for a little analysis to see if I can improve my performance.

Marketing Insights From “The Kids In The Hall”

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 15:00

Some of you may remember the sketch comedy show “The Kids In The Hall” which ran on CBS and HBO in the late 1980s through early 1990s. This group of Canadian comedians produced some funny sketches with many memorable characters and lines that I can still recall to this day. In a sketch titled “Hotel La Rut”, Scott Thompson portrays a heart-broken woman longing for her lost love Tony. Sitting at the window she utters this classic:

Improve Analysis Within Your Business By Using Statistics

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 18:15

Most business leaders have encountered statistics at some point in their careers, but I suspect for many this was in their undergraduate coursework and they never really looked back. The implication of this is that many businesses do not actively use statistics in their decision-making framework. I think there are two reasons for this. First, they may be interested in applying statistics but the cost is prohibitive. SAS and SPSS are expensive packages for small and medium sized businesses.

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