Data processing for direct marketing through Big Data

Traditional marketing performs promotion through various channels such as news in newspapers, radio, etc., but those promotions are aimed at all people, whether or not interested in the product or service being promoted. This method usually leads to high expenses and a low response rate by potential customers. That is why, nowadays, because there is a very competitive market, mass marketing is not safe, hence specialists are focusing efforts on direct marketing. This method studies the characteristics, needs and also selects a group of customers as a target for the promotion. Direct marketing uses predictive modeling from customer data, with the aim of selecting the most likely to respond to promotions. This research proposes a platform for the processing of data flows for target customer selection processes and the construction of required predictive response models

Talking fashion in female friendship groups: negotiating the necessary marketplace skills and knowledge

This study revisits contexts of consumer socialization by focusing on fashion consumption among female teenagers. Focus groups and interviews have been utilized to collect data from 12- to 16-year-old female adolescents. The findings indicate that the adolescents cultivate both rational and symbolic skills within their friendship groups through friendship talk. The paper contributes to consumer socialization studies by examining the role of social relationships in and the accounts of the actual uses of fashion products. By doing so, it extends scholars', policy makers', schools', and families' understanding of the dynamics involved in the building of young people's consumer identities and what type of issues they face as young consumers. Thus, the study provides policy makers with information regarding how consumer skills and knowledge are cultivated and the role of the friendship group in cultivating them, which can be used in formulating future policy aimed at consumer education, literacy programmes and social marketing aimed at adolescents. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York