Re-engineering Technology: Data Mining for Clubs.

With increasing competition and more demanding members, clubs need a tool to help them belter attract and retain members and predict their behavior. Data mining is such a tool. This article presents an overview of how data warehousing, data marting, and data mining can provide the foundation on which clubs can build strategies to outsmart competitors, build Ioyalty identify new members, and lower costs. This article is available in Hospitality Review: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/hospitalityreview/vol18/iss1/2 Re-engineering technology: Data mining for clubs by Michael L. Kasavana and Bonnie J. Knutson With increasing competition and more demanding members, clubs need a tool to help them belteraltract and retain members and predict their behavior. Data mining is such a tool. This art~cle presents an overview of how data warehousing, data marting, and data mining can provide the foundation on which clubs can build strategies to outsmarl competitors, build IoyalN identify new members, and lower costs. A t a time when really knowing members is so crucial to running a successful club, data mining should be at the forefront of club managers' thinking about the future. Clubs have long known that they need to understand the wants and needs of their members in order to keep them happy In fact, ask club managers what their biggest marketing concern is and, in general, they will say gaining and keeping members. With increasing competition and more demanding memberships, managers need a tool to help them better attract and retain members, and predict their behavior. Data mining is just such a tool. Having the automated data warehousing and data mining abilities saves the club money and time by having the ability to readily capture and manipulate member information. It also gives clubs the opportunity to be more attentive to their pricing structure and to r e h e their marketing efforts. Data mining is simply the process used to get useful information out of the data that the club has stored about its members. "It stands at the intersection of statistics, database technology, and important business concerns."' The concept of data mining isn't new for clubs. Historically, clubs have captured and stored information about what members spend (transactions), what they do (activities), and who they are (demographics). Most managers can tell you the profile of their memberships, when the busy meal periods are, and the attendance trends for special events. Kasauana & Knutson 19 FIU Hospitality Review, Volume 18, Number 1, 2000