Data Mining as a New Paradigm for Business Intelligence in Database Marketing Projects

Information technologies provide not only the ability to collect and register in databases many kinds of signals external to the organization, but also the capacity to use them in different ways at different organizational levels. Database Marketing (DBM) refers to the use of database technology to support marketing activities in order to establish and maintain a profitable interaction with clients. Currently DBM is usually approached using classical statistical inference, which may fail when complex, multi-dimensional, and incomplete data is available. An alternative is to apply Data Mining (DM) techniques in a process called Knowledge Discovery from Databases, which aims at automatic pattern extraction. This will help marketers to address customer needs based on what they know about them, rather than a mass generalization of their characteristics. This paper exploits a systematic approach for the use of DM techniques as a new paradigm in Business Intelligence in DBM projects, considering analytical and marketing aspects. A cross-table is proposed to associate DBM activities to the appropriate DM techniques. This framework guides the development of DBM projects, contributing to improve their efficacy and efficiency.