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Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research

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Handbook of Market Research

Abstract

Cluster analysis is an exploratory tool for compressing data into a smaller number of groups or representing points. The latter aims at sufficiently summarizing the underlying data structure and as such can serve the analyst for further consideration instead of dealing with the complete data set. Because of this data compression property, cluster analysis remains to be an essential part of the marketing analyst’s toolbox in today’s data rich business environment. This chapter gives an overview of the various approaches and methods for cluster analysis and links them with the most relevant marketing research contexts. We also provide pointers to the specific packages and functions for performing cluster analysis using the R ecosystem for statistical computing. A substantial part of this chapter is devoted to the illustration of applying different clustering procedures to a reference data set of shopping basket data. We briefly outline the general approach of the considered techniques, provide a walk-through for the corresponding R code required to perform the analyses, and offer some interpretation of the results.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria

    Thomas Reutterer

  2. Department of New Media, Modul University Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Daniel Dan

Authors
  1. Thomas Reutterer
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  2. Daniel Dan
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Correspondence to Thomas Reutterer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Christian Homburg

  2. Inst. Informations Systems and Marketing Marketing & Sales Research Group, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Martin Klarmann

  3. LS für ABWL und Marketing I, Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Arnd Vomberg

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Reutterer, T., Dan, D. (2020). Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research. In: Homburg, C., Klarmann, M., Vomberg, A. (eds) Handbook of Market Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_11-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_11-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-05542-8

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research
    Published:
    26 March 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_11-2

  2. Original

    Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research
    Published:
    29 March 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_11-1

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