MARKET DYNAMICS

• US 20100076813A1
• Filed: 09/24/2008
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Ghosh, Debashis, Newman, Kurt, Joa, David, Bendel, Timothy J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,417,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for providing a market-dynamics network that assesses social and economic market dynamics in specific geographic regions. For example, the market-dynamics network collects transaction data from a large number of business-merchants across a large number of geographic locations and appends geographic-location identifiers to the collected transaction data. The market-dynamics network then aggregates transaction data in specific geographic regions and, based on the aggregated transaction data, assesses social and economic market dynamics in those geographic regions.

Claims

1. A method for assessing a geographic region, the method comprising:

collecting transaction data from a transaction involving a business and a consumer;

associating a geographic-location identifier with the transaction data;

storing the collected transaction data and associated geographic-location identifier in a database;

receiving an instruction that defines the geographic region to be assessed;

obtaining from the database the transaction data associated with the geographic-location identifiers that correspond to the geographic region; and

generating a report that assesses the geographic region based on the transaction data obtained from the database.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

indexing the transaction data stored in the database according to the geographic-region identifiers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic region is a plurality of user-defined geographic regions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the report compares the transaction data of the different user-defined geographic regions.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

assigning the user-defined geographic regions to two or more peer groups.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the report illustrates how the user-defined geographic regions of one of the peer groups are changing relative to the user-defined geographic regions of another one of the peer groups.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is a point-in-time report.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is a trend-over-time report.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic-location identifier identifies the geographic location where the transaction occurred.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic-location identifier identifies the location of the business involved in the transaction.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic-location identifier identifies the address of the consumer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction data is a plurality of credit- and debit-card transactions.

13. An apparatus for assessing the market dynamics of at least a geographic region, the apparatus comprising:

a transaction-processing system configured to receive transaction data from a plurality of businesses located in a plurality of geographic locations;

a database for storing the transaction data received from the transaction-processing system;

a geographic-identifier tool configured to associate a geographic-location identifier to the transaction data, the geographic-location identifier identifies the geographic location from which the transaction data was received;

a geographic-region tool configured to define the geographic region; and

a market-dynamics-assessment tool configured to assess the market dynamics of the geographic region based on the transaction data having the geographic-identifier that is associated with the geographic region as defined by the geographic-region tool.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

a peer-grouping tool configured to assign the user-defined geographic regions into a peer group.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

a raw-data tool configured to enable a user to directly access the transaction data.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

an indexing tool configured to index the transaction data based on the geographic-location identifier appended to the transaction data.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving transaction data that comprises a geographic-location identifier from a plurality of sources;

storing the transaction data in a database;

defining a geographic region;

obtaining from the database the transaction data that comprises the geographic-location identifier that corresponds to the defined geographic region; and

generating a report that assesses the defined geographic region based on the transaction data obtained from the database.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the transaction data is a plurality of credit- and debit-card transactions received from a plurality of business-merchants.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the geographic-location identifier identifies a location where the transaction occurred.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the geographic-location identifier identifies a location of the business-merchant.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the geographic-location identifier identifies an address of an account holder of the credit- or debit-card account.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the geographic-region is a plurality of user-defined geographic regions.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the report compares the transaction data of the different user-defined geographic regions.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

assigning the user-defined geographic regions to two or more peer groups.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the report illustrates how the user-defined geographic regions of one of the peer groups are changing relative to the user-defined geographic regions of another one of the peer groups.

26. A computer program product for assessing a geographic region, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-readable program instructions stored therein, wherein said computer-readable program instructions comprise:

first instructions configured to collect a plurality of transaction data from a plurality of transactions, wherein the transaction data for each of the transactions comprises a geographic-location identifier;

second instructions configured to store the transaction data in a database;

third instructions configured to define the geographic region to be assessed;

fourth instructions configured to obtain from the database the transaction data comprising the geographic-location identifiers that correspond to the defined geographic region; and

fifth instructions configured to generate a report that assesses the geographic region based on transaction data obtained from the database.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, further comprising:

sixth instructions configured to index the transaction data stored in the database according to geographic-region identifiers.

28. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the geographic region is a plurality of user-defined geographic regions.

29. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the report compares the transaction data of the user-defined geographic regions.

30. The computer program product of claim 28, further comprising:

seventh instructions configured to assign the user-defined geographic regions to two or more peer groups.

31. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein the report illustrates how the geographic regions of one of the peer groups are changing relative to the geographic regions of another one of the peer groups.

32. A system for assessing a geographic region, the system comprising:

a first input system configured to receive transaction data from a plurality of sources, wherein the transaction data received from each of the sources comprises a geographic-location identifier;

a second input system configured to receive a set of instructions that defines the geographic region to be assessed; and

a processing system in communication with the first and second input systems and configured to obtain from the database the transaction data that comprises the geographic-location identifiers that correspond to the geographic region as defined by the set of instructions and generate a report that assesses the geographic region based on the transaction data obtained from the database.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the transaction data is a plurality of credit- and debit-card transactions and the sources are business-merchants.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the geographic region is a plurality of user-defined geographic regions.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the report compares the transaction data of the user-defined geographic regions.

36. The system of claim 34, wherein the processing system is further configured to assign the user-defined geographic regions to two or more peer groups.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the report illustrates how the geographic regions of one of the peer groups are changing relative to the geographic regions of another one of the peer groups.