Date:         Fri, 10 Jan 2003 05:09:52 +0000
Reply-To:     alejandro.jaramillo@ATT.NET
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         alejandro.jaramillo@ATT.NET
Subject:      Re: Marketing mix seperation issues...

Victor,
The book "Statistical Methods for Comparative Studies" by Sharon Anderson,
Ariane Auquier, Walter W. Hauck, David Oakes, Walter Vandaele, and Herbert I
Weisberg publisshed by Wiley, has good information about matching.

Good luck

Alejandro
> Hello all,
> This is not exactly a SAS issue but more of a Marketing/Statistics domain
> issue.
>
> Test/Case and Control Matching:
> Background: I work at a retail chain and
> I am working on analyzing promotional programs.  We run some marketing
> programs at certain stores(called test group) and then want to test the
> performance of that test against a 'control' group.
> Frequently we need to pick some other retail stores to use as a
> control group to validate a promotion/test program, which
> ran at a few 'test' stores.
>
> The difficulty I am facing is "How to identify a control store(s) and what
> are the techniques available?". And how to match a control to a test.  I
> understand the theory of using clustering on matching variables and model
> specification is painstakingly slow.  I am interested to know other ways
> and generate some creative ideas of looking at the test-control issue.
>
> I have looked at the 'match' algorithm posted on this list, using NETFLOW
> proc. But that is more for a individual case-control used may be for
> epidemilogy.  I am interested to match a group of stores. I am looking it
> from a statistical perspective of finding a statistical measure to
> report "How close is a particular control to the test group".
>
> I am currently working  on experimental design and am planning to use
> Clustering as a technique to match test and control stores.  Can anyone
> throw some thoughts/feedback?
>
> Thanks
> Victor