Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
levels of abstraction, however, soon render such observations less action-
able. The actionable observations, however, can be found by juxtaposing
an object in the Itemset with an object from outside the same Itemset.
This method allows the Market Basket Analysis to compare an individual
object with the enterprise as a whole. The fabled story of beer and diapers is
a good example of thinking outside the market basket. Beer and wine were
found to behave as complements on Friday afternoon, but no other time
of the week. That conclusion incorporated hierarchical groupings of beer
and wine, time groupings of both, and the Complement and Independent
concepts (Complement on Friday afternoon and Independent the rest of
the week).
The concept of thinking outside the basket is simply the use of an Object's
property, attribute, group, or designation during Market Basket Analysis.
It allows the analyst to calculate the aἀ nity between all beers and all dia-
pers, or all entrées and all wines. Then, the analyst can compare the aἀ n-
ity between individual members of such a group to find those individual
items with more or less aἀ nity than the aἀ nity between the two groups.
WhAt mArket BAsket ANAlysIs Is Not
Market Basket Analysis is a powerful marketing tool. The power of that
tool has generated more discussion than experience. The result of cycles of
discussion sans experience is expectations run amok. So, before we get any
further into a discussion of what is included in Market Basket Analysis,
we need to perform some expectations management by discussing what is
not included in Market Basket Analysis. Otherwise, readers will be disap-
pointed throughout this topic because the paragraph on how to achieve
world peace and universal harmony via Market Basket Analysis never
appeared. The two most common misconceptions about Market Basket
Analysis are that it can discern causality and personal intent.
Affinity Is Not causality
The relationship between a Driver Object and a Correlation Object can
appear to be a causal relationship. In a causal relationship between two
objects, the action of the first object causes a result in the second object.
In such a relationship, the active agent has control over both the cause and
