Patent ID: 8370191

Claim:
A method of generating a quantitative indicator of sales for a market segment for a predetermined time period, the market segment representing a plurality of members with one or more products, the method comprising: receiving sales data from the plurality of members of the market segment, the sales data including a number of units of a product sold over the predetermined time period; calculating, at least using a processor, a quantitative indicator for each member of the plurality of members of the market segment, the quantitative indicator for each member of the plurality of members of the market segment being a ratio of the number of units of the product sold by a respective member of the plurality of members of the market segment in the predetermined time period to the number of units of the product sold by the respective member in a baseline period multiplied by a baseline benchmark, the baseline benchmark being a quantitative indicator for the respective member in the baseline period, wherein the baseline period is a period prior to the predetermined period; calculating, at least using a processor, the quantitative indicator of sales for the market segment by creating a composite of the quantitative indicator for each member of the plurality of members representing the market segment, the calculation of the quantitative indicator of sales for the market segment including: determining missing sales data for a member of the plurality of members forming the market segment; indicating that the missing sales data is to be estimated or removed by comparing a time period for which the missing sales data is missing to a predefined time period; and either calculating the quantitative indicator for the member with missing sales data using an estimated value of units of the product sold by the member with missing sales data or modifying the baseline benchmark by removing the sales data of the member with missing sales data.