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Author Topic: The Perils Of Retailing [Locked]
Groucho48  3 stars
Posts: 821
Registered: 2003-10-22 03:00:14
Target came up with a way to determine which of its female customers were likely to be pregnabt. This allows them to direct baby products to her. It wasn't all smooth sailing, though...


Quote:

About a year after Pole created his pregnancy-prediction model, a man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent to his daughter, and he was angry, according to an employee who participated in the conversation.

“My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”

The manager didn’t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man’s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.

On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”



Parents really ARE the last to know.

 

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“Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.” – Richard Feynman
Cawlin  4 stars
Posts: 1,759
Registered: 2005-2-22 07:58:42
LOL invasive marketing. I don't care that it's about "pregnancy" stuff... I care that there is enough information out there for marketers to attempt these ridiculous schemes to target a given audience.

 

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If ignorance were painful, half the posters here would be on morphine drips.
Everyone playing WoW knows everything about playing two classes: 1) their own and 2) Hunters
Abaddon_Ambrosius  4 stars
Title: Retired Theurgist TL
Posts: 1,674
Registered: 2001-12-21 09:51:39
That's... kindof funny. And scary. And a bit insightful.

Is it true?

 

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In the immortal words of Socrates - "I drank what?"
"God you guys suck at the internet - how can you fail to locate porn?!" - Eternal_Midnight
"Knowing means nothing." - Fat-badger
NuEM  4 stars
Posts: 1,007
Registered: 2004-3-2 09:08:11
Pregnancy prediction model huh? Like young slutty looking lower class females?

 

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Abaddon_Ambrosius  4 stars
Title: Retired Theurgist TL
Posts: 1,674
Registered: 2001-12-21 09:51:39
I wonder if it is based on a group of factors like: condom purchases... and a sudden decline therein.

 

-----signature-----
In the immortal words of Socrates - "I drank what?"
"God you guys suck at the internet - how can you fail to locate porn?!" - Eternal_Midnight
"Knowing means nothing." - Fat-badger
Cawlin  4 stars
Posts: 1,759
Registered: 2005-2-22 07:58:42
Abaddon_Ambrosius posted:

I wonder if it is based on a group of factors like: condom purchases... and a sudden decline therein.



I am sure Brittney Spears album purchases is a factor in the analysis as well.

 

-----signature-----
If ignorance were painful, half the posters here would be on morphine drips.
Everyone playing WoW knows everything about playing two classes: 1) their own and 2) Hunters

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