Systems and methods for automatic control of marketing actions

Abstract

A method for automatically performing marketing actions. The method includes receiving consumer input relating to a product and/or service (“Product/Service”) from a service information display, receiving contextual input associated with the consumer input, placing the received consumer and contextual input into one or more segmented data groups, wherein each segmented group includes consumers data and associated contextual data having similar characteristics, and wherein each segmented group has sufficient consumers data and associated contextual data to enable statistical analysis. The method further includes computing for the Product/Service a projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to a change to one or more marketing attributes of the Product/Service, where the change to one or more marketing attributes defines a marketing action specified in a rule associated with one of the one or more segmented groups, and applying the rule in response to the projected effectiveness being equal or exceeding a corresponding pre-defined value.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for automatically performing marketing actions, the method comprising:
 retrieving, by at least one computing device, a rule associated with a data group, the data group including marketable item data relating to respective one or more marketable items;   computing, by the at least one computing device, for the one or more marketable items a projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to one or more pre-determined changes to one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items, wherein the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes define a marketing action specified in the rule associated with the data group; and   automatically changing, by the at least one computing device, the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items according to the marketing action specified in the rule when the projected marketing effectiveness computed using the one or more predetermined changes specified in the rule is equal to or exceeds a corresponding pre-defined threshold specified in the rule, and maintaining the one or more marketing attributes unchanged when the projected effectiveness computed using the one or more pre-determined changes specified in the rule is less than the corresponding pre-defined threshold specified in the rule, wherein the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items include one or more of: a change to an inventory level associated with the one or more marketable items, a change to an amount of advertising presented in relation to the one or more marketable items, or a change to an offer-for-sale package including the one or more marketable items combined with at least one other marketable item.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more marketing attributes include one or more of: package deal, in-store advertisement, out-or-store advertisement, price, or the inventory level. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein computing the projected marketing effectiveness comprises: computing resultant levels of change for one or marketing-related performance parameters resulting from the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the one or more marketing-related performance parameters include one or more of: sales levels, or marketing interest. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein computing the projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes defining the marketing action specified in the rule comprises:
 computing the projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes based on the marketable item data retrieved from the data group relating to the one or more marketable items.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the projected marketing effectiveness is computed based further on historical data that relate past changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items to respective resultant changes to historical marketing-related performance parameters for the one or more marketable items. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein computing the projected marketing effectiveness is performed using a machine-learning technique trained using the historical data. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the machine learning technique includes at least one of: a support vector technique, a neural network technique, a technique based on decision trees, or a regression technique. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the marketable item data comprises one or more of: consumer input relating to the one or more marketable items provided through a user input device, contextual data associated with the consumer input, and retail data associated with the one or more marketable items. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the consumer input corresponds to data obtained from a point of sale device located at a retail outlet, and wherein the contextual data comprises one or more of: geographical location of the outlet, location of the point-of-sale device within the outlet, or time at which the consumer input was obtained. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the retail data comprises one or more of: general consumer behavior and trends, sales volume, inventory levels, or external conditions. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the data group is a segmented group from a plurality of segmented groups, and wherein the method further comprises:
 placing the marketable item data into the segmented group for subsequent retrieval, the segmented group selected by computing a metric representative of the consumer input and the associated contextual data, and performing a comparison of the metric to respective metrics of the plurality of segmented data groups.   
     
     
         13 . A system comprising:
 one or more processor-based devices; and   one or more memory storage devices to store instructions that when executed on the one or more processor-based devices cause operations comprising:
 retrieving a rule associated with a data group, the data group including marketable item data relating to respective one or more marketable items; 
 computing for the one or more marketable items a projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to one or more pre-determined changes to one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items, wherein the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes define a marketing action specified in the rule associated with the data group; and 
 automatically changing the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items according to the marketing action specified in the rule when the projected marketing effectiveness computed using the one or more predetermined changes specified in the rule is equal to or exceeds a corresponding pre-defined threshold specified in the rule, and maintaining the one or more marketing attributes unchanged when the projected effectiveness computed using the one or more pre-determined changes specified in the rule is less than the corresponding pre-defined threshold specified in the rule, wherein the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items include one or more of: a change to an inventory level associated with the one or more marketable items, a change to an amount of advertising presented in relation to the one or more marketable items, or a change to an offer-for-sale package including the one or more marketable items combined with at least one other marketable item. 
   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein computing the projected marketing effectiveness comprises:
 computing resultant levels of change for one or marketing-related performance parameters resulting from the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items, wherein the one or more marketing-related performance parameters include one or more of: sales levels, or marketing interest.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein computing the projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes defining the marketing action specified in the rule comprises:
 computing the projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes based on the marketable item data retrieved from the data group relating to the one or more marketable items.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the projected marketing effectiveness is computed based further on historical data that relate past changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items to respective resultant changes to historical marketing-related performance parameters for the one or more marketable items. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein computing the projected marketing effectiveness is performed using a machine-learning technique trained using the historical data, the machine learning technique includes one or more of: a support vector technique, a neural network technique, a technique based on decision trees, or a regression technique. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the marketable item data comprises one or more of: consumer input relating to the one or more marketable items provided through a user input device, contextual data associated with the consumer input, or retail data associated with the one or more marketable items. 
     
     
         19 . A non-transitory computer readable media programmed with a set of instructions executable on a processor that, when executed, cause operations comprising:
 retrieving a rule associated with a data group, the data group including marketable item data relating to respective one or more marketable items;   computing for the one or more marketable items a projected marketing effectiveness corresponding to one or more pre-determined changes to one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items, wherein the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes define a marketing action specified in the rule associated with the data group; and   automatically changing the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items according to the marketing action specified in the rule when the projected marketing effectiveness computed using the one or more predetermined changes specified in the rule is equal to or exceeds a corresponding pre-defined threshold specified in the rule, and maintaining the one or more marketing attributes unchanged when the projected effectiveness computed using the one or more pre-determined changes specified in the rule is less than the corresponding pre-defined threshold specified in the rule, wherein the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items include one or more of: a change to an inventory level associated with the one or more marketable items, a change to an amount of advertising presented in relation to the one or more marketable items, or a change to an offer-for-sale package including the one or more marketable items combined with at least one other marketable item.   
     
     
         20 . The computer readable media of  claim 19 , wherein computing the projected marketing effectiveness comprises:
 computing resultant levels of change for one or marketing-related performance parameters resulting from the one or more pre-determined changes to the one or more marketing attributes associated with the one or more marketable items, wherein the one or more marketing-related performance parameters include one or more of: sales levels, or marketing interest.