Customer-side market segmentation
First Claim
1. A system for customer-side market segmentation while preventing disclosure of sensitive customer information, comprising:
- a non-merchant-controlled device that generates a category code based on a business-specific decision procedure and stores customer information, wherein the customer information is kept private from merchants based on specified criteria;
a first merchant-controlled device that provides the business-specific decision procedure to the non-merchant-controlled device;
a second merchant-controlled device that receives the category code from the non-merchant-controlled device; and
a customer-controlled device that obtains the criteria used to keep information private.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for customer-side market segmentation and categorization. This segmentation is done without disclosing sensitive private customer information to the business. A customer downloads a categorization module to a portable device (PDA, wireless cellular phone, etc.) or personal computer. A business defines a decision procedure corresponding to a set of defined customer categories. The business sends their rule set to the customer'"'"'s device, which uses the rules and a set of stored customer-specific historical and demographic information to determine into which of the business-specific customer categories the customer falls. The categorization module may use any of a variety of methods, such as decision trees, neural networks, Bayesian belief networks, k-nearest neighbor, genetic algorithms, or rule sets. The customer category is sent to the business without other personal data for the business to prepare appropriate promotional material or initiate specific actions.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A system for customer-side market segmentation while preventing disclosure of sensitive customer information, comprising:
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a non-merchant-controlled device that generates a category code based on a business-specific decision procedure and stores customer information, wherein the customer information is kept private from merchants based on specified criteria; a first merchant-controlled device that provides the business-specific decision procedure to the non-merchant-controlled device; a second merchant-controlled device that receives the category code from the non-merchant-controlled device; and a customer-controlled device that obtains the criteria used to keep information private. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for customer-side market segmentation, said method comprising steps of:
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receiving a business-specific decision procedure by a non-merchant-controlled device; obtaining criteria used for keeping the customer information private; executing a categorizer on the non-merchant-controlled device, the categorizer using the received business-specific decision procedure and a set of stored customer-specific information, the executing resulting in an identified customer category code; and providing the identified customer category code, wherein the category code is generated by the categorizer. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions for categorizing a customer, said instructions comprising:
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a first code section that receives a business-specific rule set from a business; a second code section that inputs customer-specific information and stores said information in memory; a third code section categorizing that categorizes a customer, wherein the third code section uses the business-specific rule set received by the receiving first code section and customer-specific information stored in memory, said categorization resulting in a customer category code; and a fourth code section sending that sends the customer category code to the business, wherein the sending guards the customer-specific information stored in memory from being sent to the business˜
wherein the third code section generates the category_code.
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32. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions for use in a promotional device utilizing customer categories, said instructions comprising:
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a first code section that detects a customer-controlled categorization device; a second code section that sends a business-specific rule set to the customer-controlled categorization device; and a third code section that receives a customer category from the customer-controlled categorization device, wherein the customer category was generated using the business-specific rule set and customer-specific information stored in memory in the customer-controlled categorization device; and a fourth code section that generates a category_code. - View Dependent Claims (33)
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34. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for providing customer information, said instructions comprising:
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obtaining and storing customer information;
receiving business-specific decision procedures from different businesses;receiving a particular business-specific decision procedure from a requesting business; and
processing the customer information based on said particular business-specific decision procedure, subject to specified customer privacy criteria, in order to obtain processed customer information; andsending the processed customer information to the requesting business; and generating a customer category_code.
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Specification