Patent ID: 7240020

Claim:
A method for creating a marketing initiative comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of: providing a database comprising hit rate information associated with past marketing initiatives, wherein the hit rate information indicates the number of times an initiative was selected as being relevant to a customer request, wherein a customer request is a user input into a system by the customer requesting information regarding either sales or availability information relating to a product and/or service; inputting offer parameters for a new initiative, including an initiative time period and an initiative description; associating customer selection criteria with the offer parameters; comparing the offer parameters of the new initiative with offer parameters of past initiatives stored in the database to determine past initiatives that are similar to the new initiative; determining a likelihood that the new initiative will be effective prior to use of the new initiative using stored statistics reflecting hit rates associated with past initiatives that are similar to the new initiative; and providing a result indicating the effectiveness of the new initiative.