by Christopher S Penn | Nov 12, 2020 | Marketing Data Science, analytics, Marketing, Marketing Technology, Statistics
Oleksandyr asks, "What defines a trend versus a tactic or a strategy?" Mathematically speaking, the definition of a trend is a sustained change in a metric over a period of time that can be proven with a statistical test. In the context of this question, I assume...
by Christopher S Penn | Aug 25, 2020 | Statistics, Data Science, Marketing, Marketing Data Science
Vito asks, "Let’s assume we have the joint probability distributions of A and B. In that scenario, is it possible that A causes B, but A and B are not correlated?" This is possible and even probable when you have missing data, especially if the missing data is also...
by Christopher S Penn | May 1, 2020 | Data Science, Marketing, Marketing Data Science, Statistics
Jessica asks, "When it comes to marketing data science, I've got very good business knowledge, but lack of the technical side. any advice?" The first question you have to ask is whether you need the hands-on skills or just knowledge of what's possible. The second...
by Christopher S Penn | Apr 28, 2020 | Data Science, Marketing, Marketing Data Science, Statistics
Phil asks, "How do you determine a large enough sample size for things like our survey? I always thought 10% sample would be enough, but you seemed to think that's not true?" It depends on the size of the overall population. The smaller the population, the larger the...
by Christopher S Penn | Apr 27, 2020 | Data Science, Marketing, Marketing Data Science, Statistics
Jessica asks, "How would you differentiate hypothesis formation and searching for relevant variables WITHOUT "data snooping"?" Data snooping, or more commonly known as curve fitting or data dredging, is when you build a hypothesis to fit the data. The way to avoid...
by Christopher S Penn | Nov 15, 2019 | analytics, Data Science, Marketing, Metrics, Social media, Social networks, Statistics
Annica asks, "What sort of goals should we be setting for social media in 2020?" Depending on how you use social media - for marketing, sales, customer service, etc. - will govern what kind of goals you set. For marketing, the simplest goals are to forecast, by...