Market Segmentation in the 21st Century: Discrete Solutions to Continuous Problems

Market segments exist because of information and cost constraints If manufacturers had accurate individual-level demand information and the ability to produce and deliver unique products at low cost, then individual customization of products would be a viable market strategy But as uncertainty about consumer demand increases and/or the cost of customization increases, firms find it more profitable to reduce the variety of the products they offer This paper reports on a critical examination of trends in the analysis of customer data and in reductions in the cost of customization brought about by innovations such as the Internet and flexible manufacturing systems We conclude that recent trends are not sufficient to support individual customization in most product categories However, despite the inability of these trends to support individual customization, we predict several changes In the dimensions surrounding successful segmentation strategies that will be used by firms in the future

Market Segmentation in the 21st Century Discrete Solutions to Continuous Problems

Market segments exist because of information and cost constraints If manufacturers had accurate individual-level demand information and the abllity to produce and deliver unique products at low cost, then individual customization of products would be a viable market strategy But as uncertainty about consumer demand increases and/or the cost of customization increases, firms find it more profitable to reduce the variety of the products they offer This paper reports on a critical examination of trends in the analysis of customer data and in reductions in the cost of customization brought about by inovations such as the Internet and flexlble manufacturing systems. We conclude that recent trends are not sufficient to support individual customization in most product categories. However, despite the inability of these trends to support individual customization, we predict several changes In the dimensions surrounding successful segmentation strategies that will be used by firms in the future

Relative Necessity Reformulated

This paper discusses some serious difficulties for what we shall call the standard account of various kinds of relative necessity, according to which any given kind of relative necessity may be defined by a strict conditional - necessarily, if C then p - where C is a suitable constant proposition, such as a conjunction of physical laws. We argue, with the help of Humberstone (1981), that the standard account has several unpalatable consequences. We argue that Humberstone's alternative account has certain disadvantages, and offer another - considerably simpler - solution

Efficient SVM training using low-rank kernel representations

SVM training is a convex optimization problem which scales with the training set size rather than the feature space dimension. While this is usually considered to be a desired quality, in large scale problems it may cause training to be impractical. The common techniques to handle this difficulty basically build a solution by solving a sequence of small scale subproblems. Our current effort is concentrated on the rank of the kernel matrix as a source for further enhancement of the training procedure. We first show that for a low rank kernel matrix it is possible to design a better interior point method (IPM) in terms of storage requirements as well as computational complexity. We then suggest an efficient use of a known factorization technique to approximate a given kernel matrix by a low rank matrix, which in turn will be used to feed the optimizer. Finally, we derive an upper bound on the change in the objective function value based on the approximation error and the number of active constraints (support vectors). This bound is general in the sense that it holds regardless of the approximation method

Book reviews

Southeast Asia: The Human Landscape of Modernization and Development. By Jonathan Rigg. London: Routledge, 1997. Pp.xxv + 326.�45 and �14.99. ISBN 0 415 13920 1 and 13921 X Militarization and Demilitarization in El Salvador's Transition to Democracy. By Philip J. Williams and Knut Walter. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997. Pp.vii + 244. US$45.00 and US$19.95. ISBN 0 8229 4041 8 and 5646 2. New Theories in Growth and Development. Edited by Fabrizio Coricelli, Massimo di Matteo and Frank Hahn. London: Croom Helm, 1998. Pp.viii + 304. �50. ISBN 0312 17621 X Localizing Modernity: Action, Interests and Association in Rural Zambia. By Jeremy Gould. Helsinki: The Finnish Anthropological Society, 1997. Pp.xiv + 286. ISBN 952 9573 18 9 Income, Inequality, and Poverty during the Transition from Planned to Market Economy. By Branko Milanovic. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1997. Pp.xiii + 237. $30. ISBN 0 8231 3994 X