Tracking brand strength using consumer location data and consumer survey responses

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.

What is claimed is: 
     
         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 first 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 a plurality of units of location data for a plurality of consumers to identify visits made by the plurality of consumers to businesses in the market category;   surveying at least some of the plurality of consumers for information relating to the businesses in the market category, wherein surveying each consumer of the at least some of the plurality of consumers comprises transmitting a survey to the consumer in response to determining that location data for the consumer satisfies one or more criteria for distribution of a survey; and   generating information on relative brand strength of the businesses in the market category based on analysis of the visits made by the plurality of consumers to the businesses in the market category and the information related to the businesses in the market category received in response to the surveying.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 analyzing the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers comprises 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 a second number of visits, of the first number of visits, made in the time period to the business by the plurality of consumers, the plurality of units of location data having been received from mobile devices operated by the plurality of consumers;   surveying in response to determining that the location data for the consumer satisfies one or more criteria comprises, in response to determining that a unit of location data received from a mobile device operated by a consumer indicates that the consumer visited a location associated with one of the businesses in the market category, soliciting the consumer to identify one or more businesses that the consumer considered for fulfilling a commercial purpose for which the consumer visited the one of the businesses, wherein soliciting the consumer comprises transmitting at least one message to the mobile device;   the method further comprises determining, of a first number of responses to the soliciting in the time period, a second number of responses that identify the business; and   generating information on relative brand strength of the businesses in the market category comprises generating information determined based at least in part on the second number of visits and the second number of responses.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein generating information on a brand strength of the business comprises generating information on a share, of a market category, held by the business. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein generating information on the share of the market category held by the business comprises generating, based at least in part on the plurality of units of location data for the plurality of consumers, a share of visits by consumers to businesses in the market category that were visits to the business. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , 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 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. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , 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.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , 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.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , 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. 
     
     
         9 . 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.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , 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. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , 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. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , 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. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 2 , 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. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2 , 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. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2 , 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.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , 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.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , 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. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 2 , 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.   
     
     
         19 . 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 first 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 a plurality of units of location data for a plurality of consumers to identify visits made by the plurality of consumers to businesses in the market category;   surveying at least some of the plurality of consumers for information relating to the businesses in the market category, wherein surveying each consumer of the at least some of the plurality of consumers comprises transmitting a survey to the consumer in response to determining that location data for the consumer satisfies one or more criteria for distribution of a survey; and   generating information on relative brand strength of the businesses in the market category based on analysis of the visits made by the plurality of consumers to the businesses in the market category and the information related to the businesses in the market category received in response to the surveying.   
     
     
         20 . 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 first 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 a plurality of units of location data for a plurality of consumers to identify visits made by the plurality of consumers to businesses in the market category; 
 surveying at least some of the plurality of consumers for information relating to the businesses in the market category, wherein surveying each consumer of the at least some of the plurality of consumers comprises transmitting a survey to the consumer in response to determining that location data for the consumer satisfies one or more criteria for distribution of a survey; and 
 generating information on relative brand strength of the businesses in the market category based on analysis of the visits made by the plurality of consumers to the businesses in the market category and the information related to the businesses in the market category received in response to the surveying.