System and Method for Gathering and Standardizing Customer Purchase Information for Target Marketing

• US 20110035407A1
• Filed: 10/19/2010
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines SA (International Business Machines Corporation), JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Witsil, Kathleen H., Rothman, Michael J., Nanek, David W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,076 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

The present invention relates to storing and manipulating customer purchasing information, particularly purchasing information by credit cards, debit cards, checks, and the like. A hierarchical organizational structure is created comprising a plurality of categories and sub-categories. The customer purchase information may then be retrieved according to user created links to generate customer preference information. The customer preference information may be stored in a customer account, thereby allowing targeted offers to be made to customers.

Claims

1-58. -58. (canceled)

59. A computerized method of augmenting data from a first dataset with data from a first database, the method comprising:

retrieving at least one link relating to an event from the first dataset;

identifying a wordstring in the link that specifies an entity;

locating first data from the first database that describes the entity specified by the wordstring;

processing the first data to form description describing the entity;

updating the link with the description to generate an updated link relating to the entity;

building a second database that includes at least one location that associates information from at least one event with the description of the entity from the updated data record;

searching the second database for selected data that meet a desired criteria; and

storing said selected data for further processing.

60. The computer method of claim 59, wherein:

the first dataset is constituted by link file;

the first database is constituted by customer purchase database; and

the second database is constituted by hierarchical database.

61. The computer method of claim 60, wherein the hierarchical database is constituted by an organizational structure.

62. The computer method of claim 59, wherein the event is a transaction.

63. The computer method of claim 59, wherein the locating first data includes locating data in a purchase storage device that includes customer purchase information.

64. The computer method of claim 63, wherein the customer purchase information is taken from multiple sources.

65. The computer method of claim 59, further comprising updating the links in the dataset to account for changes in the second database.

66. The computer method of claim 65, wherein the second database is constituted by an organizational structure.

67. The computer method of claim 66, the method further including updating the organizational structure.

68. The computer method of claim 67, further including determining if a threshold has been attained in order to update the organizational structure.

69. A computerized system for augmenting data from a first dataset with data from a first database to augment a second database, the system comprising:

a processing portion;

a first dataset that includes a plurality of links disposed in a link file, the processing portion retrieving at least one link relating to an event from the first dataset; and

the processing portion further;

identifying a wordstring in the link that specifies an entity;

locating first data from the first database that describes the entity specified by the wordstring;

processing the first data to form description describing the entity;

updating the link with the description to generate an updated link relating to the entity;

building a second database that includes at least one location that associates information from at least one event with the description of the entity from the updated data record;

searching the second database for selected data that meet a desired criteria; and

storing said selected data for further processing.

70. The computerized system of claim 69, wherein:

the first dataset is constituted by link file;

the first database is constituted by customer purchase database; and

the second database is constituted by hierarchical database.

71. The computerized system of claim 70, wherein the hierarchical database is constituted by an organizational structure.

72. The computerized system of claim 71, wherein the organizational structure provides a preference database, which comprises a plurality of output database.

73. The computerized system of claim 69, wherein each link includes character information and word-string information.

74. The computerized system of claim 69, wherein the event is a transaction.

75. A computerized system for augmenting data from a first dataset with data from a first database to augment a second database, the system comprising:

a processing portion;

a first dataset that includes a plurality of links disposed in a link file, the processing portion retrieving at least one link relating to an event from the first dataset; and

the processing portion further;

identifying a wordstring in the link that specifies an entity;

locating first data from the first database that describes the entity specified by the wordstring;

processing the first data to form description describing the entity;

updating the link with the description to generate an updated link relating to the entity;

building a second database that includes at least one location [3/38] that associates information from at least one event with the description of the entity from the updated data record;

searching the second database for selected data that meet a desired criteria; and

storing said selected data for further processing, and

wherein;

the first dataset is constituted by link file;

the first database is constituted by customer purchase database; and

the second database is constituted by hierarchical database; and

wherein the hierarchical database is constituted by an organizational structure; and

wherein the event is a transaction.