Marketing Data Science: Modeling Techniques in Predictive Analytics with R and Python

3. Targeting Current Customers

“Listen, I—I appreciate this whole seduction scene you’ve got going, but let me give you a tip: I’m a sure thing. OK?”

—JULIA ROBERTS AS VIVIAN WARD IN Pretty Woman (1990)

Mass marketing treats all customers as one group. One-to-one marketing focuses on one customer at a time. Target marketing to selected groups of customers or market segments lies between mass marketing and one-to-one marketing. Target marketing involves directing marketing activities to those customers who are most likely to buy.

Targeting implies selection. Some customers are identified as more valuable than others and these more highly valued customers are given special attention. By becoming skilled at targeting, a company can improve its profitability, ...