Inventory and revenue maximization method and system

• US 7,386,492 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2002
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: iHeartMedia Management Services, Inc. (iHeartMedia, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Clear Channel Communications Incorporated (iHeartMedia, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ginsburg, Allan, Weinberger, Arthur, Murray, David R., Williams, Jerome
• Primary Examiner(s): Kramer; James A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BORLINGHAUS, JASON M
• Application Number:
  US10/045,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20030154142A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,338 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/26, 705/11
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission

Abstract

A method is provided for enterprise management and bundling of radio, outdoor and entertainment inventory to achieve maximum revenue on perishable products. An electronic data-mart 110 or central information storage and data processing system is established to collect influencing factors for the probability and price sensitivity of a particular advertising buyer 120. The data-mart 110 also collects business rules for inventory scaling, available inventory to sell, budget (goal) information, advertiser payment history, and station performance data to feed to a scenario planner 130. Once three or more variables exist, inventory and pricing fuzzy logic algorithms create scenario plans to present the most profitable bundle of offerings. The scenarios are typically pre-approved although presented to the local business units 150 for an abnormality failsafe. Once processed by the local business units 150, the scenarios are presented to the advertising buyer 120. Negotiations typically take place which cause for the process to restart. The main systems that interact to build these scenarios are: an enterprise data-mart 110, a scenario planner 130, a performance measure system 170, a rate or yield management subsystem 160, a traffic and accounts receivable system 180 and a similarly configured local inventory booking system 190. A business rules engine provides the local rule definitions for scaling inventory and price to provide for the most profitable combination.

Claims

1. An inventory management system, comprising:

a performance measurement system for measuring performance of a medium in which units of inventory are used, wherein said units are advertisement opportunities in television, broadcast radio, internet radio, outdoor advertising and entertainment industry events;

a buyer'"'"'s criteria submission system, wherein said buyer'"'"'s criteria includes at least two criterions from a group consisting of the number of people to be exposed to said units, the frequency of people being exposed to said units, the budget for purchase of said units, the demographics of people expected to be exposed to said units, the psychographics of people to be exposed to said units, and the gross number of times people that will be exposed to said units;

a revenue maximization system which determines a price for said units based on predetermined pricing considerations, wherein said predetermined pricing considerations includes at least three considerations selected from a group consisting of total number of unsold units, category of buyer attempting to purchase said units, the buyer'"'"'s history in purchasing similar units, and budget of a seller of units;

a central information storage system for receiving information from said performance measurement system and revenue maximization system to generate scenarios wherein various combinations of units are grouped together to meet a buyer'"'"'s criteria; and

a scenario planner to display the various scenarios generated by the central information storage system.

2. The inventory management system according to claim 1, wherein said performance measurement system receives information related to an extent of an audience to which said units are exposed.

3. The inventory management system according to claim 1, wherein said buyer'"'"'s criteria further includes the desired budget for purchase of the units and performance measurements.

4. The inventory management system according to claim 1 wherein the revenue maximization system manages yield by using the functions of sell-out forecasting, revenue forecasting, fuzzy rules, and pricing adjustment.

5. The inventory management system according to claim 1 wherein the revenue maximization system changes the number of units available.

6. The inventory management system according to claim 1 wherein the revenue maximization system utilizes economic factors which influence demand and various measurement noises are filtered out of these economic factors.