Working with Target Groups 

Use

Having created a target group in the Segment Builder, you may decide that it contains too many business partners and that you therefore need to reduce its size. For example, budgetary constraints might mean that you can no longer afford to contact every business partner in the target group. To avoid having to remodel the relevant profile(s), you can therefore use the reduce function to lower the number of business partners by means of a simple algorithm.

You also have the option to upload a business partner list in the form of a file and then perform targeted deletion of the members of this list from your target group. You can also add them to your list.

Equally, you could decide to split a target group into several other target groups, for example, for the creation of test groups and control groups for certain campaigns. 

You can also use the functions Merge, Intersect, and Remove to combine existing target groups.

Integration

The functions for splitting and reducing target groups are an integrated part of the Segment Builder. These functions can be accessed either directly within the Segment Builder, or from the Marketing Planner (when viewing detail information on a target group). This form of post-processing may be required before a target group is passed on to the relevant communication channel from the Marketing Planner for example.

Prerequisites

·         You have created a target group containing one or more business partners.

·         The rules by which target groups may be reduced or split are specified in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management ® Marketing ® Segment Builder ® Define Rules for Processing Target Groups. SAP supplies a number of rules as standard, but you may also create your own. If you create your own, you will need to program your own function module with a fixed interface and then create a rule containing this function module and enter it in this Customizing activity.

Features

Reducing a target group

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       1.      In the staging area, right mouse-click on the target group (or the profile with attached target group) and select the option Reduce Target Group.
A dialog box appears.

       2.      In the dialog box, enter the required size and select the rule by which the business partners are to be selected.
Choose Enter.
The target group now appears in the staging area with the reduced number of business partners.

Splitting a target group

...

       1.      In the staging area, right mouse-click on the target group (or the profile with attached target group) and select the option Split Target Group.
A dialog box appears.

       2.      In the dialog box, enter the required size and name of the target groups to be created and select the rule by which the split operation is to be performed.
Choose Enter.
The new target groups now appear in the staging area with the reduced number of business partners.

The split operation must be performed for all the business partners in the target group, that is, the new target groups must contain all the business partners that existed in the initial target group.

The split operation does not cause the original target group to be deleted.

Using the "merge" function

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You can add the business partners in one target group to another target group. This creates a new target group containing the business partners in both target groups.

       1.      Open a target group in the staging area.

       2.      From the components area, select a target group (left mouse-click) and drag it onto the existing target group in the staging area.

       3.      Choose the option Merge by releasing the mouse button with the cursor placed over this option.

       4.      The system creates a new target group in the staging area containing the business partners from both target groups.

Using the "intersect" function

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Two target groups can be combined to receive the intersection value of the two. In this case, a new target group is created containing only those business partners that belong to both target groups.

       1.      Open a target group in the staging area.

       2.      From the components area, select a target group (left mouse-click) and drag it onto the existing target group in the staging area.

       3.      Choose the option Intersect by releasing the mouse button with the cursor placed over this option.

       4.      The system creates a new target group in the staging area containing the intersection of business partners in the two target groups.

Using the "remove" function

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You can remove the business partners in one target group from another target group.

       1.      Open a target group in the staging area.

       2.      From the components area, select a target group (left mouse-click) and drag it onto the existing target group in the staging area.

       3.      Choose the option Remove by releasing the mouse button with the cursor placed over this option.

       4.      In the staging area, a new target group is created containing all the business partners that belonged to the original target group, apart from those that were contained in the second group (duplicated entries were deleted).

Target group 1 contains business partners A, B, and C
Target group 2 contains business partners B, C, and D
Target group 1 minus ("remove") target group 2 would result in one business partner only (A)

Target group 1 minus target group 2 therefore means "Remove from target group 1 all business partners contained in target group 2". This ensures that a given business partner does not belong to both these target groups simultaneously.

You are also able to execute the remove function when dragging a target group onto a profile. When you come to generate the target group for this profile, the business partners in this target group are then excluded from the resulting target group.

Adding/deleting business partners via a file (SAP GUI)

In the SAP GUI you also have the option of increasing or reducing the size of target groups by loading specific business partners from a file and then adding them to or deleting them from your target group. To do so, choose Import File from the context menu in the target group processing.

Compare target groups

It is possible to compare different target groups within a profile set. If no segment in the profile set is selected, all target groups belonging to this profile set are compared. If you have selected individual target groups, only these target groups are compared. You can access this function from the context menu.