What is the primary purpose of Affinity Models in Category Management?
A.
To group similar stores, shoppers, or products
B.
To identify co-purchase patterns, such as chips and salsa.
C.
To identify products shoppers switch to when their first choice is unavailable.
D.
To predict future sales trends based on historical data
The Answer Is:
B
Want to know why?
Explanation:
The correct answer is B .
The CPCM course places affinity-type work inside advanced predictive analytics. The official CPCM course material states that advanced category analytics includes “predictive analytics including collaborative filtering, clustering algorithms, regression models and time-to-event models.” In category management, affinity modeling is used to identify relationships between items that are bought together. Oracle Retail describes market basket/affinity analysis as using data-mining techniques to search for sales patterns between products within transactions, such as rules connecting products purchased together.
Option B is therefore the best answer because chips and salsa is a classic co-purchase relationship. Option A describes clustering, not affinity modeling. Option C describes switching or substitution analysis. Option D describes sales forecasting, usually handled through regression, time-series, or other forecasting models.
