Promotion planning system

• US 20050189414A1
• Filed: 02/28/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Ghani, Rayid, Fano, Andrew E., Cumby, Chad M., Krema, Marko
• Granted Patent: US 8,650,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

A method and system for using individualized customer models when operating a retail establishment is provided. The individualized customer models may be generated using statistical analysis of transaction data for the customer, thereby generating sub-models and attributes tailored to customer. The individualized customer models may be used in any aspect of a retail establishment'"'"'s operations, ranging from supply chain management issues, inventory control, promotion planning (such as selecting parameters for a promotion or simulating results of a promotion), to customer interaction (such as providing a shopping list or providing individualized promotions).

Claims

1. A promotion planning system comprising:

a parameter selection component configured to select parameters for a promotion by optimizing pre-determined goals of the promotion;

a customer selection component communicating with the parameter selection component, the customer selection component configured to select a subset of customers based on the selected parameters;

a promotion simulator component communicating with the customer selection component, the promotion simulator component configured to simulate outcomes of the promotion with the selected parameters and the subset of customers; and

an output device communicating with the-promotion simulator component, the output device configured to present the simulated outcomes.

2. The promotion planning system of claim 1 where the parameter selection component selects parameters by locally optimizing the pre-determined goals of the promotion.

3. The promotion planning system of claim 1, where the pre-determined goals are selected from the group consisting of brand, revenue, lift, and market share.

4. The promotion planning system of claim 1, where the parameters of the promotion comprise duration of the promotion, discount applied, and attributes of a customer model to select the subset of customers.

5. The promotion planning system of claim 1, where the attributes are selected from the group consisting of behavior, brand loyalty, wallet share, price sensitivity, promotion sensitivity, product category substitution, basket variability, and frequency of shopping.

6. The promotion planning system of claim 1, where the parameter selection component optimizes duration of the promotion, discount applied, and attributes of a customer model to select the subset of customers.

7. The promotion planning system of claim 1, where the parameter selection component receives a range for at least one of the parameters for the promotion, and

where the parameter selection component selects a value for the at least one parameter within the range.

8. The promotion planning system of claim 1, where at least some of the customers have individualized customer models, each customer model comprising a plurality of promotion attributes, the promotion attributes being derived from customer data consisting of transaction data associated with the customer;

and

where the promotion simulator component simulates the promotion using the individualized customer models.

9. The promotion planning system of claim 7, where a plurality of customers have individualized models;

and

where the customer selection component select a subset of the plurality of customers based on the selected parameters and the individualized models.

10. The promotion planning system of claim 1, where new parameters are selected based on the simulated outcomes;

and

where the promotion simulator component iterates with the new parameters.

11. A promotion planning system comprising:

a parameter selection component configured to select parameters for a promotion;

a customer selection component communicating with the parameter selection component, the customer selection component configured to select a subset of customers based on the selected parameters and based on customer models, at least a portion of each customer model being derived from statistical analysis of customer data consisting of transaction data associated with a respective customer;

a promotion simulator component communicating with the customer selection component, the promotion simulator component configured to simulate outcomes of the promotion with the selected parameters, the subset of customers, and the customer models of the subset of customers; and

an output device communicating with the promotion simulator component, the output device configured to present the simulated outcomes.

12. The promotion planning system of claim 11, where the promotion simulator simulates brand switches, brand extensions, and new trials due to the promotion.

13. The promotion planning system of claim 11, where the promotion simulator simulates revenues from the promotion.

14. The promotion planning system of claim 11, where the promotion simulator simulates incremental revenue for a predetermined number of replenishment cycles due to the promotion.

15. The promotion planning system of claim 11, where the promotion simulator simulates incremental lift for a predetermined number of replenishment cycles due to the promotion.

16. An inventory planning system for a retail establishment comprising:

a plurality of customer models for customers of the retail establishment, at least a part of each customer model generated by statistical analysis of transactional data for a product category for a respective customer; and

a inventory planning component accessing the plurality of customer models, the inventory planning component configured to estimate purchases for the product category in a pre-determined period and configured to aggregate the estimated purchases.

17. The inventory planning system of claim 16, where each customer model comprises a shopping list sub-model derived from customer data consisting of transaction data associated with the customer for the product category.

18. The inventory planning system of claim 16, where a total number of customers purchase goods at the retail establishment;

where the customers with customer models comprise a subset of the total number of customers;

where customers who do not have customer models are assigned aggregate customer models; and

where the inventory planning component simulates purchases for a predetermined period of the product category using customer models for each of the total number of customers.

19. The inventory planning system of claim 18, where a promotion with a plurality of promotion parameters is implemented during the pre-determined period;

and

where the inventory planning component comprises a promotion simulator component configured to simulate a number of units sold of the product category based on the promotion.

20. The inventory planning system of claim 18, where a promotion with a plurality of promotion parameters is implemented during the pre-determined period;

and

where the inventory planning component comprises a promotion simulator component configured to simulate removing a product category from sale by the retail establishment.