Constrained Optimization with Genetic Algorithm: Improving Profitability of Targeted Marketing

Direct marketing forecasting models have focused on estimating the response probabilities of consumer purchases and neglected the profitability of customers. This study proposes a method of constrained optimization using genetic algorithm to maximize the profitability at the top deciles of a customer list. We apply this method to a direct marketing dataset using tenfold cross validation. The results from this method compare favorably with the unconstrained model and that of the DMAX model. The method of constrained optimization has distinctive advantages in augmenting the profitability of direct marketing campaigns. We explore the implications for targeted marketing problems and for assisting management decision-making and augmenting profitability of direct marketing.