Market Analytics Archives • 4C Blog

Where Should We Grow Next? Using Data to Drive Decisions

This post contributed by 4CGeoWorks Managing Consultant of Global Services, George Anderson

Many retailers today are faced with the daunting task of international store expansion, but for many looking to grow, the notion of expansion outside of the U.S. is a complex challenge. How are they to know, with confidence, which country they should expand into next?

To appropriately develop and expand across a global platform of new/existing stores and for the retailer to be successful in the international theatre, one key factor is to mitigate risk. To mitigate risk the retailer must have a clear market understanding. They must understand not only who the customer is today, but how many customers exist in the marketplace, their share of wallet (how much disposable income they have to spend on non-essentials) and how many potential locations can realistically be opened.

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September 2, 2014

4CGeoWorks

7 Tips to Become a Better Analyst

This post is part of a series on the 9 Laws of Data Mining from Tom Khabaza applied to analytics. You can find previous posts here.

Law #2: “Business Knowledge Law” – Business knowledge is central to every step of the data mining [market analytics] process

Some might think that the best way to become a better analyst is to learn new data mining techniques using analytics software. While the technical aspects of analytics are certainly important, there is a more fundamental way to become a better analyst. The most effective thing that you can do is to learn about your business and cultivate your thinking skills about your industry. (more…)

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May 29, 2014

4CGeoWorks

So, What? Setting Goals and Finding Answers in Location Analytics

Tom Khabaza, an early innovator in the field of data mining in the 1990’s, developed the “9 Laws of Data Mining” in his lectures in 2010. Since then an entire community of data miners has benefited from these sound principles, but they have not been widely used by GIS professionals. These principles are a suitable framework to guide location analytics and market analytics, which yield the same business value as data mining activities. As Khabaza points out, there is nothing really “new” in the laws themselves. It is in the explanation and application of these laws where we find innovation.

Those who are unfamiliar with the 9 laws would benefit from reading and listening to Khabaza explain these laws himself at http://khabaza.codimension.net/ before reading further. This series will review the 9 laws one by one, with this first post focusing on the application of the very first law.
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May 15, 2014