Unsupervised learning is covered in Chapter 14 of The Elements of Statistical Learning. Here we learn about several data reduction techniques including principal component analysis (PCA), K-means clustering, nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) and archetypal analysis (AA). Although on the surface they seem so different, each is a data approximation technique using ... [Read more...]

Unsupervised learning is covered in Chapter 14 of The Elements of Statistical Learning. Here we learn about several data reduction techniques including principal component analysis (PCA), K-means clustering, nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) ... [Read more...]

"Sensemaking is a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively."- Gary Klein, Brian Moon & Robert HoffmanMaking Sense of Sensema... [Read more...]

"Sensemaking is a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively." - Gary Klein, Brian Moon & Robert Hoffman Making Sense of Sensemaking 1 (2006) Story #1: A Tale of Causal Links A causal model can serve as a ... [Read more...]

"For a long time I have thought I was a statistician.... But as I have watched mathematical statistics evolve, I have had cause to wonder and to doubt.... All in all, I have come to feel that my central interest is in data analysis...."Opening paragrap... [Read more...]

"For a long time I have thought I was a statistician.... But as I have watched mathematical statistics evolve, I have had cause to wonder and to doubt.... All in all, I have come to feel that my central interest is in data analysis...."Opening paragraph from John Tukey "The ... [Read more...]

Preference begins with attention, a form of intention-guided perception. You enter the store thirsty on a hot summer day, and all you can see is the beverage cooler at the far end of the aisle with your focus drawn toward the cold beverages that you im... [Read more...]

Preference begins with attention, a form of intention-guided perception. You enter the store thirsty on a hot summer day, and all you can see is the beverage cooler at the far end of the aisle with your focus drawn toward the cold beverages that you immediately recognize and desire. Focal ... [Read more...]

Statistical software packages sell solutions. If you go to the home page for SAS, they will tell you upfront that they sell products and solutions. They link both together under the first tab just below "The Power to Know" mantra. SPSS separates produc... [Read more...]

Statistical software packages sell solutions. If you go to the home page for SAS, they will tell you upfront that they sell products and solutions. They link both together under the first tab just below "The Power to Know" mantra. SPSS separates product and solution into separate tabs, but places ... [Read more...]

Matrix factorization follows from the realization that nothing forces us to accept the data as given. We start with objects placed in rows and record observations on those objects arrayed along the top in columns. Neither the objects nor the measuremen... [Read more...]

No matter where you live, your view of the world is biased and limited, which is the beauty of this magazine cover.As a marketer, of course, all my maps depict, not place, but consumption. For example, in an earlier post I asked, "What apps are on your... [Read more...]

The multiple regression equation represents the linear combination of the predictors with the smallest mean-squared error. That linear combination is a factorization of the predictors with the factors equal to the regression weights. You may see the wo... [Read more...]

The genre shirt asks, "What kind of music do u listen 2?"Microgenres exist because markets are fragmenting and marketers need names to attract emerging customer segments with increasingly specific preferences. The cost of producing and delivery music n... [Read more...]

The marketing researcher asks some version of the following question in every study, "Tell me what you want?" The rest is a summary of the notes taken during the ensuing conversation.Steve Jobs' quote suggests that we might do better getting a reaction... [Read more...]

At its core, choice modeling is a utility estimating machine. Everything has a value reflected in the price that we are willing to pay in order to obtain it. Here are a collection of Smart Watches from a search of Google Shopping. You are free to click... [Read more...]

Marketing data can be collected in the first or third person, and we require different statistical models for each point of view.Netflix encourages you to adopt a third-person perspective when it surveys your taste preferences by asking how often you w... [Read more...]

The recommendation system gives you a long list of alternatives, but the consumer clicks on only a handful: most appealing first, then the second best, and so on until they stop with all the remaining receiving the same rating as not interesting enough... [Read more...]

Utility has been reified, and we have committed the fallacy of misplaced concreteness.As this link illustrates, Sawtooth's MaxDiff provides an instructive example of reification in marketing research. What is the contribution of "clean bathrooms" ... [Read more...]

Cluster are groupings that have no external label. We start with entities described by a set of measurements but no rule for sorting them by type. Mixture modeling makes this point explicit with its equation showing how each measurement is an independe... [Read more...]