The Emerging Marketplace for RFID Data Analytics, or Finding a Needle in a Haystack

At the grocery checkout, there are two printers. One prints your receipt, while the other outputs a strip of coupons just for you. Usually buy Barq's root beer? Try Mug for free next time. Most likely, Catalina Marketing owns the second printer and uses loyalty card data to target promotions, generating substantially higher redemption rates than other methods. The company claims to have the largest shopper history database in existence—some 2,500 terabytes of information. Data mining for retailers and brand owners is a profitable business. Catalina generated $661 million in revenue during a recent 12-month period with an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of about $230 million.