Revelations Through Data Mining (1,141 words)

Among the findings was information that altered and will continue to shape Parable's merchandising and marketing efforts. For instance, Parable's customers are nearly three-and-a-half times as likely as the general population index to have children present in the home and more than two-and-a-half times as likely to have four or more children. As a result, says Seybert, "We looked at that and at the product mix in our catalogs and stores and realized that there was a huge opportunity to add more children's products to our catalogs. We grew that from a few pages to a complete 24-page catalog-within-a-catalog, bound into our larger books." The end result is soaring kids' product retail sales.