DECISION THEORETIC APPROACH TO TARGETED SOLICITATION BY MAXIMIZING EXPECTED PROFIT INCREASES

A decision theoretic approach to targeted solicitation, by maximizing expected profit increases, is disclosed. A decision theoretic model is used to identify a sub-population of a population to solicit, where the model is constructed to maximize an expected increase in profits. A decision tree in particular can be used as the model. The decision tree has paths from a root node to a number of leaf nodes. The decision tree has a split on a solicitation variable in every path from the root node to each leaf node. The solicitation variable has two values, a first value corresponding to a solicitation having been made, and a second value corresponding to a solicitation not having been made.