Direct mailings to a company's potential customers ( 'junk mail' to many) can be a very effective way for them to market a product or a service. However, as we all know, much of this junk mail is really of no interest to the people that receive it. Most of it ends up thrown away, not only wasting the money that the company spent on it, but also filling up landfill waste sites or needing to be recycled.
If the company had a better understanding of who their potential customers were, they would know more accurately who to send it to, so some of this waste and expense could be reduced. We will study this problem in a context of a Dutch insurance company that among others sells insurances for customers that own their own caravans. We have two questions posed by the company:
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Can you describe a potential customer interested in buying a caravan insurance?
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Can you predict who would be interested in buying a caravan insurance policy?