Direct Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Direct Marketing - Essay Example Data is generated by transactions that form the foundation of many industries, such as retail, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, insurance, credit cards, and banking. In addition to these internal data, external data sources also provide demographic, lifestyle, and credit information on retail customers, and credit, financial, and marketing information on business customers. Data mining is a very useful tool to analyse business data and to use it to identify key customers and in turn increase business opportunities by targeted marketing. From the direct marketing perspective, data mining and data fusion provide a necessary means to collect and analyse customers' data in order to utilise direct marketing strategy most effectively. Data mining and data fusion are the exploration and analysis of large quantities of data in order to discover meaningful patterns and rules (Berry et al., 2004). Used in various simpler forms in earlier times, mining and fusion have made way for businesses to finally make some sense out of all the data that they have accumulated for years (Rudd, 2000). Several books and journals have been published to strengthen the cause of these tools to improve relations between customers and generate more business. Some other areas where data mining and data fusion have been extensively used include credit scoring, direct marketing, sales forecasting, insurance, manufacturing, telecommunications, web-mining and text mining. An area pertaining to the scope of this paper is the application of data mining and fusion in direct marketing. Mining and fusion are useful tools in almost all aspects of a business and direct marketing. It helps in building supporting systems for day-today business. It is u seful in forecasting trends, it is used in decision making processes. It can be used in strategic planning of the course of action to be followed (Berson et al., 1999). A significant application in this area is the usage of data mining and fusion as tools in customer marketing and effective promotion (Berry et al., 2004). Customer acquisition is another such application. Statistical modeling using data mining and fusion are useful in effectively segmenting customers so that suitable marketing efforts can be carried out (Berson et al., 1999). Estimation of customer profitability is another such vital application of data mining. Determining customer segments help establish better marketing and services practice (Berson et al., 1999). Data mining and fusion thus help businesses to a very great extent in managing customers and helps maximise the tenure of relationship with customers, optimise the transactions or business carried out, increase profits associated (Berry et al., 2004). Mining is an activity that processes raw data or information recorded on a transactional basis. Earlier in smaller companies, this 'mining' process was carried out by people who dealt directly with customers. Now with companies that have billions of customers, a system has to be established to carry out these activities. Mining is a follow-up and is closely connected with data warehousing (Berson et al., 1999). If useless data has been collected and warehoused, the mining process will yield no better results. At the same time, having

Review book reviews on the book By His own Hand The Mysterious Death Essay

Review book reviews on the book By His own Hand The Mysterious Death of Meriweather Lewis - Essay Example This review explains the book in terms of a courtroom setting in which Holmberg argues the case for suicide, Guice argues against it and Buckley gives instructions to the readers who are supposedly the jury. Morris then gives some details about the contribution of these three scholars in three different paragraphs. First it discusses Holmberg’s work on contemporaneous sources that support the case for suicide in addition to that Holmberg answers the questions raised by critics of the suicide theory. In the next paragraph, Guice’s work on regarding the details of suicide theory as unreliable are discussed. Finally the review takes note of Buckley’s work on presenting recent studies on Lewis’ death. The review then adds to the information of readers that there is a document section comprising of nine documents related to the death of Meriwether Lewis at the end of this book. This document section basically lets the reader of the book decide what actually hap pened. At the end of this review, Morris recommends this book to everyone who is interested in the case of Meriwether Lewis’ death. The next review is by Todd A. Herring from Lincoln University. This review starts with the instance of Meriwether Lewis’ death as well. It tells us that up till now this case has been a subject of surmise. The reviewer introduces the three contributors of this book namely John D. W. Guice, James J. Holmberg and Jay H. Buckley. The reviewer suggests that the analysis presented in this book leads the readers to the conclusion that Meriwether Lewis took his own life. However, in the previous review no such conclusion was drawn. The review talks about Guice’s work that supports the possibility of murder but considers it implausible. The review then talks about the factors that contributed to Lewis’ suicide, which involve, severe alcoholism, financial difficulties, manic-depressive disorder, failure as a territorial governor and i nability to find a wife. Herring makes reference to a recent controversial contention regarding Lewis’ death which according to the reviewer has not been mentioned in the book. This contention involves William Clark. This review describes the book as a compilation of Guice’s assembly of scholars’ theories, Primary documents and Jay H. Buckley’s bibliography. In the end the reviewer does takes account of the fact that Guice’s work does leave some doubt in the minds of the readers. According to this review this volume is an excellent model for historians and has come closer to the apparent truth than any other previous investigation. The review by Dennis Lythgoe starts with the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis and the details associated with it. The review tells us that it has been assumed that Lewis took his own life but there were no eyewitnesses. Further the reviewer claims that even William Clark and Thomas Jefferson assumed that Lewis was no t murdered but committed suicide. Then the review moves on to the book and one by one introduces the four scholars and gives a description of their work that has been presented in this book. According to this review, Clay Jenkinson outlines the facts and describes the problems known from the evidence, Holmberg argues for suicide, Guice argues for murder and Buckley concludes the case after assessing both types of arguments. This non scholarly review also regards the book as a courtroom trial. Later in the review the reviewer highlights Buckley’