THE ART OF TIME TRAVEL: Using Machine Learning to Predict the Future

We’ve all imagined what could be accomplished if time travel were a possibility. While some might fantasize about going back to high school or dropping in on a significant historic event, others might opt for the chance to pop into the future for a sneak peek at what’s in store for them. Whatever the motivations may be, breaking the space-time continuum for a little “personal advancement” could produce unimaginable, life-altering impacts—if given the opportunity. However, when it comes to successfully predicting financially beneficial outcomes, like sales or growth projections, you don’t need sci-fi tech. You simply need TA and their team of stellar market analysts.

First things first, let’s scrub the image of purely descriptive reporting that’s flooding your inbox. Descriptive and hindsight reporting have their place, but they pale in comparison to how transformative a robust analytics program can be to your business. At TA, “transformative” is at the core of everything we do. We use market analytics to not only describe what happened but to also help transform your business by explaining why it happened and what is likely going to happen. Having access to this kind of data is easily the best way to produce the results you are looking for.

TA’s team of analysts are equipped with the knowledge and experience to give decision-makers an accurate glimpse into the future, as well as inform sales or marketing teams about what customers need and want. Think of what this means. No longer are decisions based on a few colorful charts or spreadsheets. They’re based on science: data science to be exact. Predictive analytics is how most refer to it in the business world. Predictive analytics is the process of using data to develop models and estimations to predict what is likely to happen in the future with an acceptable level of certainty while excluding “what-if” scenarios. The primary goal of predictive analytics within the marketplace is to assign a probability to the likelihood that an organizational unit (e.g., customer, prospect, etc.) will behave a certain way. The most common implementation of predictive analytics is to predict or forecast future events based on past behavior.

Recently, a client wanted to know the impact on sales that could result from increasing marketing budgets for the first 17 weeks of the year, their highest sales period. Using historical data and statistical models, we were able to determine—with a high degree of certainty—that sales were likely to increase by 29% during the period, given the proposed increase in marketing spend. Not only could we tell our client how many sales they would have at the end of the 17-week period, but we could also predict how many sales the organization would expect if they increased their weekly marketing spend by “X” amount of dollars. In other words, we were able to empower their decision-makers with the data they needed to proceed with their proposal with very little risk. At the end of the 17-week period, results showed a 31% increase in sales. Post-analysis showed our predictive model succeeded with only a 2% margin of error.

This is just one example, among many, that demonstrates how TA empowers our clients through advanced market analytics. At a minimum, we can use predictive models to help our clients acquire more profitable customers more efficiently, sell more products or services to existing customers, proactively manage risk, understand and optimize customer behavior, and grow customer relationships for even greater lifetime value.

So, while predictive analytics might not be able to help prove the Apollo 11 moon landing, our TA market analytics team definitely can help you achieve greater future outcomes—and connecting with us is always a good first step.