Patent ID: 8036931

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: generating, by a processor, an initial cluster of desired prospects from a plurality of prospects in a customer database to target in a marketing promotion based, at least in part, on criteria of the marketing promotion and attributes of the plurality of prospects; determining that the initial cluster does not satisfy a target number of prospects of the marketing promotion; creating a model based on the initial cluster; if the initial cluster comprises more prospects than the target number of prospects, creating a first plurality of sub-clusters from the initial cluster based, at least in part, on the model, ranking each of the first plurality of sub-clusters by potential for responsiveness to the marketing promotion; if the initial cluster comprises fewer prospects than the target number of prospects, creating a second plurality of sub-clusters with additional prospects from the customer database based, at least in part, on the model, ranking each of the second plurality of sub-clusters by potential for responsiveness to the marketing promotion; selecting each of the second plurality of sub-clusters in descending order to augment the initial cluster until an augmented initial cluster would meet the target number of prospects or a first of the second plurality of sub-clusters would cause the augmented initial cluster to exceed the target number of prospects; if the first of the second plurality of sub-clusters would cause the augmented initial cluster to exceed the target number of prospects, ranking those prospects that comprise the first of the second plurality of sub-clusters by a heuristic statistic corresponding thereto, selecting each prospect of the first of the second plurality of sub-clusters in descending order to augment the initial cluster until the augmented initial cluster meets the target number of prospects; selecting each of the first plurality of sub-clusters in descending order to cull the initial cluster until a culled initial cluster would meet the target number of prospects or a first of the first plurality of sub-clusters would cause the culled initial cluster to exceed the target number of prospects; if the first of the first plurality of sub-clusters would cause the culled initial cluster to exceed the target number of prospects, ranking those prospects that comprise the first of the first plurality of sub-clusters by a heuristic statistic corresponding thereto, selecting each prospect of the first of the first plurality of sub-clusters in descending order to cull the initial cluster until the culled initial cluster meets the target number of prospects; and generating a prospect list for the marketing promotion based on the culled initial cluster or the augmented cluster.