Patent ID: 8027866
Filing Date: 2011-09-27
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method, performed on a computer, to estimate purchases made by preferred customers at competitive suppliers, comprising: retrieving panelist data associated with customer purchases and customer data associated with purchases by preferred customers at a supplier of interest; comparing a value of the customer data with a threshold value of purchasing behavior to identify inconsistent data; removing the identified inconsistent data from the retrieved customer data; generating a customer purchase scoring matrix by performing an unrotated principal components factor analysis on the customer data from which the inconsistent data has been removed; generating a panelist set of factors and a customer set of factors based on scoring the panelist data and the customer data, respectively; creating predictor variables based on the panelist set of factors and the customer set of factors; generating, on a processor of the computer, a relationship between panelist purchases at the supplier of interest and panelist purchases at competitive suppliers, the relationship based on a linear regression of a number of panelists associated with the predictor variables; and estimating purchases made by the preferred customers at the competitive suppliers by applying the relationship to the customer data.