So the first link is an exploration in learning how to extract more money from "women with families" using targeted offers, just by dropping an Excel spreadsheet onto a website.
I think it depends on the corporation and what they are purchasing.
IBM has tremendous resources and you'd expect very many smart and well educated people on its payroll. It's just interesting which problems they are selecting to solve when there are so many other problems to choose from that they likely could solve.
Why not large scale logistics problems to reduce the cost of the overall food supply chain instead of attempting to extract maximum profit from women with families?
I suppose there is an argument that some might make that that is exactly what you should do to achieve maximum reduction in cost. I don't hear IBM making that argument though. I'm not going to make it either, I think there are likely much larger reductions elsewhere.
Excellent work IBM.