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

[0027] One advantage of the present invention is that it allows consumer profiles to be updated automatically based on their purchases, and forms a description of the consumer including demographic characteristics and product preferences. This description can be used by advertisers to determine the suitability of advertisements to the consumer. Consumers benefit from the system since they will receive advertisements which are more likely to be applicable to them.

[0028] The present invention can be used to profile consumers to support the correlation of an advertisement characterization vector associated with an advertisement with the consumer characterization vector to determine the applicability of the advertisement to the consumer.

[0029] Another feature of the present invention is the ability to price access to the consumer based on the degree of correlation of an advertisement with their profile. If an advertisement is found to be very highly correlated with a consumer's demographics and product preferences, a relatively high price can be charged for transmitting the advertisement to the consumer. From the consumer's perspective, if the correlation between the advertisement and the consumer's demographics or product preferences is high the consumer can charge less to view the ad, since it is likely that is will be of interest.

[0030] The present invention also describes a system for determining the applicability of an advertisement to a consumer, based on the reception of an ad characterization vector and use of a unique consumer ID. The consumer ID is used to retrieve a consumer characterization vector, and the correlation between the consumer characterization vector and the ad characterization vector is used to determine the applicability of the advertisement to the consumer. The price to be paid for presentation of the advertisement can be determined based on the degree of correlation.

[0031] The price to present an advertisement can increase with correlation, as may be typical when the content / opportunity provider is also the profiling entity. The price can decrease with correlation when the consumer is the profiler, and is interested in, and willing to charge less for seeing advertisements which are highly correlated with their demographics, lifestyle, and product preferences.

[0032] The present invention can be used to specify purchasers of a specific product. In a preferred embodiment the advertisement characterization vector contains a description of a target market including an indicator of a target product, i.e., purchasers of a particular product type, brand, or product size. The advertisement characterization vector is correlated with a consumer characterization vector which is retrieved based on a unique consumer ID. The correlation factor is determined and indicates if the consumer is a purchaser of the product the advertisement is intended for. This feature can be used to identify purchasers of a particular brand and can be used to target ads at those consumers to lure them away from their present product provider. Similarly, this feature can be used to target ads to loyal consumers to introduce them to a new product in a product family, or different size of product.

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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