Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-12
2001-10-02
Black, Thomas (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C705S004000, C705S014270, C705S026640, C705S03600T, C709S206000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06298348
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The advent of the Internet has resulted in the ability to communicate data across the globe instantaneously, and will allow for numerous new applications which enhance consumer's lives. One of the enhancements which can occur is the ability for the consumer to receive advertising which is relevant to their lifestyle, rather than a stream of ads determined by the program they are watching. Such “targeted ads” can potentially reduce the amount of unwanted information which consumers receive in the mail, during television programs, and when using the Internet.
From an advertiser's perspective the ability to target ads can be beneficial since they have some confidence that their ad will at least be determined relevant by the consumer, and therefore will not be found annoying because it is not applicable to their lifestyle.
In order to determine the applicability of an advertisement to a consumer, it is necessary to know something about their lifestyle, and in particular to understand their demographics (age, household size, income). In some instances it is useful to know their particular purchasing habits. As an example, a vendor of soups would like to know which consumers are buying their competitor's soup, so that they can target ads at those consumers in an effort to convince them to switch brands. That vendor will probably not want to target loyal customers, although for a new product introduction the strategy may be to convince loyal customers to try the new product. In both cases it is extremely useful for the vendor to be able to determine what brand of product the consumer presently purchases.
There are several difficulties associated with the collection, processing, and storage of consumer data. First, collecting consumer data and determining the demographic parameters of the consumer can be difficult. Surveys can be performed, and in some instances the consumer will willingly give access to normally private data including family size, age of family members, and household income. In such circumstances there generally needs to be an agreement with the consumer regarding how the data will be used. If the consumer does not provide this data directly, the information must be “mined” from various pieces of information which are gathered about the consumer, typically from specific purchases.
Once data is collected, usually from one source, some type of processing can be performed to determine a particular aspect of the consumer's life. As an example, processing can be performed on credit data to determine which consumers are a good credit risk and have recently applied for credit. The resulting list of consumers can be solicited, typically by direct mail.
Although information such as credit history is stored on multiple databases, storage of other information such as the specifics of grocery purchases is not typically performed. Even if each individual's detailed list of grocery purchases was recorded, the information would be of little use since it would amount to nothing more than unprocessed shopping lists.
Privacy concerns are also an important factor in using consumer purchase information. Consumers will generally find it desirable that advertisements and other information is matched with their interests, but will not allow indiscriminate access to their demographic profile and purchase records.
The Internet has spawned the concept of “negatively priced information” in which consumers can be paid to receive advertising. Paying consumers to watch advertisements can be accomplished interactively over the Internet, with the consumer acknowledging that they will watch an advertisement for a particular price. Previously proposed schemes such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,210, entitled “Attention Brokerage,” of which A. Nathaniel Goldhaber and Gary Fitts are the inventors, describe such a system, in which the consumer is presented with a list of advertisements and their corresponding payments. The consumer chooses from the list and is compensated for viewing the advertisement. The system requires real-time interactivity in that the viewer must select the advertisement from the list of choices presented.
The ability to place ads to consumers and compensate them for viewing the advertisements opens many possibilities for new models of advertising. However, it is important to understand the demographics and product preferences of the consumer in order to be able to determine if an advertisement is appropriate.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a consumer profiling system which can profile the consumer, provide access to the consumer profile in a secure manner, and return a measurement of the potential applicability of an advertisement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention supports the receipt of consumer purchase information with which consumer characterization vectors are updated based on product characterization information. The consumer characterization vectors include a consumer demographic vector which provides a probabilistic measure of the demographics of the consumer, and a product preference vector which describes which products the consumer has typically purchased in the past, and therefore is likely to purchase in the future. The product characterization information includes vector information which represents probabilistic determinations of the demographics of purchasers of an item, heuristic rules which can be applied to probabilistically describe the demographics of the consumer based on that purchase, and a vector representation of the purchase itself.
In a preferred embodiment a computer-readable detailed purchase record is received, along with a unique consumer identifier. A demographic characterization vector corresponding to the consumer can be retrieved. In the event that there is no existing demographic characterization vector for that consumer, a new demographic characterization vector can be created. In a preferred embodiment the new demographic characterization vector contains no information. A set of heuristic rules is retrieved and contains a probabilistic measure of the demographic characteristics of a typical purchaser of an item. A new demographic characterization vector is calculated based on the purchase, the existing demographic characterization vector, and the heuristic rules.
In a preferred embodiment the calculation of the demographic characterization vector is performed by calculating a weighted average of a product demographics vector and the existing demographic characterization vector. A weighting factor is used in which the weighting factor is determined based on the ratio of the current product purchase amount to a cumulative product purchase amount. The cumulative product purchase amount can be measured as the amount spent on a particular category of items (e.g. groceries, clothes, accessories) over a given period of time such as one month or one year.
In a preferred embodiment the heuristic rules are in the form of a product demographics vector which states the demographics of known purchasers of an item. Each product can have an associated product demographics vector.
The present invention can be used to develop product preference descriptions of consumers which describe the brand and size product that they purchase, and which provide a probabilistic interpretation of the products they are likely to buy in the future. The product preference description can be generated by creating a weighted average of an existing product preference vector describing the consumer's historical product preferences (type of product, brand, and size) and the characteristics of recent purchases.
The present invention can be realized as a data processing system or computer program which processes consumer purchase records and updates their demographic and product preference profiles based on the use of product characterization information. The data processing system can also be used to receive information regarding an advertisement and to perform a correlation between t
Black Thomas
Coby Frantz
Expanse Networks, Inc.
Ryder Douglas J.
LandOfFree
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