It is interesting how some analytical techniques applied in various industries have so much in common. The building blocks are just the same everywhere and it is totally left to the Analyst, the engineer in the world of business intelligence, to come up with his unique super-structures which can provide havens of successful decision making.
Case in point, if we have to compare the Dimensions and Metrics used in the CPG industry to their counterparts in the world of Digital Analytics, we would know and appreciate the universality of these core concepts. Dimensions are simply what are measured in analytics - a product, time or a location in the physical CPG industry, while they would mean a Page Title a person visits, or the country of the user, or a user type itself. Notice the similarity of what is being measured between the two separate industries. A Metric on the other hand simply states how we can measure these dimensions. It has everything to do with numbers. Sales volumes, distribution, pricing are simple to understand metrics of the CPG world. In the online world, these translate into no. of visitors, pages/visits and conversion rates. Parallels between how we go about measuring are easy to draw if we pay close attention to what each of these metrics actually mean.
IRI and Nielsen, some of the leading Analytic solution providers of the CPG industry provide some useful resources on the key metrics used in the industry. As for the online analytics, Google analytics provides some engaging methods to learn some of the technical aspects of the data measurement and reporting through videos, blogs and discussion forums. A useful reference for Google's take on Metrics and Dimensions can be found here.
Case in point, if we have to compare the Dimensions and Metrics used in the CPG industry to their counterparts in the world of Digital Analytics, we would know and appreciate the universality of these core concepts. Dimensions are simply what are measured in analytics - a product, time or a location in the physical CPG industry, while they would mean a Page Title a person visits, or the country of the user, or a user type itself. Notice the similarity of what is being measured between the two separate industries. A Metric on the other hand simply states how we can measure these dimensions. It has everything to do with numbers. Sales volumes, distribution, pricing are simple to understand metrics of the CPG world. In the online world, these translate into no. of visitors, pages/visits and conversion rates. Parallels between how we go about measuring are easy to draw if we pay close attention to what each of these metrics actually mean.
IRI and Nielsen, some of the leading Analytic solution providers of the CPG industry provide some useful resources on the key metrics used in the industry. As for the online analytics, Google analytics provides some engaging methods to learn some of the technical aspects of the data measurement and reporting through videos, blogs and discussion forums. A useful reference for Google's take on Metrics and Dimensions can be found here.
