Consumer profiling and advertisement selection system

Abstract

A consumer profiling and advertisement selection system is presented in which consumers or subscribers can be characterized based on their purchase or viewing habits. The result of this process is a consumer characterization vector describing the probabilistic demographics and product preferences of the subscriber or viewer. Advertisement characterization vectors describing an actual or hypothetical market for a product or desired viewing audience can be determined. The ad characteristics including an ad demographic vector, an ad product category and an ad product preference vector is transmitted along with a consumer ID. The consumer ID is used to retrieve a consumer characterization vector which is correlated with the ad characterization vector to determine the suitability of the advertisement to the consumer. A price for displaying the advertisement can be determined based on the results of the correlation of the ad characteristics with the consumer characterization vector.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 807,887, filed Apr. 19, 2001, and entitled Consumer Profiling and Advertisement Selection System, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. [0002] This application claims the benefit of International Application No. PCT / US99 / 28628, filed Dec. 2, 1999, entitled Consumer Profiling and Advertisement Selection System, which claims the benefit of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 204,888, filed Dec. 3, 1998, entitled Subscriber Characterization System; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 268,526, filed Mar. 12, 1999, entitled Advertisement Selection System Supporting Discretionary Target Market Characteristics, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,129; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 268,519, filed Mar. 12, 1999, entitled Consumer Profiling System, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,348.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The advent of the Internet...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention is a system for automatically updating consumer profiles based on their purchases, and using those profiles to determine the likelihood of a consumer to purchase a specific product. The system uses product characterization information and demographic information to create a description of the consumer, which can be used by advertisers to determine the suitability of their advertisements. The system can also be used to price access to the consumer based on the degree of correlation between the advertisement and the consumer's demographics and product preferences. The system allows for the targeting of adverts to specific markets and the identification of purchasers of a particular product. Overall, the invention provides a more effective way to advertise to consumers and improve the effectiveness of advertisements."

Problems solved by technology

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.

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.

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.

Although it is possible to collect statistical information regarding consumers of particular products and compare those profiles against individual demographic data points of consumers, such a methodology only allows for selection of potential consumers based on the demographics of existing customers of the same or similar products.

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