Participants of the Master of Marketing Analysis (http://www.mma.UGent.be) are asked to carry out a real-life project in small groups in cooperation with a particular company. The purpose is to solve a problem in the field of marketing analysis and marketing communications. No courses are provided from April to June, enabling participants to work full time on the project. The integrating project offers participants the opportunity to demonstrate their newly acquired skills and competences. At the end of June, participants will provide teaching staff and company-internal supervisors a presentation of the project.
For reasons of confidentiality, it is clear that we
cannot disclose many details about the content or results of the projects on a
public website.
2
projects for DunnHumby
(http://www.dunnhumby.com)
Background
information:
DunnHumby is a
specialized provider of database management and analytical services active in
many European countries as well as the
Objectives
of the project:
Due
to confidentiality agreements, we cannot disclose the exact content of the
projects. 4 MMA students performed two separate projects in teams of two
students.
Data:
A
rich data warehouse.
SSZ (http://www.ssz.nl/)
Background
information:
SSZ
stands for “Studiecentrum Snacks en Zoetwaren Benelux”, the research center for Snacks and
Sweets in the
Objectives
of the project:
Data
Data:
The
Tiense Suiker (http://www.tiensesuiker.be)
Background
information:
Tiense Suiker
Objectives
of the project:
Data
Data:
The
3
projects for DunnHumby
(http://www.dunnhumby.com)
Background
information:
DunnHumby is a
specialized provider of database management and analytical services active in
many European countries as well as the
Objectives
of the project:
Due
to confidentiality agreements, we cannot disclose the exact content of the
projects. 6 MMA students performed three separate projects in teams of two
students.
Data:
A
rich data warehouse.
3M (http://www.3M.be/)
Corona
Direct (http://www.coronadirect.be)
Background
information:
Objectives
of the project:
Data
acquisition case for their car insurance based on actual distance driven.
Data:
The
complete past mailing history of prospects/customers, as well as the purchasing
history was analyzed.
Kinepolis (http://www.kinepolis.be)
Background
information:
Kinepolis is the
largest operator of cineplexes in
Objectives
of the project:
The
main objective was to make a prediction of the number of visitors per movie
showing (i.e., per movie, per day/session, per complex). Results revealed that
good predictive accuracy could be achieved at the session level. At the complex
level, predictions were highly accurate.
Data:
A
rich data warehouse with movie-attendance data was available in Microsoft SQL
Server 2005.
Concentra group – Metro (http://www.metrotime.be/)
Background
information:
Metro
is a newspaper that is freely distributed mainly in train and metro stations,
but also in universities, Panos shops and more than
200 companies. Every day, Metro reaches about 616.800 people which makes
it the third largest newspaper in
Objectives
of the project:
This research project investigated following three questions:
1)
What is the competitive
position of Metro in comparison with its direct and indirect competitors?
2)
Do consumers perceive a
match between Metro and brands from other sectors?
3)
Do consumers perceive Metrotime as intended?
Data:
Both qualitative research via focus
groups as quantitative research via questionnaires were applied.
Landbouwkrediet (http://www.landbouwkrediet.be)
Background
information:
Landbouwkrediet / Credit Agricole is Belgian bank. Farmers used to be the largest
part of their customer base. This has changed gradually by organic growth, but
also by two recent acquisitions: Europabank and Keytrade Bank.
Objectives
of the project:
Two
projects were completed for Landbouwkrediet: (1)
Churn prediction: Building a general churn model; (2) Cross-sell: Given the
focus on mortgage customers, MMA students built a cross-sell model for mortgage
customers.
Data:
A
rich data warehouse with customer information was available in Oracle®.
Sint-Blasius (http://www.azsintblasius.be)
Objectives
of the project:
Branding used to be limited to profit organizations.
However, more and more non-profit organizations are starting to pay attention
to their (brand) image. Hospitals are good examples of such organizations. This
project comprised study of the image of the hospital ‘Sint-Blasius’.
By means of focus groups and a questionnaire
Tiense Suiker (http://www.tiensesuiker.be)
Objectives
of the project:
Research
on the attitude towards sugar in
IJSBOERKE (http://www.ijsboerke.be)
Background
information:
IJSBOERKE is (among
other activities) a home vending company of ice cream. They have more than
hundred salesreps visiting their customers all over
Objectives
of the project:
They
asked us to investigate ways to increase the hit rate (i.e., number of
successful visits over total number of visits). This is done by predictive
modeling, i.e., predicting the probability of a purchase. Moreover, this
project consists of a field test of other direct marketing methods to reduce
their current churn rate.
Data:
A
rich data warehouse with call & sales data was available in Oracle®.
Vanden
Borre (http://www.vandenborre.be)
Background
information:
Vanden Borre is an appliance retailer
selling TV’s, VCR’s, dish washers, friges, … .
Objectives
of the project:
They want to gain more insight into the choice process
of store format in the sales of household appliances. They have an extensive
database of previous purchases. We will estimate a multiattribute
choice model (similar to the ABB case, see Gensch et
al. (1990) in Interfaces) investigating the choice of store format (they are
competing against local independent stores and against some other retail
chains). This will be done by collecting questionnaire data and combining them
with data warehouse data.
Utopolis
(http://www.utopolis.be)
Background
information:
Utopolis operates a
group of cinemas in middle-sized cities in
Objectives
of the project:
New digital technology offers opportunities for new
products to offer in a cinema. Not only will it dramatically impact the way of
doing business as a movie theatre, new contents besides movies could be offered
in the future, both real time and recorded material. Utopolis
wants to analyze the market potential for these new products. A qualitative
research will identify the attitude of specific target groups towards new
contents offered in a cinema, and the best way to reach the target audience.
Scotts
(http://www.scotts.be)
Background
information:
Scotts is a company specialised in the production and distribution of
fertilizers, potting soils, herbicides, weed killers and fungicides for the
gardening sector.
Objectives
of the project:
The purpose of the project is to answer Scotts’
management questions, which are related to three topics: 1) insight into the
gardener’s profile; 2) user profiles of several product categories; 3)
attitudes towards compost and pesticides. To answer these questions, both a
qualitative (individual interviews) and quantitative study (800 questionnaires)
will be done in Flanders, Wallonia and
Tiense
Suiker (http://www.tiensesuiker.be)
Objectives
of the project:
Research on several pricing issues in the Belgian
sugar retail market: the study consists of two parts. On the one hand, the fundamental meaning of
sugar for consumers will be studied.
Qualitative research will be applied for this part. On the other hand, we will try to give an
answer on several pricing questions of the company Tiense
Suiker. For
this second part, quantitative techniques such as adaptive conjoint analysis
and other price-acceptation tests will be used.
Canal+ (http://www.canalplus.be)
Background
information:
Canal+ is the largest
European Pay TV operator.
Objectives
of the project:
Churn
prediction: many subscription businesses (in this case the Pay TV business,
other examples of subscription businesses include magazine subscriptions,
mobile phone subscriptions, …), are facing important challenges to retain their
customers. The Pay TV business in particular competes with free-TV, a visit to
the cinema, buying DVDs, … . Therefore customer relationship management needs
to focus its attention on those customers who are most likely to cancel their
subscription (i.e., churn). This project builds a customer attrition (churn)
score taking into acount as much information as
possible.
Data:
A
rich data warehouse with subscription data was available in Oracle®.
Fortis (http://www.fortis.be)
Objectives
of the project:
Enhancing customer attraction in the domain ‘Savings
& Investing’: The objective of the project is enhancing customer attraction
in a significant way in the domain 'Savings & Investing', taking into
account the diversity in terms of the needs and expectations of the Fortis
customer and the diversity in terms of profit potential. First, a qualitative
part contains an in-depth research into the basic motivations for savings and
investing, in order to segment the market, position the players and identify
the levers to enhance attractivity towards the
different segments. The second part of the project consists of the analysis of
the database of an existing survey (within the domain ‘Savings and Investing’),
in order to identify threats and opportunities and make some recommendations
regarding the different client types (as defined with Fortis) and the different
product groups. A third and final part of the project consists of the review of
the questionnaire of the recurrent
research (cf. quantitative part), based on the findings of the
qualitative research, in order to improve the effectiveness of it.
Creyf’s (http://www.creyfs.be)
Objectives
of the project:
Testing
the launch of a new campaign: Creyf’s wants to change
its positioning in the interim market. Therefore a new campaign is launched of
which the objective is to become top-of-mind and to create talk value. Since the front office workers of Creyf’s are supposed to be the ‘first fans’ of the brand,
it is important to know what they know and feel about this shift and whether
they act upon it. The media campaign is just a ‘door opener’, but it is the
employees in the field who should make it come alive. Therefor
the objective of the student project is to find out whether the campaign has an
effect on the employees in the field. Three aspects will be dealt with: the
know aspect (do they know the campaign), the feel aspect (how do they feel
about it) and the act aspect (do they act upon the campaign).
Scotts
(http://www.scotts.be)
Background
information:
Scotts is a company specialised in the production and distribution of
fertilizers, potting soils, herbicides, weed killers and fungicides for the
gardening sector.
Objectives
of the project:
The purpose of the project is to answer Scotts’
management questions, which are related to five topics: 1) Brand awareness and
brand penetration for each product category; 2) Stretch-ability of the umbrella
brand Substral; 3) Effectiveness of the commercials;
4) Attitudes towards fertilizers. To answer these questions, both a qualitative
(focus group sessions) and quantitative study (800 questionnaires) will be done
in Flanders, Wallonia and
Tiense
Suiker (http://www.tiensesuiker.be)
Objectives
of the project:
Research
on the attitude towards sugar in
AXA
Bank Belgium (http://www.axa-bank.be)
Background
information:
The merger of
Objectives
of the project:
Continuation
of cross-selling of products: customer relationship management (analytical CRM)
by means of a prediction of the next (most likely) product to buy.
Data:
The
merger of three groups (
Makro
(http://www.makro.be)
Background
information:
Makro is a
hypermarket chain operating 6 stores in
Objectives
of the project:
Improving
the targeting of the brochure. They send a bi-weekly mail to 650.000
households.
Data:
We
use the data of their data warehouse containing all purchases for the last 3
years in an Oracle® environment.
Corona
Direct (http://www.coronadirect.be)
Background
information:
Objectives
of the project:
Improving
multi-mailing targeting of customers. Implementing the DIMAROPT model (Direct
Marketing Optimization) developed by Prof. dr.
Data:
The
complete past mailing history of prospects/customers, as well as the purchasing
history will be analyzed.
HUBO (http://www.hubo.be)
Background
information:
Hubo is the third largest Belgian DIY (Do-it-yourself)
retail chain.
Objectives
of the project:
Finetuning of last year’s ‘Market Basket
Data:
In
the project, the complete dataset of customer transactions of all retail
locations (more than 13 Gb of data) is used.
Neckermann
Postorder nv (http://www.neck.be)
Background
information:
Neckermann mail-order (not the travel branch) is the second
largest mail-order company in
Objectives
of the project:
We
investigate the assortment customers purchase.
Data:
Purchasing
history for the past 5 years of a large set of customers.
3
projects at AXA Bank
Background
information:
The merger of
Objectives
of the project:
1.
Customer
relationship management (analytical CRM) by means of a prediction of the next
(most likely) product to buy.
2. Churn analysis (who leaves the bank,
how can the company prevent this from happening, what are key signals, …)
3. Setup of experiments to promote
products from different product families. Including cross-sell, up-sell, … .
Data:
The
merger of three groups (
DMD (http://www.zappybaby.be)
Background
information:
Direct Mail
Distributors is a sister company of Neckermann Postorders nv (
Objectives
of the project:
Qualitative
study about the consumer (mail-order) buying process of one of their catalogs
(Baby Walz).
Data:
Students
use focus group interviews, and personal interviews to carry out exploratory
research.
Corona
Direct (http://www.corona.be)
Background
information:
Objectives
of the project:
Database
Marketing project on response modeling to improve mailing efficiency.
Data:
The
complete past mailing history of prospects/customers will be analyzed.
HUBO (http://www.hubo.be)
Background
information:
Hubo is the third largest Belgian DIY (Do-it-yourself)
retail chain.
Objectives
of the project:
1.
Market
Basket
2. Calculation of price elasticities, and more in general, the impact on sales (and
profitability) of changes in marketing-mix variables.
Data:
In
the project, the complete dataset of customer transactions of all retail
locations (more than 13 Gb of data) is used.
Delhaize
(http://www.delhaize.be)
Background
information:
Delhaize
is one of the largest retailers in
Objectives
of the project:
1.
2. Cross-selling potential of the Delhaize
Plus-card
3. Many confidential additional topics
Data:
In
the project, more than 30 Gb of data is used to
analyze customer behavior.
Other
companies have requested COMPLETE ANONIMITY.
Nevertheless,
we can disclose that this includes many of the largest companies in
HUBO (http://www.hubo.be)
Background
information:
Hubo is one of the largest Belgian DIY (Do-it-yourself)
retail chains.
Objectives
of the project:
4. Calculation of LTV (life-time value)
of customer segments: How do customer
segments differ in terms of LTV or its components (retention rate &
difference between revenues and costs)
5. Market Basket
Data:
In
the project, the complete dataset of customer transactions of all retail
locations (more than 10 Gb of data) is used. The
BONUSKAART loyalty card makes the LTV calculations possible.
MAXICOLOR (http://www.spector.be)
Background
information:
Maxicolor is the
mail-order operation of the Spector group, i.e., they
offer photo-finishing services by mail.
Objectives
of the project:
1.
Calculation
of LTV (life-time value) of customer segments. Research question: How do customer segments differ in terms of
LTV or its components (retention rate & difference between revenues and
costs).
2. Finding a more sophisticated
segmentation scheme for mail-order
3. Which of the direct-mail incentives
is most effective
Data:
As
this is a mail-order operation, detailed data is available on the marketing
communication towards all customers, as well as all transactional information.
The completion of
these projects requires excellent tools, both in terms of hard- and software.
We have the permission to use the SAS SystemTM
& SAS Enterprise MinerTM software from SAS Institute Inc. (http://www.sas.com), Matlab
(http://www.mathworks.nl) on some
projects. Other excellent software tools used for some projects include S-Plus.
Moreover, we use the database software of Oracle® to power some of the data
warehousing steps of the projects.
Moreover, students
have access to state-of-the-art hardware to
complete aforementioned projects. These include powerful client PC’s, but the
large data warehouses are hosted on our eighty (at least dual-processor)
marketing servers.
Please contact Prof. Dr.
We are actively looking for companies interested in
research cooperation offering interesting datasets and/or research questions.
They are asked to contact Prof. Dr.