Master predictive analytics, from start to finish



Start with strategy and management

Master methods and build models

Transform your models into highly-effective code-in both Python and R



This one-of-a-kind book will help you use predictive analytics, Python, and R to solve real business problems and drive real competitive advantage. You'll master predictive analytics through realistic case studies, intuitive data visualizations, and up-to-date code for both Python and R-not complex math.



Step by step, you'll walk through defining problems, identifying data, crafting and optimizing models, writing effective Python and R code, interpreting results, and more. Each chapter focuses on one of today's key applications for predictive analytics, delivering skills and knowledge to put models to work-and maximize their value.



Thomas W. Miller, leader of Northwestern University's pioneering program in predictive analytics, addresses everything you need to succeed: strategy and management, methods and models, and technology and code.



If you're new to predictive analytics, you'll gain a strong foundation for achieving accurate, actionable results. If you're already working in the field, you'll master powerful new skills. If you're familiar with either Python or R, you'll discover how these languages complement each other, enabling you to do even more.



All data sets, extensive Python and R code, and additional examples available for download at http://www.ftpress.com/miller/



Python and R offer immense power in predictive analytics, data science, and big data. This book will help you leverage that power to solve real business problems, and drive real competitive advantage.



Thomas W. Miller's unique balanced approach combines business context and quantitative tools, illuminating each technique with carefully explained code for the latest versions of Python and R. If you're new to predictive analytics, Miller gives you a strong foundation for achieving accurate, actionable results. If you're already a modeler, programmer, or manager, you'll learn crucial skills you don't already have.



Using Python and R, Miller addresses multiple business challenges, including segmentation, brand positioning, product choice modeling, pricing research, finance, sports, text analytics, sentiment analysis, and social network analysis. He illuminates the use of cross-sectional data, time series, spatial, and spatio-temporal data.



You'll learn why each problem matters, what data are relevant, and how to explore the data you've identified. Miller guides you through conceptually modeling each data set with words and figures; and then modeling it again with realistic code that delivers actionable insights.



You'll walk through model construction, explanatory variable subset selection, and validation, mastering best practices for improving out-of-sample predictive performance. Miller employs data visualization and statistical graphics to help you explore data, present models, and evaluate performance. Appendices include five complete case studies, and a detailed primer on modern data science methods.



Use Python and R to gain powerful, actionable, profitable insights about:



Advertising and promotion
Consumer preference and choice
Market baskets and related purchases
Economic forecasting
Operations management
Unstructured text and language
Customer sentiment
Brand and price
Sports team performance
And much more


To succeed with predictive analytics, you must understand it on three levels:



Strategy and management

Methods and models

Technology and code



This up-to-the-minute reference thoroughly covers all three categories.



Now fully updated, this uniquely accessible book will help you use predictive analytics to solve real business problems and drive real competitive advantage. If you're new to the discipline, it will give you the strong foundation you need to get accurate, actionable results. If you're already a modeler, programmer, or manager, it will teach you crucial skills you don't yet have.



Unlike competitive books, this guide illuminates the discipline through realistic vignettes and intuitive data visualizations-not complex math. Thomas W. Miller, leader of Northwestern University's pioneering program in predictive analytics, guides you through defining problems, identifying data, crafting and optimizing models, writing effective R code, interpreting results, and more.



Every chapter focuses on one of today's key applications for predictive analytics, delivering skills and knowledge to put models to work-and maximize their value.



Reflecting extensive student and instructor feedback, this edition adds five classroom-tested case studies, updates all code for new versions of R, explains code behavior more clearly and completely, and covers modern data science methods even more effectively.



All data sets, extensive R code, and additional examples available for download at http://www.ftpress.com/miller



If you want to make the most of predictive analytics, data science, and big data, this is the book for you. Thomas W. Miller's unique balanced approach combines business context and quantitative tools, appealing to managers, analysts, programmers, and students alike.



Miller addresses multiple business cases and challenges, including segmentation, brand positioning, product choice modeling, pricing research, finance, sports, text analytics, sentiment analysis, and social network analysis. He illuminates the use of cross-sectional data, time series, spatial, and spatio-temporal data.



You'll learn why each problem matters, what data are relevant, and how to explore the data you've identified. Miller guides you through conceptually modeling each data set with words and figures; and then modeling it again with realistic R programs that deliver actionable insights.



You'll walk through model construction, explanatory variable subset selection, and validation, mastering best practices for improving out-of-sample predictive performance. Throughout, Miller employs data visualization and statistical graphics to help you explore data, present models, and evaluate performance.



This edition adds five new case studies, updates all code for the newest versions of R, adds more commenting to clarify how the code works, and offers a more detailed and up-to-date primer on data science methods.



Gain powerful, actionable, profitable insights about:



Advertising and promotion
Consumer preference and choice
Market baskets and related purchases
Economic forecasting
Operations management
Unstructured text and language
Customer sentiment
Brand and price
Sports team performance
And much more




Now, a leader of Northwestern University's prestigious analytics program presents a fully-integrated treatment of both the business and academic elements of marketing applications in predictive analytics. Writing for both managers and students, Thomas W. Miller explains essential concepts, principles, and theory in the context of real-world applications.

 

Building on Miller's pioneering program, Marketing Data Science thoroughly addresses segmentation, target marketing, brand and product positioning, new product development, choice modeling, recommender systems, pricing research, retail site selection, demand estimation, sales forecasting, customer retention, and lifetime value analysis.

 

Starting where Miller's widely-praised Modeling Techniques in Predictive Analytics left off, he integrates crucial information and insights that were previously segregated in texts on web analytics, network science, information technology, and programming. Coverage includes:

  • The role of analytics in delivering effective messages on the web
  • Understanding the web by understanding its hidden structures
  • Being recognized on the web – and watching your own competitors
  • Visualizing networks and understanding communities within them
  • Measuring sentiment and making recommendations
  • Leveraging key data science methods: databases/data preparation, classical/Bayesian statistics, regression/classification, machine learning, and text analytics

Six complete case studies address exceptionally relevant issues such as: separating legitimate email from spam; identifying legally-relevant information for lawsuit discovery; gleaning insights from anonymous web surfing data, and more. This text's extensive set of web and network problems draw on rich public-domain data sources; many are accompanied by solutions in Python and/or R.


Marketing Data Science will be an invaluable resource for all students, faculty, and professional marketers who want to use business analytics to improve marketing performance.


Master modern web and network data modeling: both theory and applications. In Web and Network Data Science, a top faculty member of Northwestern University's prestigious analytics program presents the first fully-integrated treatment of both the business and academic elements of web and network modeling for predictive analytics.

Some books in this field focus either entirely on business issues (e.g., Google Analytics and SEO); others are strictly academic (covering topics such as sociology, complexity theory, ecology, applied physics, and economics). This text gives today's managers and students what they really need: integrated coverage of concepts, principles, and theory in the context of real-world applications.

Building on his pioneering Web Analytics course at Northwestern University, Thomas W. Miller covers usability testing, Web site performance, usage analysis, social media platforms, search engine optimization (SEO), and many other topics. He balances this practical coverage with accessible and up-to-date introductions to both social network analysis and network science, demonstrating how these disciplines can be used to solve real business problems.