Tracking brand strength using consumer location data and consumer survey responses

• US 9,727,884 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2013
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Service Management Group Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Service Management Group, Inc.
• Inventors: Ehrich, Jr., Dennis A., Cardador, Joe, Weiss, Eric H., Fromm, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Swartz, Stephen S
• Application Number:
  US14/043,811
• Publication Number:
  US 20140095260A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0211 Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds

Abstract

Techniques that may be used by a consumer analytics system to track consumers'"'"' knowledge of brands and interactions with brands based in part on location data for consumers and responses to surveys that are distributed to consumers based at least in part on location data for the consumers. Such location data may be received, for example, from mobile devices operated by the consumers. A brand strength may represent any suitable measurement of a fraction or share of a market category. In some embodiments, a consumer analytics system may determine brand strength for a business using factors that each represent a “share” of a market category held by a business. The system may additionally track changes in these factors over time. Examples of factors that may be tracked include brand awareness for a business, brand accessibility for the business, brand consideration, brand usage, and brand favorites.

Claims

1. A method of operating a system of mobile devices, each operated by consumers, to monitor activities of and engage with the consumers so as to analyze impressions by the consumers of a business in a market category, the method comprising:

receiving, from mobile devices operated by a plurality of consumers, a plurality of units of location data, each unit of location data of the plurality having been produced by a mobile device from which the unit of location data is received and indicating a location of the mobile device at a time;

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine a first number of visits made in a time period by the plurality of consumers to businesses in the market category and to determine a second number of visits, of the first number of visits, made in the time period to the business by the plurality of consumers;

in response to determining that one or more units of location data received from one or more mobile devices operated by one or more consumers indicates that a consumer visited a location associated with one of the businesses in the market category in the time period, for each mobile device of the one or more mobile devices,

transmitting at least one message to the mobile device soliciting the consumer operating the mobile device to identify one or more other businesses, other than the one of the businesses visited by the consumer, that the consumer considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose for which the consumer visited the one of the businesses;

receiving, from the one or more mobile devices, a first number of responses to the soliciting that identify businesses considered for fulfilling the commercial purpose;

determining, of the first number of responses to the soliciting in the time period, a second number of responses that identify the business as a business considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose for which a visit was made to one of the businesses in the market category; and

generating information on a brand strength of the business, the information on the brand strength comprising information determined based at least in part on the second number of visits that were visits to the business and the second number of responses that identify the business as a business considered by a consumer,

wherein;

in the receiving the plurality of units of location data, receiving a unit of location data from a mobile device indicating a location corresponding to one business in the market category is performed contemporaneous with a visit by a consumer operating the mobile device to the one business, and

in the analyzing, analyzing a unit of location data for a consumer of the plurality of consumer to determine a visit by the consumer to one business in the market category is performed contemporaneous with the visit by the consumer to the one business.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating information on a brand strength of the business comprises generating information on a share, of the market category, held by the business.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating information on the share of the market category held by the business comprises generating, based at least in part on the first number of visits and the second number of visits, a share of visits by consumers to businesses in the market category that were visits to the business.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein generating information on the share of the market category held by the business further comprises generating, based at least in part on the first number of responses to the soliciting, a share of consumers that considered the business for fulfilling commercial purposes relative to consumers that did not consider the business.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine, for each consumer of the plurality, at least one personally-relevant location for the consumer; and

determining a third number of consumers of the plurality of consumers for which a location of the business is within a threshold distance of a personally-relevant location for the consumers,

wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information on the brand strength based at least in part on the third number.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the business is associated with multiple locations;

determining the third number of consumers for which a location of the business is within the threshold distance comprises identifying consumers for which more than a threshold number of locations of the business are within the threshold distance of a personally-relevant location for the consumers; and

wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information on the brand strength based at least in part on the fourth number.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating, based at least in part on the third number of consumers, information on a share of consumers who visit businesses in the market category and for whom a location of the business is within the threshold distance of a personally-relevant location for the consumers.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

soliciting the consumer further comprises soliciting the consumer to identify one or more businesses in the market category, the names of which the consumer has previously seen or heard;

the method further comprises determining, of the first number of responses to the soliciting in the time period, a third number of responses that identify that the consumer has previously seen or heard the name of the business; and

generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information based at least in part on the third number of responses.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating, based at least in part on the third number of responses, information on a share of consumers who visit businesses in the market category and who have previously seen or heard the name of the business.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein soliciting the consumer to identify the one or more businesses comprises presenting the consumer with names of one or more businesses and requesting that the consumer indicate whether the consumer has previously seen or heard of each business.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein soliciting the consumer to identify the one or more businesses comprises requesting that the consumer input names of businesses in the market category that the consumer has previously seen or heard.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein soliciting the consumer to identify the one or more businesses that the consumer considered for fulfilling the commercial purpose comprises presenting the consumer with names of one or more businesses and requesting that the consumer indicate whether the consumer considered each business.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein soliciting the consumer to identify the one or more businesses comprises requesting that the consumer input names of businesses in the market category that the consumer considered for fulfilling the commercial purpose.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine a third number of consumers who visited the business more than a threshold number of times in the time period,

wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information based at least in part on the third number of consumers.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine a third number of consumers who, in the time period, visited the business more often than the consumers visited other businesses in the market category,

wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information based at least in part on the third number of consumers.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating, based at least in part on the third number of consumers, information on a share of consumers who prefer the business over other businesses in the market category.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the method further comprises analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine a third number of consumers who, in the time period, visited the business more often than the consumers visited other businesses in the market category,

the method further comprises analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine, for each consumer of the plurality, at least one personally-relevant location for the consumer;

the method further comprises determining a fourth number of consumers of the plurality of consumers for which a location of the business is within a threshold distance of a personally-relevant location for the consumers;

soliciting the consumer further comprises soliciting the consumer to identify one or more businesses in the market category, the names of which the consumer has previously seen or heard;

the method further comprises determining, of the first number of responses to the soliciting in the time period, a third number of responses that identify that the consumer has previously seen or heard the name of the business; and

generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information based at least in part on the third number of responses to the soliciting that identify that consumers have previously seen or heard the name of the business, the fourth number of consumers for which a location of the business is within the threshold distance of a personally-relevant location for the consumers, the second number of responses to the soliciting that identify the business as a business that consumers considered for fulfilling commercial purposes, the second number of visits made in the time period to the business by the plurality of consumers, and the third number of consumers who, in the time period, visited the business more often than the consumers visited other businesses in the market category.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the plurality of units of location data, each unit of location data indicating a geographic location of a consumer at a time the unit of location data was generated by a mobile device operated by that consumer, the plurality of units of location data being received from a plurality of mobile devices operated by the plurality of consumers.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an event that may have an impact on brand strength of the business; and

generating information identifying whether there was a change in brand strength of the business surrounding the event,

wherein generating the information identifying whether there was a change comprises comparing brand strength for a time before the event to brand strength for a time after the event.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the time period is a first time period before the event;

generating the information on the brand strength of the business based at least in part on the second number of visits and the second number of responses comprises generating information on the brand strength of the business before the event;

the method further comprises;

repeating the analyzing, soliciting, and determining for a second time period following the event to determine a third number of visits by consumers to the business in the second time period and a fourth number of responses received from consumers in the second time period that identify the business as one consumers considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose;

generating second information on the brand strength of the business based at least in part on the third number of visits and the fourth number of responses; and

comparing the information on the brand strength and the second information on the brand strength to determine whether there is a change in the brand strength following the event.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

repeating the analyzing, soliciting, and determining for a third time period following the second time period;

generating third information on the brand strength of the business based at least in part on information collected during the third time period; and

determining a degree of persistence of any change in the brand strength of the business following the event.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein in the transmitting, transmitting at least one message to the mobile device operated by a consumer in response to determining a unit of location data received from the mobile device indicates a visit by the consumer to one of the businesses in the market category is performed contemporaneous with the visit by the consumer to the one of the businesses.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the method is performed by at least one computing device disposed remote from each of the mobile devices of the system of mobile devices; and

the at least one computing device comprises at least one processor and at least one storage medium having encoded therein executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein transmitting the at least one message soliciting the consumer to identify the one or more other businesses comprises transmitting at least one message identifying a plurality of businesses in the market category and instructing the mobile device to present the plurality of businesses to the consumer in a multiple choice interface.

22. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having encoded thereon executable instructions that, when executed by at least one computer, cause the at least one computer to carry out a method of operating a system of mobile devices, each operated by consumers, to monitor activities of and engage with the consumers so as to analyze impressions by the consumers of a business in a market category, the method comprising:

receiving, from mobile devices operated by a plurality of consumers, a plurality of units of location data, each unit of location data of the plurality having been produced by a mobile device from which the unit of location data is received and indicating a location of the mobile device at a time;

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine a first number of visits made in a time period by the plurality of consumers to businesses in the market category and to determine a second number of visits, of the first number of visits, made in the time period to the business by the plurality of consumers;

in response to determining that one or more units of location data received from one or more mobile devices operated by one or more consumers indicates that a consumer visited a location associated with one of the businesses in the market category in the time period, for each mobile device of the one or more mobile devices,

transmitting at least one message to the mobile device soliciting the consumer operating the mobile device to identify one or more other businesses, other than the one of the businesses visited by the consumer, that the consumer considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose for which the consumer visited the one of the businesses;

receiving, from the one or more mobile devices, a first number of responses to the soliciting that identify businesses considered for fulfilling the commercial purpose;

determining, of the first number of responses to the soliciting in the time period, a second number of responses that identify the business as a business considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose for which a visit was made to one of the businesses in the market category; and

generating information on a brand strength of the business, the information on the brand strength comprising information determined based at least in part on the second number of visits that were visits to the business and the second number of responses that identify the business as a business considered by a consumer,

wherein;

in the receiving the plurality of units of location data, receiving a unit of location data from a mobile device indicating a location corresponding to one business in the market category is performed contemporaneous with a visit by a consumer operating the mobile device to the one business, and

in the analyzing, analyzing a unit of location data for a consumer of the plurality of consumer to determine a visit by the consumer to one business in the market category is performed contemporaneous with the visit by the consumer to the one business.

23. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises:

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine, for each consumer of the plurality, at least one personally-relevant location for the consumer; and

determining a third number of consumers of the plurality of consumers for which a location of the business is within a threshold distance of a personally-relevant location for the consumers,

wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information on the brand strength based at least in part on the third number.

24. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein:

soliciting the consumer further comprises soliciting the consumer to identify one or more businesses in the market category, the names of which the consumer has previously seen or heard;

the method further comprises determining, of the first number of responses to the soliciting in the time period, a third number of responses that identify that the consumer has previously seen or heard the name of the business; and

generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information based at least in part on the third number of responses.

25. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises:

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine a third number of consumers who, in the time period, visited the business more often than the consumers visited other businesses in the market category,

wherein generating information on the brand strength of the business comprises generating information based at least in part on the third number of consumers.

26. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying an event that may have an impact on brand strength of the business; and

generating information identifying whether there was a change in brand strength of the business surrounding the event,

wherein generating the information identifying whether there was a change comprises comparing brand strength for a time before the event to brand strength for a time after the event.

27. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one storage medium having encoded thereon executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out a method of operating a system of mobile devices, each operated by consumers, to monitor activities of and engage with the consumers so as to analyze impressions by the consumers of a business in a market category, the method comprising;

receiving, from mobile devices operated by a plurality of consumers, a plurality of units of location data, each unit of location data of the plurality having been produced by a mobile device from which the unit of location data is received and indicating a location of the mobile device at a time;

analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers to determine a first number of visits made in a time period by the plurality of consumers to businesses in the market category and to determine a second number of visits, of the first number of visits, made in the time period to the business by the plurality of consumers;

in response to determining that one or more units of location data received from one or more mobile devices operated by one or more consumers indicates that a consumer visited a location associated with one of the businesses in the market category in the time period, for each mobile device of the one or more mobile devices,

transmitting at least one message to the mobile device soliciting the consumer operating the mobile device to identify one or more other businesses, other than the one of the businesses visited by the consumer, that the consumer considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose for which the consumer visited the one of the businesses;

receiving, from the one or more mobile devices, a first number of responses to the soliciting that identify businesses considered for fulfilling the commercial purpose;

determining, of the first number of responses to the soliciting in the time period, a second number of responses that identify the business as a business considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose for which visit was made to one of the businesses in the market category; and

generating information on a brand strength of the business, the information on the brand strength comprising information determined based at least in part on the second number of visits that were visits to the business and the second number of responses that identify the business as a business considered by a consumer,

wherein;

in the receiving the plurality of units of location data, receiving a unit of location data from a mobile device indicating a location corresponding to one business in the market category is performed contemporaneous with a visit by a consumer operating the mobile device to the one business, and

in the analyzing, analyzing a unit of location data for a consumer of the plurality of consumer to determine a visit by the consumer to one business in the market category is performed contemporaneous with the visit by the consumer to the one business.