Debating the Value of POS Data as a Primary Demand Signal

摘要

As I left the podium at a conference a few months back,someone approached me with an unusual question: “Whydo you hate point-of-sale (POS) data?”I replied, uHate is a pretty strong word; lets just say its not all itscracked up to be.”I have always been a bit underwhelmed by POS data. Having used itfor more than 20 years, mostly for descriptive analysis, it always seemsto be lagged and not complete enough for real decision-making. So, Iconcluded that its best use was as a directional guide to consider withregard to the planning process.