Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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~ C~EDIT CHECK SCANNER DA~A ANALYSIS SYSTEM
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~; The present invention relates to a data analysis
system and, more specifically, to a system for generating a
demographic and economic analysis of sales with respec~ to
specific supermarket items.
Manufacturers of household consumer products spend
a considerable amount of money on adver~ising and
promotions. It is extremely important to these companies
that such expenditures be cost effective and produce the
desired results. For this reason, a substantial industry
has developed to analyze the e~fectiveness of advertisements
and promotions based on sales data at both the wholesale
(from the manu~acturer to the supermarket) and the retail
~from the supermaxket to the consumer) level.
It is quite common in the supermarket indus~ry to
utilize a checkout counter scanning system which scans a bar
code on the supermarXet products and transmits that
information to both a cash register which displays the price
of the product and a central computer which stores
in~ormation concerning the product (e.g., price, product
siza, manufacturer, etc.). At least one carporation
utilizes the scanner data for the purpose of providing an
analysis to manufacturers of the effectiveness of sales
promotions.
While the data compiled from supermarXet scanners
provides an analysis as to the overall effectiveness of the
promotion and/or advertising campaign (i.e., whether sales
and profitability have gone up or down), it does not provide
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a breakdown as to whether the advertising and promotions are
effective for differant types of consumers (i.e., men v.
women, people under 30 and over 30, people with incomes
under $20,000 and ove_ $20,0oo, etc.). This personalized
demographic and economic data is not generally available for
analysis. This data is, however, stored and used by the
check gUarantQe indust~y.
The check guarantee industry is in the business of
guaranteeing checks based upon a database of economic
information on individuals who wish to have their checks
cashed in return for which the checX guarantee company
receives from the retaller a percentage of the amount of the
check. In essence, check suarantee companies are insurance
companies which insure retailers agains~ bad checks.
~` 15 When a customuer p! esents a check to a retail
establishment, the retail establishment calls the check
guarantee company to determine if the check will be
guaranteed by the company. The guarantee aompany deter~ines
whether or not the check is a worthy credit risk bassd on
the stored demographic and economic data for that
individual. If t~e company does guarantee the check, it
charges the store a percentage o~ the amount o~ the check
for the guaranteeing services.
Due to extremely low margins, supexmarkets have
generally been unable to avail themselves of check guarantee
services. The percentage paid to the check guarantee
company would cut sharply into the supermarkets' prorits.
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It is therefore an object of the present invention to
obviate or mitigate the above disadvantages.
According to the present invention, there is provided
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a method ~or se~.e-z ing de~ographic 2nd/or
economic analysis o~ 21es w~ ~ ~es?ec~ to s~~ecific i'e~s
for sale, comprising the steps of:
(a) collec'ing 2n~ s~oxins de~cgraDhic 2nc/or
economic d?ta for P plur~lity o_ in~ivlcu21s, and assi5ning
a code to eac~ indi~idual correspon~ing to ~hat individu l's
; de~og-aphic and/or e onomac d~
(b) ente_ing 2r.d s~c~'ns ~e ccde 2ssisned to an
indiYidu~l P~ch tIme ~zt inci~icu~l purchzses one or more
~0 i.e~s, and ente-ing znd s~--ins --ecuc! d2t2 icen.i_yinc ~he
i'e~s pur~:~2sed by t~e indi~icu2l~ said pr~Guc~ ~a.a being
s_-re~ in cor-el2tion wl'~ said coce; ~nd
(c) inte-_Plz~i-.g ~e ~e~cgrzp;~ic 2nc/or econc~ic
c2.2 co~_esponding to said codes ente;ed wi~h sa~'d produci
data for purc~ses m2de by a plu-2~ of said individu~l5.
In a pre~erred e~bodLment of the inven-ion, a
com?uts~ is used to s~ore the de~ographic and/or economic
data for individual customers, the co~e and the produc_ data
for each purc~as2 i5 entered and s~ored in a com~ut2x, ~2nd a
computer is used to interrelate the de~ogr2phic and/or
economic data wi.h the product.data.
In 2nother e~bodiment o~ ~he inven~ion, a ~i-s.
co~puter is l~cated at the super~axXet ,or s~orins ~he
indiv~'dual codes and produc~ ~ata for each purc~ase, and z
sPcond computer is located at a cnec~ czshing company for
stor~g the economic and/cr demogr2phic data and
corres~onding codes ~or each lndi~idual, t~e second computer
being used to interrelate the economic and/or demographic
data with the product data received ~rom the super~arket.
In a fur~her e~bodiment of the invention, a bar
code scanne- at the super~ar.~et i5 used to ent2r in.o the
comruter the produc' data of the i~e~s purchase~.
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In 2 stlll further e~ciment c t;-e invsntion,
the code ~or each individual is sent to a c~ec~ c~s;~ing
se~vice at the time or purchass for chec.~ appr~val 52~iC35.
An embodiment of the presont invention will now be
described by way of example only with reference to the
accompanying drawings in which:
Flgure l is a block diagram of a system for generating
demographic and/or economic analysis of sales with respect to
spaaiic items for sale.
In accordance with the present system, each austomer
provides the super~arket wi~ csr~ain d2~cg~a~ c and/cr
econo~ic dat~ 2 (e.g., his addr~s~, his inc-me, his a52, his
or her sex, etc.) and is ass ned a check c~shing code
number 4. This data entered into the su~ermarket's comput~r
tS 6 and is also sent to the check casning c-~panv 8 for
storage. Whenever the ind~vidual wishes to have his or he_
chec.~ cashed a~ the supermarket for payment or grocsries,
the cashier e~ters the individua1's c~ec~ cashing code 4
into the cash register lO at t:~e chec~out coun~er and the
number i9 stored in the super~ar~et's computer 6. During
checXout, the comput2r 6 kseps t_ack o~ all c~ ~he ite~s
purchased by the custo~ex and stores this data in
conjunction with the entered code. The i_s~ cata is
pr2ferably input into the computsr 6 via a kar c-de sc~nner
12 at the checkout countsx. The check c~shing c-de is also
sent elect-onically to the check c~shing COmp2nV ~or
approval at the time or purchase.
~ n return fox a free or lcw cost c~.eck cashing
se~vice, the super~ar~et provides the scanner data to the
chec.~ cashing company, who then, via a secon~ comFute_ 14,
is able to interrelats the demographic and/or economic
in~ormation concerning individuals wlth the speci,~lc
products being sold to those individuals and is able to
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p.ovi~e appropriate mar.'~eting re~or-s to various
manuîzcturers 16 o~ the produc_ sold.
Thus, by mar~ving the supe~arXet scanner data to
t~e stored demogr2~hic anc/or ecsnomic data concerning
chec~lng customers, the press~t system maXes i~ possible
to provide t~e manu~ac_urers wi~h 2 de~ai~ed analvsis as to
who their customers are (iOe., by inc-me brac~et, age,
ender, educational level, etc.), and which sroups or^
customers respond ~avorably or un~avorably to given
adver~is2ment~ and/cr promotions. The system thus
en2bles the manu~'2c~u~2rs to much more er^^ectivelv tarset
thei~ advertising and premotions. The pres2nt system
also makes it possible for -chec.X suarantee comp2nies to
offer their ser~ices to supe~arXets at e~tremely low or no
cos~ to t~e supe~a~Xets, thereby opening an entl~21y new
m2r~et to the chec~ guarantas industry. ~ ~
In the foregoing e~bodiment, the demographlc
and/cr economic data i5 collec~ed in connec~ion wi~h a check
guarantee S2 ~ V7 ce. W~ile t:~is is the prssently pre~e_~sd
e~bociment o~ ap~lican~S' system, the presenl Sy~ IlUt
limited thereto. Super~ar~ets provide check cashing
privileges to many o' its c-~stomers wi~hout using a checX
guarantee sarvice. Bafore of~ering the checX cashing
sarv~ces to its customers, it requires the cus~omers to
complete an ap~lication ~orm containing various demogrzphic
and/or economic data. Additisnally, many supe~arXets offer
pre2errQd shcp~er cards which customers use to accumul2te
discounts or c~edits toward ~uture purchases. Application
forms for such cards also usuzlly recuire the c-~s~cmer ta
s~mit cer~ain demographic and/or economic data. The
democraphic and/or economic data, whether collected for
; c~ec~ cashing or othe~ purposes t can be full~ used in
ac~ordance with the present s~stem to c~eate the desired
marXeting reports to manufacturers.
In the presently pre~errQd e~odlment, the
demographic and/or income data stored for each customer
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prererably includes income level, gender, age and education
level. More or less data can be stored as desired. The
more demographic and/or economic data that is stored, the
greater the flexibility in providing useful reports to
manu~acturers.
Although the present invention has been desc-ibed
in connection with a plurality of preferred emkodiments
thereof, many other variations and modifications will nor.r
become ap~arent to those s~illed in the art. It is
pre~erred, therefore, that the present invention be limit2d
not ~y the specific disclosure herein, but only by the
appended clalms.
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