Image4Why buy when you can get it for free?

Back at you! Here is the third fantastic delivery of an amazing and fabulous selection of free and widely available business analytics learning content, which has been prepared… just for you.

  1. Unmet needs analytics – aspects of needs analysis. A needs assessment is a systematic process for determining and addressing needs, or “gaps” between current conditions and desired conditions or “wants”. The discrepancy between the current condition and wanted condition must be measured to appropriately identify the need. The need can be a desire to improve current performance or to correct a deficiency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needs_assessment
  2. Need theory, also known as Three Needs Theory,[1][2] proposed by psychologist David McClelland, is a motivational model that attempts to explain how the needs for achievement, power, and affiliation affect the actions of people from a managerial  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_theory
  3. The concept Information need is seldom, if ever, mentioned in the general literature about needs, but is a common term in the literature of information science. According to Hjørland (1997) it is closely related to the concept ofrelevance: If something is relevant for a person in relation to a given task, we might say that the person needs the information for that task. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_needs
  4. Market size analytics. A market analysis studies the attractiveness and the dynamics of a special market within a special industry. It is part of the industry analysis and thus in turn of the global environmental analysis. Through all of these analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of a company can be identified. Finally, with the help of a SWOT analysis, adequate business strategies of a company will be defined.[1] The market analysis is also known as a documented investigation of a market that is used to inform a firm’s planning activities, particularly around decisions of inventory, purchase, work force expansion/contraction, facility expansion, purchases of capital equipment, promotional activities, and many other aspects of a company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_analysis
  5. Market share analysis is a part of market analysis and indicates how well a firm is doing in the marketplace compared to its competitors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_analysis
  6. Here too is a nice little Introduction to Market Analysis (from tutor2u) http://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/introduction-to-market-analysis
  7. Demand forecasting is the art and science of forecasting customer demand to drive holistic execution of such demand by corporate supply chain and business management. Demand forecasting involves techniques including both informal methods, such as educated guesses, and quantitative methods, such as the use of historical sales data and statistical techniques or current data from test marketshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_forecasting
  8. Dell has also provided a neat and brief overview of Demand Forecasting in their Statistics Textbook: http://documents.software.dell.com/Statistics/Textbook/Demand-Forecasting
  9. Also check out the article Demand Forecasting: Going Beyond Historical Shipment Data written by Steve Banker and published by Forbes online: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2013/09/16/demand-forecasting-going-beyond-historical-shipment-data/#103b21f942cc
  10. Market trend analytics. Investopedia puts it like this: ” A trend analysis is an aspect of technical analysis that tries to predict the future movement of a stock based on past data. Trend analysis is based on the idea that what has happened in the past gives traders an idea of what will happen in the future.” http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/trendanalysis.asp?layout=infini&v=4A&adtest=4A
  11. The topic is also covered in Wikipedia’s article on market analysis,. Which studies the attractiveness and the dynamics of a special market within a special industry. It is part of the industry analysis and thus in turn of the global environmental analysis. Through all of these analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of a company can be identified. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_analysis
  12. Prospect theory is a behavioral economic theory that describes the way people choose between probabilistic alternatives that involve risk, where the probabilities of outcomes are known. The theory states that people make decisions based on the potential value of losses and gains rather than the final outcome, and that people evaluate these losses and gains using certain heuristics. The model is descriptive: it tries to model real-life choices, rather than optimal decisions, as normative models do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory
  13. Also check out this article published by Sales and Marketing on the subject of Determining Market and Sales Potential: https://salesandmarketing.com/smm-monitor-enewsletter
  14. Non-customer analytics. Yet another daft, superfluous and simplistic term. It means ‘everyone in the market, except our existing customers’. See above.
  15. Competitor analytics. Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context to identify opportunities and threats. Profiling coalesces all of the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and adjustment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitor_analysis
  16. Competitive intelligence is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers making strategic decisions for an organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_intelligence
  17. You may also be interested in this paper by Professors John A. Czepiel and Roger A. Kerin on the subject of Competitor Analysis: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~jczepiel/Publications/CompetitorAnalysis.pdf
  18. Pricing analytics. In marketingPrice Analysis refers to the analysis of consumer response to theoretical prices in survey research. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_analysis Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the business’s marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will take into account the price at which it could acquire the goods, the manufacturing cost, the market place, competition, market condition, brand, and quality of product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricing
  19. Marketing channel analytics is part of market analysis (AFAIK). You may also be interested in attribution (marketing). In marketingAttribution is the process of identifying a set of user actions (“events” or “touchpoints”) that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events.[1][2] Marketing attribution provides a level of understanding of what combination of events in what particular order influence individuals to engage in a desired behavior, typically referred to as a conversion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_(marketing)
  20. Brand analytics. Brand strength analysis describes efforts to determine the strength a brand has compared with its competitors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_strength_analysis In marketingbrand management is the analysis and planning on how that brand is perceived in the market. Developing a good relationship with the target market is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; look, price, the packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experience that the consumer has had with the brand, and also the relationship that they have with that brand. A brand manager would oversee all of these things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_management
  21. Yield management is a variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, perishable resource (such as airline seats or hotel room reservations or advertising inventory) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_management
  22. Customer acquisition cost. Customer Acquisition Cost is the cost associated in convincing a customer to buy a product/service. This cost is incurred by the organization to convince a potential customer. This cost is inclusive of the product cost as well as the cost involved in research, marketing, and accessibility costs. This is an important business metric. It plays a major role in calculating the value of the customer to the company and the resulting return on investment (ROI) of acquisition. The calculation of customer valuation helps a company decide how much of its resources can be profitably spent on a particular customer. In general terms, it helps to decide the worth of the customer to the company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_acquisition_cost
  23. Payback period. Payback period in capital budgeting refers to the period of time required to recoup the funds expended in an investment, or to reach the break-even point[1] For example, a $1000 investment which returned $500 per year would have a two-year payback period. The time value of money is not taken into account. Payback period intuitively measures how long something takes to “pay for itself.” All else being equal, shorter payback periods are preferable to longer payback periods. Payback period is popular due to its ease of use despite the recognized limitations described below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payback_period
  24. Marketing metrics. You may also be interested in this article from the Digital Marketing Institute titled A Practical Guide to Content Marketing Metrics: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/understand-effectiveness-guide-content-marketing-metrics

I hope you find the content useful. Of course, all thanks should really go to Wikipedia and their unpaid expert contributors, as well as additional references and content providers.

I will try to get the next part of ‘ Free Business Analytics Content’ onto Linked Pulse over the next week.

Many thanks for reading.

Just a few points before closing.

Firstly, please consider joining The Big Data Contrarians, here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8338976

Secondly, keep in touch. My strategy blog is here http://www.goodstrat.com and I can be followed on Twitter at @GoodStratTweet. Please also connect on LinkedIn if you wish. If you have any follow-up questions then leave a comment or send me an email on martyn.jones@cambriano.es

Thirdly, you may be interested in other articles I have written, such as:

Data Warehousing explained to Big Data friends – https://goodstrat.com/2015/07/20/data-warehousing-explained-to-big-data-friends/

Stuff a great data architect should know – https://goodstrat.com/2015/08/16/stuff-a-great-data-architect-should-know-how-to-be-a-professional-expert/

Big Data is not Data Warehousing – https://goodstrat.com/2015/03/06/consider-this-big-data-is-not-data-warehousing/

What can data warehousing do for us now – http://www.computerworld.com/article/3006473/big-data/what-can-data-warehousing-do-for-us-now.html

Looking for your most valuable data? Follow the money – http://www.computerworld.com/article/2982352/big-data/looking-for-your-most-valuable-data-follow-the-money.html