Patent ID: 7567918
Filing Date: 2009-07-28
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method of processing market research data including sales data concerning items sold during retail sales transactions of a retailer and advertising/promotion data concerning said sold items, said method comprising the steps of: receiving, by an analysis server, said sales data, said sales data comprises merchandise information, said merchandise information including: receiving, by said analysis server, said advertising/promotion data, said advertising/promotional data comprises information identifying the advertising status of each item, said advertising status information being embedded in said merchandising information to establish a logical link between said merchandise information and said advertising/promotional data to create said enhanced sales data; receiving, by a controller, said sales data and said advertising/promotion data, said controller regulates the operation of a preparation engine, an association analysis engine, and a post processing engine; enhancing, by said preparation engine, said sales data by embedding elements of said advertising/promotion data in said sales data by classifying said advertising/promotion information in an advertising/promotion taxonomy; and creating said enhanced data by embedding said advertising/promotion information in said advertising/promotion taxonomy into said merchandise taxonomy; performing association analysis on said enhanced sales data, using an association analysis server, to generate association rules and frequent itemsets; processing said association rules and frequent itemsets, using said post-processing engine, to develop conclusions about said marketing research data; displaying and archiving said association rules and frequent itemsets.