Modeling Techniques In Predictive Analytics With Python And R

Master predictive analytics, from start to finish Start with strategy and management Master methods and build models Transform your models into highly-effective code—in both Python and R This one-of-a-kind book will help you use predictive analytics, Python, and R to solve real business problems and drive real competitive advantage. You’ll master predictive analytics through realistic case studies, intuitive data visualizations, and up-to-date code for both Python and R—not complex math. Step by step, you’ll walk through defining problems, identifying data, crafting and optimizing models, writing effective Python and R code, interpreting results, and more. Each chapter focuses on one of today’s key applications for predictive analytics, delivering skills and knowledge to put models to work—and maximize their value. Thomas W. Miller, leader of Northwestern University’s pioneering program in predictive analytics, addresses everything you need to succeed: strategy and management, methods and models, and technology and code. If you’re new to predictive analytics, you’ll gain a strong foundation for achieving accurate, actionable results. If you’re already working in the field, you’ll master powerful new skills. If you’re familiar with either Python or R, you’ll discover how these languages complement each other, enabling you to do even more. All data sets, extensive Python and R code, and additional examples available for download at http://www.ftpress.com/miller/ Python and R offer immense power in predictive analytics, data science, and big data. This book will help you leverage that power to solve real business problems, and drive real competitive advantage. Thomas W. Miller’s unique balanced approach combines business context and quantitative tools, illuminating each technique with carefully explained code for the latest versions of Python and R. If you’re new to predictive analytics, Miller gives you a strong foundation for achieving accurate, actionable results. If you’re already a modeler, programmer, or manager, you’ll learn crucial skills you don’t already have. Using Python and R, Miller addresses multiple business challenges, including segmentation, brand positioning, product choice modeling, pricing research, finance, sports, text analytics, sentiment analysis, and social network analysis. He illuminates the use of cross-sectional data, time series, spatial, and spatio-temporal data. You’ll learn why each problem matters, what data are relevant, and how to explore the data you’ve identified. Miller guides you through conceptually modeling each data set with words and figures; and then modeling it again with realistic code that delivers actionable insights. You’ll walk through model construction, explanatory variable subset selection, and validation, mastering best practices for improving out-of-sample predictive performance. Miller employs data visualization and statistical graphics to help you explore data, present models, and evaluate performance. Appendices include five complete case studies, and a detailed primer on modern data science methods. Use Python and R to gain powerful, actionable, profitable insights about: Advertising and promotion Consumer preference and choice Market baskets and related purchases Economic forecasting Operations management Unstructured text and language Customer sentiment Brand and price Sports team performance And much more

Now, a leader of Northwestern University's prestigious analytics program presents a fully-integrated treatment of both the business and academic elements of marketing applications in predictive analytics. Writing for both managers and students, Thomas W. Miller explains essential concepts, principles, and theory in the context of real-world applications. Building on Miller's pioneering program, Marketing Data Science thoroughly addresses segmentation, target marketing, brand and product positioning, new product development, choice modeling, recommender systems, pricing research, retail site selection, demand estimation, sales forecasting, customer retention, and lifetime value analysis. Starting where Miller's widely-praised Modeling Techniques in Predictive Analytics left off, he integrates crucial information and insights that were previously segregated in texts on web analytics, network science, information technology, and programming. Coverage includes: The role of analytics in delivering effective messages on the web Understanding the web by understanding its hidden structures Being recognized on the web – and watching your own competitors Visualizing networks and understanding communities within them Measuring sentiment and making recommendations Leveraging key data science methods: databases/data preparation, classical/Bayesian statistics, regression/classification, machine learning, and text analytics Six complete case studies address exceptionally relevant issues such as: separating legitimate email from spam; identifying legally-relevant information for lawsuit discovery; gleaning insights from anonymous web surfing data, and more. This text's extensive set of web and network problems draw on rich public-domain data sources; many are accompanied by solutions in Python and/or R. Marketing Data Science will be an invaluable resource for all students, faculty, and professional marketers who want to use business analytics to improve marketing performance.

Master modern web and network data modeling: both theory and applications. In Web and Network Data Science, a top faculty member of Northwestern University’s prestigious analytics program presents the first fully-integrated treatment of both the business and academic elements of web and network modeling for predictive analytics. Some books in this field focus either entirely on business issues (e.g., Google Analytics and SEO); others are strictly academic (covering topics such as sociology, complexity theory, ecology, applied physics, and economics). This text gives today's managers and students what they really need: integrated coverage of concepts, principles, and theory in the context of real-world applications. Building on his pioneering Web Analytics course at Northwestern University, Thomas W. Miller covers usability testing, Web site performance, usage analysis, social media platforms, search engine optimization (SEO), and many other topics. He balances this practical coverage with accessible and up-to-date introductions to both social network analysis and network science, demonstrating how these disciplines can be used to solve real business problems.

This book is about predictive analytics. Yet, each chapter could easily be handled by an entire volume of its own. So one might think of this a survey of predictive modeling. A predictive model is a statistical model or machine learning model used to predict future behavior based on past behavior. In order to use this book, one should have a basic understanding of mathematical statistics - it is an advanced book. Some theoretical foundations are laid out but not proven, but references are provided for additional coverage. Every chapter culminates in an example using R. R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. You may download R, from a preferred CRAN mirror at http: //www.r-project.org/. The book is organized so that statistical models are presented first (hopefully in a logical order), followed by machine learning models, and then applications: uplift modeling and time series. One could use this a textbook with problem solving in R-but there are no "by-hand" exercises.

To succeed with predictive analytics, you must understand it on three levels: Strategy and management Methods and models Technology and code This up-to-the-minute reference thoroughly covers all three categories. Now fully updated, this uniquely accessible book will help you use predictive analytics to solve real business problems and drive real competitive advantage. If you’re new to the discipline, it will give you the strong foundation you need to get accurate, actionable results. If you’re already a modeler, programmer, or manager, it will teach you crucial skills you don’t yet have. Unlike competitive books, this guide illuminates the discipline through realistic vignettes and intuitive data visualizations–not complex math. Thomas W. Miller, leader of Northwestern University’s pioneering program in predictive analytics, guides you through defining problems, identifying data, crafting and optimizing models, writing effective R code, interpreting results, and more. Every chapter focuses on one of today’s key applications for predictive analytics, delivering skills and knowledge to put models to work–and maximize their value. Reflecting extensive student and instructor feedback, this edition adds five classroom-tested case studies, updates all code for new versions of R, explains code behavior more clearly and completely, and covers modern data science methods even more effectively. All data sets, extensive R code, and additional examples available for download at http://www.ftpress.com/miller If you want to make the most of predictive analytics, data science, and big data, this is the book for you. Thomas W. Miller’s unique balanced approach combines business context and quantitative tools, appealing to managers, analysts, programmers, and students alike. Miller addresses multiple business cases and challenges, including segmentation, brand positioning, product choice modeling, pricing research, finance, sports, text analytics, sentiment analysis, and social network analysis. He illuminates the use of cross-sectional data, time series, spatial, and spatio-temporal data. You’ll learn why each problem matters, what data are relevant, and how to explore the data you’ve identified. Miller guides you through conceptually modeling each data set with words and figures; and then modeling it again with realistic R programs that deliver actionable insights. You’ll walk through model construction, explanatory variable subset selection, and validation, mastering best practices for improving out-of-sample predictive performance. Throughout, Miller employs data visualization and statistical graphics to help you explore data, present models, and evaluate performance. This edition adds five new case studies, updates all code for the newest versions of R, adds more commenting to clarify how the code works, and offers a more detailed and up-to-date primer on data science methods. Gain powerful, actionable, profitable insights about: Advertising and promotion Consumer preference and choice Market baskets and related purchases Economic forecasting Operations management Unstructured text and language Customer sentiment Brand and price Sports team performance And much more

Gain practical insights by exploiting data in your business to build advanced predictive modeling applications About This Book A step-by-step guide to predictive modeling including lots of tips, tricks, and best practices Learn how to use popular predictive modeling algorithms such as Linear Regression, Decision Trees, Logistic Regression, and Clustering Master open source Python tools to build sophisticated predictive models Who This Book Is For This book is designed for business analysts, BI analysts, data scientists, or junior level data analysts who are ready to move on from a conceptual understanding of advanced analytics and become an expert in designing and building advanced analytics solutions using Python. If you are familiar with coding in Python (or some other programming/statistical/scripting language) but have never used or read about predictive analytics algorithms, this book will also help you. What You Will Learn Understand the statistical and mathematical concepts behind predictive analytics algorithms and implement them using Python libraries Get to know various methods for importing, cleaning, sub-setting, merging, joining, concatenating, exploring, grouping, and plotting data with pandas and NumPy Master the use of Python notebooks for exploratory data analysis and rapid prototyping Get to grips with applying regression, classification, clustering, and deep learning algorithms Discover advanced methods to analyze structured and unstructured data Visualize the performance of models and the insights they produce Ensure the robustness of your analytic applications by mastering the best practices of predictive analysis In Detail Social Media and the Internet of Things have resulted in an avalanche of data. Data is powerful but not in its raw form; it needs to be processed and modeled, and Python is one of the most robust tools out there to do so. It has an array of packages for predictive modeling and a suite of IDEs to choose from. Using the Python programming language, analysts can use these sophisticated methods to build scalable analytic applications. This book is your guide to getting started with predictive analytics using Python. You'll balance both statistical and mathematical concepts, and implement them in Python using libraries such as pandas, scikit-learn, and NumPy. Through case studies and code examples using popular open-source Python libraries, this book illustrates the complete development process for analytic applications. Covering a wide range of algorithms for classification, regression, clustering, as well as cutting-edge techniques such as deep learning, this book illustrates explains how these methods work. You will learn to choose the right approach for your problem and how to develop engaging visualizations to bring to life the insights of predictive modeling. Finally, you will learn best practices in predictive modeling, as well as the different applications of predictive modeling in the modern world. The course provides you with highly practical content from the following Packt books: 1. Learning Predictive Analytics with Python 2. Mastering Predictive Analytics with Python Style and approach This course aims to create a smooth learning path that will teach you how to effectively perform predictive analytics using Python. Through this comprehensive course, you'll learn the basics of predictive analytics and progress to predictive modeling in the modern world.