Predictive Analytics for Marketing
As a consumer, the article "Predictive Analytics: The Power Behind Next-Gen Marketing" sounds very encouraging. To date, most marketing technology has focused on increasing the capacity of marketing departments: more marketing emails, automated interactions ..., which leads to a marketing strategy of throwing more at the consumer and looking for response. Unfortunately, the most likely response a marketing organization is going to see is disengagement. After all, it is much easier to see an unsubscription than a conversion - particularly in a traditional business where details about purchase information are difficult to get.
At first this is going to feel invasive. We hate the industry examples that the author presents (particularly credit scoring and health insurance); but I am hoping that predictive analytics will help marketers target their message to receptive customers who can genuinely benefit from the product or service. Maybe this science will even help companies discontinue programs that nobody would want.