Analyzing customer segments

US10204349B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Sean McCauley · Newburgh, US
• Paul Algren · Minneapolis, US
• Paritosh Desai · Santa Clara, US
• Steve Colten · Reno, US
• Rob Parkin · San Francisco, US
• Suzanne Valentine · Atlanta, US
• Craig Silverman · San Francisco, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 25, 2009
• Grant date: Feb 12, 2019
• Expiry date: Aug 29, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q30/0204
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for customer segment analysis. The system receives customer transaction data for the generation of segments, including point of sales data and customer identification information. Errors in the data may be resolved. Then, individual customers may be segmented by statistically relevant groups. The segmentation of consumers may be accomplished by comparing data of known customers to known segments. Unknown customers, new customers and point of sales data which is missing customer data may also be segmented via statistical similarity to known segments. Using the customer segments, segment wide point of sale data may be generated. This data may then be aggregated by consumer groups. Consumer groups may include by household or other communal purchasing entity. The aggregated segment data may be validated and transformed for outputting to the optimization system. The price optimization system may the use the segment data for generation of preferred prices. Feedback from the optimization engine may be utilized by the customer segmentation system to generate customer segment specific promotional activity.