Systems and methods for providing a direct marketing campaign planning environment

• US 8,606,626 B1
• Filed: 01/30/2008
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Experian Information Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Experian Information Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Achanta, Venkat R., DeSoto, Laura J., Bodda, Michele M., Adkinson, Kristi Ann, Peng, Felicia
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TIEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/022,874
• Time in Patent Office: 2,141 Days
• Field of Search: 700/108, 702/185, 714/25, 705/14, 705/14.26, 705/14.64, 705/300, 707/748, 709/202, 709/203
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Embodiments of system are disclosed in which selection strategies for a direct marketing campaign that identify consumers from a credit bureau or other consumer database can be planned, tested, and/or refined on a stable subset of the credit database. In some embodiments, once refined, consumer selection criteria may be used to execute the direct marketing campaign on the full consumer/credit database, which is preferably updated approximately twice weekly. In one preferred embodiment, the data for the test database represents a random sampling of approximately 10% of the full database and the sampling is regenerated approximately weekly in order to provide a stable set of data on which campaign developers may test their campaign. For each consumer in the sampling, the environment may allow a client to access and use both attributes calculated by the credit bureau and proprietary attributes and data owned by the client. The system allows for a plurality of clients to use the system substantially simultaneously while protecting the privacy and integrity of the client'"'"'s proprietary data and results.

Claims

1. A system for allowing at least one client to plan and execute a direct marketing campaign, the system comprising:

a computing system comprising one or more computing devices;

a non-transient computer readable storage storing;

a consumer credit database of governmentally regulated consumer credit information comprising a plurality of records with information about a plurality of consumers;

a test database comprising a copy of a subset of the governmentally regulated consumer credit information from the consumer credit database, the copy of the subset containing a substantially smaller subset of the plurality of records of the consumer credit database;

an extraction and data load module, stored in a non-transitory computer memory, configured to;

load a set of generic attributes from the consumer credit database into the test database,

load a set of custom attributes from the consumer credit database into the test database;

load consumer core data comprising extracted sample data into the test database; and

,

depersonalize the consumer core data before loading the consumer core data into the test database by;

removing identification information of the plurality of consumers whose records were among the extracted sample data from the consumer core data,

replacing the removed identification information with anonymous identifier numbers, and

removing contact information corresponding to the plurality of consumers whose records were among the extracted sample data from the consumer core data;

the computing system programmed to implement a client testing interface that allows a plurality of clients to directly access the test database and to individually run one or more tests of prospect selection criteria using the test database in order to identify a desired set of prospect selection criteria wherein the client testing interface is configured to;

load a first set of proprietary data of a first client of the plurality of clients into the test database,

allow the first client to access the generic attributes, custom attributes and depersonalized consumer core data in conjunction with the loaded first set of proprietary data,

load a second set of proprietary data of a second client of the plurality of clients into the test database,

allow a second client to access the generic attributes, custom attributes and depersonalized consumer core data in conjunction with the loaded second set of proprietary data,

only permit access to the first set of proprietary data stored in the test database to the first client, and

only permit access to the second set of proprietary data stored in the test database to the second client and,

second software instructions that when executed generate a campaign interface configured to extract consumer information from the consumer credit database based, at least in part, on the desired set of prospect selection criteria for use by at least one of the plurality of clients in a direct marketing campaign.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the test database is updated less frequently than the consumer credit database.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the governmentally regulated consumer credit information from the consumer credit database comprises information from ten percent of the consumer records in the consumer credit database.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the consumer credit information from the database comprises credit-related and non-credit related information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the proprietary data includes at least one of:

information from past direct marketing campaigns, past contact history for a consumer, and past response information for a consumer.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the client testing interface is further configured to allow the plurality of clients to access the test database simultaneously.

7. A method for planning and executing a first direct marketing campaigns, the method comprising:

accessing, by a computer system comprising one or more computing devices, a consumer credit database of governmentally regulated consumer credit information comprising a plurality of records with information about a plurality of consumers;

periodically copying, by the computer system, a substantially smaller subset of the plurality of records with information about a plurality of consumers;

depersonalizing, by the computer system, the copied plurality of records, thereby creating depersonalized generic data;

receiving, by the computer system, a first set of proprietary data owned by a of the first client planning and executing a first direct marketing campaign, the first set of proprietary data comprising first custom attributes defined by the first client for the first direct marketing campaign;

receiving by the computer system, a second set of proprietary data owned by a second client planning and executing a second direct marketing campaign, the second set of proprietary data comprising second custom attributes defined by the second client for the second direct marketing campaign;

creating, by the computer system, a test database by loading and combining;

the periodically copied and depersonalized generic data,

the received first set of proprietary data, and

the received second set of proprietary data;

generating, by the computer system, a testing interface that;

allows the first client to directly access the test database and to run one or more first tests of prospect selection criteria using the test database in order to identify a first desired set of prospect selection criteria wherein the client testing interface is configured to allow the first client to access the first set of proprietary data, and block the second client from accessing the first set proprietary data loaded in the test database, and

allows the second client to directly access the test database and to run one or more second tests of prospect selection criteria using the test database in order to identify a second desired set of prospect selection criteria wherein the client testing interface is configured to allow the second client to access the second set of proprietary data and block the first client from accessing the second set of proprietary data loaded in the test database; and

generate, by the computer system, a campaign interface configured to extract consumer information from the consumer credit database based, at least in part, on the first desired set of prospect selection criteria for use by the first client in the first direct marketing campaign or the second desired set of prospect selection criteria for use by the first client in the first direct marketing campaign.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the test database is updated less frequently than the consumer credit database.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the periodically copied substantially smaller subset of the plurality of records comprises information from ten percent of the consumer database.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first or second direct marketing campaign is for a firm offer of credit.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the first or second direct marketing campaign is for an Invitation to Apply (ITA) offer.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the first set of proprietary data includes at least one of:

information from past direct marketing campaigns of the first client, past contact history with the first client for a consumer, and past response information for a consumer with respect to the first client.

13. A non-transitory, tangible, computer readable medium storing software instructions that when executed cause a computer system to:

access a consumer credit database of consumer credit information comprising a plurality of records with information about a plurality of consumers;

copy a substantially smaller subset of the plurality of records with information about a plurality of consumers;

depersonalize the copied plurality of records, thereby creating depersonalized generic data;

create a test database comprising the copied and depersonalized generic data;

receive first proprietary data of a first client that is planning and executing a first marketing campaign;

depersonalize the first proprietary data;

load the received and depersonalized first proprietary data into the test database, thereby combining the depersonalized first proprietary data with the depersonalized generic data;

receive second proprietary data of a second client that is planning and executing a second marketing campaign;

depersonalize the second proprietary data;

load the received and depersonalized second proprietary data into the test database, thereby combining the depersonalized second proprietary data with the depersonalized first proprietary data and the depersonalized generic data; and

generate a testing interface that allows the first client to directly access the test database to identify a desired set of prospect selection criteria wherein the testing interface is configured to allow the first client to access the depersonalized first proprietary data loaded into the test database and to block the first client from accessing the second depersonalized proprietary data loaded into the test database.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the test database is updated less frequently than the consumer credit database.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the consumer credit database is updated twice as frequently as the test database.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the test database comprises information from ten percent of the consumer database.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first direct marketing campaign is for a firm offer of credit.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first direct marketing campaign is for an Invitation to Apply (ITA) offer.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first proprietary data includes at least one of:

information from past direct marketing campaigns of the first client, past contact history with the first client for a consumer, and past response information for a consumer with respect to the first client.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the client testing interface is further configured to allow the first and second client to access the test database simultaneously.