Customers Grouping Using Data Mining Techniques in the Food Distribution Industry (A Case Study)

Abstract

Significant data development has required organizations to use a tool to understand the relationships between data and make various appropriate decisions based on the information obtained. Customer segmentation and analysis of their behavior in the manufacturing and distribution industries according to the purposefulness of marketing activities and effective communication and with customers has a particular importance. Customer segmentation using data mining techniques is mainly based on the variables of recency purchase (R), frequency of purchase (F) and monetary value of purchase (M) in RFM model. In this article, using the mentioned variables, twelve customer groups related to the BTB (business to business) of a food production company, are grouped. The grouping in this study is evaluated based on the K-means algorithm and the Davies-Bouldin index. As a result, customer grouping is divided into three groups and, finally the CLV (customer lifetime value) of each cluster is calculated, and appropriate marketing strategies for each cluster have been proposed.