Method and system for creation of consumer segmentations using maturation and exogenous curves

• US 7,660,735 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2002
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Argus Information and Advisory Services Incorporated (Verisk Analytics Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Strategic Analytics, Inc. (Verisk Analytics Incorporated)
• Inventors: Giancola, Anthony J., Breeden, Joseph L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sterrett; Jonathan G
• Application Number:
  US10/216,510
• Time in Patent Office: 2,741 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 708/400
• US Class Current: 705/7.33
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation

Abstract

A system and method for segmenting and clustering consumer segments is disclosed. The system and method disclosed decompose micro-segments into maturation curves, exogenous curves and scaling parameters. The system and method of the present invention use these generated curves to cluster micro-segments into macro-segments for business analysis purposes.

Claims

1. A computerized method of identifying segments of consumers having similar behavior, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) storing on a computer readable medium a plurality of micro-segments of consumer behavior;

(b) retrieving said micro-segments by a computing device which decomposes said micro-segments under program control into age based components defining a segment maturation curve and time based components defining a segment exogenous curve and scaling parameters for each micro-segment;

(c) said computing device calculating under program control a distance matrix between the micro-segments based on at least one of the generated decomposed curves; and

(d) said computing device identifying micro-segments with similar consumer behavior under program control by clustering the micro-segments based on the distance between matrix calculations defining segment clusters in order to identify segments with similar consumer behavior and storing said segment clusters on computer readable medium.

2. The computerized method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

tagging the micro-segments with a macro-segment label and redefining the micro-segments based upon the macro-segment tags.

3. The computerized method as recited in claim 1 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment exogenous curves.

4. The computerized method as recited in claim 1 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment maturation curves.

5. The computerized method as recited in claim 1 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment maturation curves and the generated segment maturation curves.

6. A computerized system for identifying segments of consumers having similar behavior consumer segments comprising:

a computer readable medium for storing a plurality of consumer micro-segments of consumer behavior;

a computing device for executing a segmentation program stored, on a computer readable medium, wherein when the segmentation program is executed;

micro-segments are retrieved from said computer readable medium and the micro-segments are processed to decompose the micro-segments into age-based components defining a segment maturation curve and time based components defining a segment exogenous curve and scaling parameters for each micro-segment;

a distance matrix is calculated between the micro-segments based on at least one of the generated decomposed curves; and

the micro-segments are clustered into a macro-segment based on the distance matrix calculations in order to identify micro-segments of consumers with similar behavior.

7. The computerized system as recited in claim 6 wherein the segmentation program, when executed, tags the micro-segments with a macro-segment label and redefines the micro-segments based upon the macro-segment tags.

9. The computerized system as recited in claim 6 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment maturation curves.

10. The computerized system as recited in claim 6 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment exogenous curves and the generated segment maturation curves.

8. The computerized system as recited in wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment exogenous curves.

11. A computer-readable medium for identifying micro-segments of consumers with similar behavior, the computer-readable medium encoded with a segmentation program, which, when executed by a computing device having a second computer readable medium for storing micro-segments of consumer behavior, the computing device performs a method comprising:

retrieving micro-segments from said second computer readable medium

processing said micro-segments to decompose the micro-segments into age based components defining a segment maturation curve and time-based components defining a segment exogenous curve and scaling parameters for each micro-segment;

calculating a distance matrix between the micro-segments based on at least one of the generated decomposed curves; and

clustering the micro-segments into a macro-segment based on the distance matrix calculations in order to identify micro-segments of consumers with similar behavior.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the segmentation program, when executed, tags the micro-segments with a macro-segment label and redefines the micro-segments based upon the macro-segment tags.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment exogenous curves.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment maturation curves.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the distance matrix is calculated between the generated segment exogenous curves and the generated segment maturation curves.