Patent ID: 7072848
Filing Date: 2006-07-04
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for evaluating a promotion scheme for a product, the method comprising the steps of: providing a computer to a user; said computer collecting market data related to said product to create a model of a market for the product, wherein said market model identifies at least one competing good, and wherein said computer defines customer segments for said product and said competing goods in said market model, and wherein said customer segments are statistically independent such that a sale to one of the customer segments does not effect a demand from others of the customer segments, said computer collecting historical transaction data related to transactions of the product and the competing goods in the consumer segments during at least a first and a second time period; said computer analyzing the historical data and dynamically selecting a statistical model to evaluate said promotion scheme, wherein said computer selects a multiplicative model when the computer determines during the analyzing of the historical data that: wherein said computer otherwise selects an attractive model and said computer using said statistical model to analyze the historical data and the market model to determine a utility of the product without the promotion scheme; and said computer using said statistical model to estimate a change in utility of the product from the promotion scheme.