Consumer profiling

Abstract

An advertisement selection system is presented in which vectors describing an actual or hypothetical market for a product or desired viewing audience can be determined. An ad characterization vector is transmitted along with a consumer ID. The consumer ID is used to retrieve a consumer characterization vector which is correlated with the ad characterization vector to determine the suitability of the advertisement to the consumer. The consumer characterization vector describes statistical information regarding the demographics and product purchase preferences of a consumer, and is developed from previous purchases or viewing habits. A price for displaying the advertisement can be determined based on the results of the correlation of the ad characterization vector with the consumer characterization vector.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for generating a profile of a consumer based on one or more purchases made by the consumer, the method comprising: 
 monitoring consumer purchases; and    processing the consumer purchases to generate a consumer profile, wherein the consumer profile includes characteristics about the consumer that are non-purchase related.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said processing the consumer purchases includes applying heuristic rules to the consumer purchases to generate the consumer profile, wherein the heuristic rules associate the consumer purchases with the consumer characteristics.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising retrieving information associated with the consumer purchases, wherein said processing includes processing the consumer purchases and the associated information.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising processing the consumer purchases to define one or more traits associated with the consumer purchases, wherein said processing the consumer purchases to generate a consumer profile includes processing some combination of the purchasing traits and the consumer purchases to generate the consumer profile.  
     
     
         5 . A method for generating a profile of a consumer based on one or more purchases made by the consumer, the method comprising: 
 monitoring consumer purchases;    retrieving heuristic rules associated with the consumer purchases, wherein the heuristic rules associate the consumer purchases with characteristics about the consumer; and    applying the heuristic rules to the consumer purchases to generate a consumer profile, wherein the consumer profile includes characteristics about the consumer.    
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the consumer characteristics are not limited to purchasing traits associated with the consumer.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising retrieving information associated with the consumer purchases, wherein said applying includes applying the heuristic rules to the consumer purchases and the associated information.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising 
 processing the consumer purchases to define one or more traits associated with the consumer purchases, wherein    said retrieving includes retrieving heuristic rules associated with some combination of the consumer purchases and the purchasing traits; and    said applying includes applying the heuristic rules to some combination of the purchasing traits and the consumer purchases to generate the consumer profile.    
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the heuristic rules are probabilistic in nature.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the consumer profile is probabilistic in nature.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the heuristic rules predict demographic characteristics about the consumer.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the consumer profile identifies demographic characteristics of the consumer.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the heuristic rules predict product interest characteristics about the consumer.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the consumer profile identifies product interest characteristics of the consumer.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the information includes at least some subset of product, brand, product type, size and price.  
     
     
         16 . A method for generating a profile of a consumer based on one or more purchases made by the consumer, the method comprising: 
 monitoring consumer purchases;    processing the consumer purchases to define one or more traits associated with the consumer purchases; and    applying heuristic rules to the purchasing traits to generate a consumer profile, wherein the heuristic rules associate the purchasing traits to characteristics about the consumer and the consumer profile includes characteristics about the consumer.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the consumer characteristics are marginally related to the purchasing traits.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said processing includes aggregating the consumer purchases to define the traits associated with the consumer purchases.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein said aggregating includes aggregating the consumer purchases from a single purchasing session to generate session traits associated with the consumer purchases for that purchasing session.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein said aggregating includes aggregating the consumer purchases from multiple purchasing sessions to generate average traits associated with the consumer purchases from the multiple purchasing sessions.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the purchasing traits do not identify raw consumer interactions.  
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the purchasing traits include at least some subset of 
 quantity of product type, product, brand or size purchased;    percentage of product type, product, brand or size purchased;    dollar amount of product type, product, brand or size purchased; and    frequency of purchase of product type, product, brand or size purchased.    
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising retrieving information associated with the consumer purchases, wherein said processing includes processing the consumer purchases and the associated information to define the purchasing traits.  
     
     
         24 . A method for generating a profile of a consumer based on one or more purchases made by the consumer, the method comprising: 
 monitoring consumer purchases;    retrieving information associated with the consumer purchases;    applying the information to the consumer purchases to generate purchasing data;    retrieving one or more rules associated with at least a subset of the purchasing data, wherein the rules relate at least one aspect of the purchasing data to at least one non-purchasing characteristic; and    applying the rules to the purchasing data in order to generate a consumer profile, wherein the consumer profile includes at least one non-purchasing characteristic about the consumer.    
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , further comprising 
 aggregating the purchasing data to generate purchasing traits associated with the consumer, wherein    said retrieving one or more rules includes retrieving one or more rules associated with some combination of the purchasing data and the purchasing traits, wherein the rules relate at least one aspect of the some combination to at least one non-purchasing characteristic; and    said applying includes applying the rules to the some combination in order to generate the consumer profile.    
     
     
         26 . A method for generating a profile of a consumer based on one or more purchases made by the consumer, the method comprising: 
 monitoring consumer purchases;    retrieving information corresponding to the consumer purchases, wherein the information includes descriptions of at least one aspect of the consumer purchases;    creating a first representation of the consumer based on the consumer purchases and the corresponding information;    retrieving one or more rules associated with at least a subset of the first representation, wherein the rules relate at least one aspect of the first representation to at least one non-purchasing parameter; and    applying the rules to the first representation in order to generate a consumer profile, wherein the consumer profile defines at least a second representation of the consumer.    
     
     
         27 . A method for generating a demographic profile of a consumer based on one or more purchases made by the consumer, the method comprising: 
 monitoring purchases of the consumer;    retrieving one or more heuristic rules associated with the purchases, wherein the heuristic rules define demographic characteristics of a purchaser; and    generating the demographic profile by applying at least some subset of the heuristic rules to at least some subset of the purchases.    
     
     
         28 . A method for generating a profile of a consumer based on one or more purchases made by the consumer, the method comprising: 
 monitoring consumer purchases;    processing the consumer purchases to define one or more traits associated with the consumer purchases;    processing the purchasing traits to generate a consumer profile, wherein the consumer profile includes characteristics about the consumer.    
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the consumer characteristics are substantially unrelated to the purchasing traits.