Lecture 3 Type of Analytics
Lecture 3 Type of Analytics
Department: AIT-MBA
Subject: Marketing Research and Analytics
Faculty Name : Nancy Jyani
(Assistant Professor)
Email: [email protected]
Exploring the distinctions between these models can help you learn how to use each to support
your business goals.
Predictive analytics is what it sounds like — it aims to predict likely outcomes and make
educated forecasts using historical data. Predictive analytics extends trends into the future to
see possible outcomes. This is a more complex version of data analytics because it uses
probabilities for predictions instead of simply interpreting existing facts.
Use predictive analytics by first identifying what you want to predict and then bringing existing
data together to project possibilities to a particular date. Statistical modeling or machine
learning are commonly used with predictive analytics. This is how you answer planning
questions such as how much you might sell or if you’re on track to hit your Q4 targets.
A business is in a better position to set realistic goals and avoid risks if they use data to create a
list of likely outcomes. Predictive analytics can keep your team or the company as a whole
aligned on the same strategic vision.
Let’s take an example of a shoe company that is trying to conduct market research to
understand the shoe purchasing trends in the city of Toronto. Before delving into the
investigation itself, they may want first to conduct descriptive research to understand which
variables and statistics are relevant to their company and, therefore, which variables and
statistics need to be investigated.
The descriptive research conducted will provide the company with a deeper understanding
of the research topic before the investigation can be commenced.
A researcher is trying to study the effects of alcohol consumption on health. They select a
sample group consisting of people who consume different amounts of alcohol and then also
observe different metrics that are indicators of health.
This is an example of a causal research design as the researcher is investigating the cause-
and-effect relationship between alcohol consumption and a person’s health.
In contrast, exploratory research is highly unstructured. It Exploratory research provides somewhat of a foundation or a
provides a lot of flexibility as it is generally the first step in any hypothesis about the research problem. It is, therefore, the first
research process and is, therefore, in the early stages of form of research that must be conducted when studying an
decision-making. unknown topic.
This is in contrast to descriptive research, which is used to describe
Descriptive research is conducted after explorative research,
a phenomenon that’s already been established, discovered, or
and its research design has more structure than the exploratory
suspected in exploratory research. Therefore, descriptive research
design but less structure than the causal design. In both takes place after exploratory research in the overall research
exploratory and descriptive research, the key research process.
statement is the research question itself. However, in causal
research, the key research statement is generally the research Additionally, the research design in exploratory research is not as
hypothesis. rigid as the research design in descriptive research.