Alan French | Loughborough University (original) (raw)

Papers by Alan French

Segmenting is a fundamental strategy in Marketing and a means of gaining a competitive advantage ... more Segmenting is a fundamental strategy in Marketing and a means of gaining a competitive advantage for an organization. However, there has been little or no development in the methods of segmenting markets in recent times, and the implementation of segmentation is often ineffective. We forward a new consumer driven means of segmenting markets based on the associations held in memory by consumers of brands. These associations are captured using mental maps (John et al, 2006). However, John et al’s (2006) approach then aggregates individual maps into a consensus map. This is at odds with a basic tenet of marketing that markets are not homogeneous but heterogeneous. We therefore amend John et al’s (2006) methodology by developing a post hoc segmentation approach to produce internally coherent segments based on similarities/differences between individual brand map structures. This amounts to a new approach to market segmentation using brand associations which, importantly, directly influe...

international conference on adaptive and natural computing algorithms, 1998

An approach to combine a genetic algorithm with traditional linear programming based branch and b... more An approach to combine a genetic algorithm with traditional linear programming based branch and bound for integer programming is described in this paper. Branch and bound provides a systematic search procedure for pure integer programming problems and a genetic approach offers the possibility of rapid movement towards a useful solution. Hence the two approaches look worthy of combination as a way to solve certain {0,1} integer programming problems. The approach has been tested out on satisfiability problems and computational results look promising in certain aspects of speed and solution quality.

Journal of Marketing Management, 2011

The 2010 UK General Election was unique in that for the first time televised leaders' debates too... more The 2010 UK General Election was unique in that for the first time televised leaders' debates took place. The impact of these plus paid for advertising and uncontrolled events are considered and their likely affect on the image of Brown, Cameron and Clegg, the three main party leaders, discussed. Then, using a brand mapping approach, we analyse changes to consumer perceptions of the leader brands from just prior to the first debate through to the election day itself, Thursday May 6 th. Specifically, we consider whether, over the campaign, the number of leader associations increases, which policies were associated with which leader and the favourability of the leaders associations. We then use a measure of brand image strength to chart overall changes to the leaders. Finally we consider how Brown's image was affected by the so called 'Duffy' affair.

Computers & Operations Research, 2006

An approach for manufacturing cell formation with machine modification is presented. In cell form... more An approach for manufacturing cell formation with machine modification is presented. In cell formation it is often important in practice to be able to reassign parts to additional machine types in order to create better cell configurations. This involves extending the set of parts that certain individual machines can process. Such extensions may be cheaper than simply purchasing additional machines. Thus, there is the possibility of machine modification to reduce inter-cell travel. The cost of such modifications must be balanced by the consequent reduction in intercell travel cost. The extended machine cell formation problem to be described involves the specification of which individual machines should be modified to enable them to process additional part types, part-machine assignment, and the grouping of individual machines for cell formation. The objective is to minimize the sum of the machine modification costs and the inter-cell travel. We call this the sustainable cell formation problem (SCFP). As far as the authors are aware, there have not been any solution procedures for this important problem reported in the open literature. It is our purpose to fill this gap by presenting a mixed integer programming model of the SCFP. We also propose and analyze greedy and tabu search heuristics for the design of large-scale systems related to the SCFP. Computational experience with the solution procedures indicates that they are likely to be useful additions to the production engineer's toolkit.

Google, Inc. (search). ...

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6386.75(LU-BS-P--1994/10) / BLDSC... more SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6386.75(LU-BS-P--1994/10) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

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The paper follows the applied practitioner tradition of location analysis by focusing on the deve... more The paper follows the applied practitioner tradition of location analysis by focusing on the development of tools for store performance assessment. Neural networks have been identified as a highly flexible modeling tool, which have a high, but as yet largely unsubstantiated, potential for managerial problem solving. This paper objectively assesses the suitability for neural networks for store performance modeling by directly comparing them with the tried and tested technique of multiple regression. Based upon data provided by a ...

Optimization Methods and Software, 2011

The k-sequential generalized assignment problem (GAPkSeq) is a problem of allocating tasks to tim... more The k-sequential generalized assignment problem (GAPkSeq) is a problem of allocating tasks to time periods, where each of n tasks must be assigned to k sequential time periods out of a total of m. Using standard mathematical programming software, GAPkSeq becomes intractable for relatively small values of k, m and n; hence there is a need for heuristic algorithms to solve such problems. It is shown how a heuristic combining both divide-and-conquer and a linear programming-based heuristic developed previously for the ...

The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 1993

European Journal of Marketing, 2013

He studied for his first degree and PhD at the University of East Anglia. His research focuses on... more He studied for his first degree and PhD at the University of East Anglia. His research focuses on the application of Management Science techniques in business and he has published in the European

OR Insight, 1995

Abstract This article addresses the application of neural networks to the problem of predicting s... more Abstract This article addresses the application of neural networks to the problem of predicting store performance. The article considers the predictive power of neural networks, but concentrates on the issues associated with using them, in particular, whether neural networks can be successfully applied by managers with a rudimentary knowledge of personal computing.

The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 1995

Journal of Marketing Management, 1994

The advent of powerful computers and relatively inexpensive disk storage has had a profound effec... more The advent of powerful computers and relatively inexpensive disk storage has had a profound effect on marketing and market research. In particular, companies are now able to construct very large databases containing information about their customers. However, companies are now faced with the problem of how to use these vast sources of information to their advantage. Two typical problems discussed in this paper are data fusion and selecting those likely to respond to a particular marketing campaign, for example, a ...