Patent Application
20190385190
The present disclosure relates generally to a special computer system for payroll-based targeted advertising and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for reducing an amount of resources required for targeted advertising of luxury items.
Companies that process payrolls for other business have access to vast amounts of data in specific geographic areas. The data may be mined for various purposes in addition to check writing, direct depositing, and creation of accounting data for company and government use. Such information may provide insights into an employee's potential buying behavior. Moreover, such information may enable inferences regarding which product an employee might purchase. However, no current systems exist to exploit the information available in payroll databases.
Companies spend vast amounts on advertising to sell products. Moreover, companies spend money to services to find suitable targets for advertising. Luxury items present significant problems to advertisers. Problems arise because the luxury items may be outside of most employees' disposable income. Moreover, the luxury items may be purchased only at certain times. One such time may be when an employee receives an additional sum of money. If such information were available, an advertiser could time their message to a particular individual. If the amount of additional money the individual were to receive could be known, an appropriate luxury item could be selected for the targeted advertisement. Currently no systems exist to provide such information to advertisers.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues. For example, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that overcome a technical problem with reducing an amount of resources required for targeted advertising of luxury items.
An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer-implemented method for reducing an amount of resources required for targeting advertising of luxury items, the computer-implemented method comprising: accessing, by a special advertising application running on a processor unit, a payroll database; identifying from the payroll database, by the special advertising application running on the processor unit, an employee, a bonus payment date for the employee, and a bonus payment amount for the employee; responsive to identifying the employee, the bonus payment date, and the bonus payment amount, determining a selected luxury item based on a luxury item preference score in a consumer profile for the employee and determining the amount of resources assigned to a targeted advertisement for the selected luxury item; and delivering, by the special advertising application running on the processor unit, the targeted advertisement for a selected luxury item on the amount of resources; wherein using the luxury item preference score enables reducing the amount of resources for delivering the targeted advertisement by eliminating advertising for luxury items with less probability of causing the employee to spend the bonus amount on a luxury item than the selected luxury item.
Another embodiment of the present disclosure provides a targeted luxury item advertising delivery system for reducing an amount of resources required for targeting advertising of luxury items comprising: a computer system connected to a network, a number of internal databases, and a number of external data sources, wherein the number of internal databases include a number of payroll databases; a special advertising application running on a processor unit of the computer system; computer program instructions for the special advertising application, stored in a computer-readable storage medium and configured to cause the processor unit to access a payroll database; identify from the payroll database an employee, a bonus payment date for the employee, and a bonus payment amount for the employee; responsive to identifying the employee, the bonus payment date, and the bonus payment amount, determine the amount of resources assigned to a targeted advertisement based on a luxury item preference score in a consumer profile for the employee; and deliver the targeted advertisement for a selected luxury item on the amount of resources; wherein using the luxury item preference score enables reducing the amount of resources for delivering the targeted advertisement by eliminating advertising with a low probability of causing the employee to spend the bonus amount on a luxury item.
A further embodiment of the present invention provides a computer program product for reducing an amount of resources required for targeting advertising of luxury items comprising: computer program instructions stored on a computer-readable medium and configured to cause a processor unit to access a payroll database; computer program instructions stored on a computer-readable medium and configured to cause a processor unit to identify from the payroll database an employee, a bonus payment date for the employee, and a bonus payment amount for the employee; computer program instructions stored on a computer-readable medium and configured to cause a processor unit, responsive to identifying the employee, the bonus payment date, and the bonus payment amount, to deliver a targeted advertisement for a selected luxury item; wherein an amount of resources required for advertising is reduced.
The features and functions can be achieved independently in various embodiments of the present disclosure or may be combined in yet other embodiments in which further details can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings.
The novel features believed characteristic of the illustrative embodiments are set forth in the appended claims. The illustrative embodiments, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives, and features thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account one or more different considerations. The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that sales of some luxury items, such as expensive automobiles, are influenced by bonus payments that put extra cash in the hands of potential luxury item purchasers. The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that advertising, such as advertising for luxury items, needs to be focused at a time when extra cash is available to a potential buyer.
As used herein, the term “luxury item” shall mean a product that is not a necessity and that has a high income elasticity of demand. Luxury items are typically more costly and are normally purchased by individuals with an above average disposable income or an above average accumulated wealth. Therefore, a luxury item is a product for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises. In contrast, demand for a product that is a necessity increases proportionally less as income rises. Luxury items may include products at the high end of the market in terms of quality and prices and such high end of the market items, may include, without limitation, automobiles, yachts, wine, bottled water, coffee, tea, food, watches, jewelry, and high fidelity television and sound systems.
The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that employment data showing when various companies pay bonuses may assist marketers in targeting and reaching potential buyers. The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that knowing when extra cash is available to individuals is a challenge. The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that indices may be created to monitor when bonus payments are made across industries and geographic regions.
The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that indices may be created to show where individuals live that are expected to receive bonus payments. The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that such information may be used to help targeted advertising messages to individuals that will have extra cash through bonus payments.
The illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that delivering advertisements for luxury items only to individuals that will have extra cash through bonus payments will reduce the amount of resources needed to reach potential customers and to sell an amount of the luxury items. Moreover, the illustrative embodiments recognize and take into account that resources include time and money. The sooner the advertising reaches an individual who may be inclined to make a purchase, the greater the likelihood the individual will not spend available money, such as a bonus payment, on a competitor's luxury item. Moreover, processor time, memory, storage usage, and internet bandwidth have a cost so that the more processor time, the more memory and storage, and the more internet bandwidth that may be consumed, the greater the cost to deliver the advertising so that the amount realized through a sale will be lessened by the amount spent to deliver advertising. Therefore, targeted advertising as enabled by computer system 200 in
As used herein, “resources” shall mean one or more of the following: (1) the amount of time to deliver an advertising message to an individual, (2) the amount of processor time and internet bandwidth used to deliver an advertising message to an individual, (3) the amount of memory and storage required for preparation and delivery of advertising messages, and (4) the amount of advertising software and design time required to prepare an advertising message for a particular luxury item.
Resources are represented below in
In an embodiment, advertising resources 258 may comprise the amount of advertising software and design time required to prepare an advertising message for a particular luxury item as well as an amount of memory and storage used in the preparation of the advertising message. In an embodiment, resources 263 may include advertising resources 258. In an embodiment, advertising resources 258 may include resources 263.
Processor time may be an amount of time processor unit 1104 in
The flowcharts and block diagrams in the different depicted embodiments illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of some possible implementations of apparatuses and methods in an illustrative embodiment. In this regard, each block in the flowcharts or block diagrams may represent at least one of a module, a segment, a function, or a portion of an operation or step. For example, one or more of the blocks may be implemented as program code.
In some alternative implementations of an illustrative embodiment, the function or functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, in some cases, two blocks shown in succession may be performed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. Also, other blocks may be added, in addition to the illustrated blocks, in a flowchart or block diagram.
As used herein, the phrase “at least one of,” when used with a list of items, means different combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used and only one of each item in the list may be needed. In other words, “at least one of” means any combination of items and number of items may be used from the list, but not all of the items in the list are required. The item may be a particular object, thing, or a category.
For example, without limitation, “at least one of item A, item B, or item C” may include item A, item A and item B, or item B. This example also may include item A, item B, and item C or item B and item C. Of course, any combinations of these items may be present. In some illustrative examples, “at least one of” may be, for example, without limitation, two of item A, one of item B, and ten of item C; four of item B and seven of item C; or other suitable combinations.
With reference now to the figures and, in particular, with reference to
The computer-readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions and/or acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
In the depicted example, server computer 104 and server computer 106 connect to network 102 along with storage unit 108. In addition, client computers include client computer 110, client computer 112, and client computer 114. Client computer 110, client computer 112, and client computer 114 connect to network 102. These connections can be wireless or wired connections depending on the implementation. Client computer 110, client computer 112, and client computer 114 may be, for example, personal computers or network computers. In the depicted example, server computer 104 provides information, such as boot files, operating system images, and applications to client computer 110, client computer 112, and client computer 114. Client computer 110, client computer 112, and client computer 114 are clients to server computer 104 in this example. Network data processing system 100 may include additional server computers, client computers, and other devices not shown.
Program code located in network data processing system 100 may be stored on a computer-recordable storage medium and downloaded to a data processing system or other device for use. For example, program code may be stored on a computer-recordable storage medium on server computer 104 and downloaded to client computer 110 over network 102 for use on client computer 110.
In the depicted example, network data processing system 100 is the Internet with network 102 representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers consisting of thousands of commercial, governmental, educational, and other computer systems that route data and messages. Of course, network data processing system 100 also may be implemented as a number of different types of networks, such as, for example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN).
The illustration of network data processing system 100 is not meant to limit the manner in which other illustrative embodiments can be implemented. For example, other client computers may be used in addition to or in place of client computer 110, client computer 112, and client computer 114 as depicted in
In the illustrative examples, the hardware may take the form of a circuit system, an integrated circuit, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device, or some other suitable type of hardware configured to perform a number of operations. With a programmable logic device, the device may be configured to perform the number of operations. The device may be reconfigured at a later time or may be permanently configured to perform the number of operations. Programmable logic devices include, for example, a programmable logic array, programmable array logic, a field programmable logic array, a field programmable gate array, and other suitable hardware devices. Additionally, the processes may be implemented in organic components integrated with inorganic components and may be comprised entirely of organic components, excluding a human being. For example, the processes may be implemented as circuits in organic semiconductors.
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Computer system 200 comprises data processing system 210, resources 264, machine intelligence 220, special advertising program 230, and data 250. Data processing system 210 may be data processing system 1200 in
Special advertising program 230 comprises a number of applications, such as accessing 232, populating 234, calculate A 236, calculate B 238, predicting 240, delivery scheduling 242, resource scheduling 244, delivering 246, ranking 248, and constructing 249. Accessing 232 may access internal databases 270 and external databases 274 to identify indices of bonus payments and to provide data as needed by special advertising program 230. Accessing 232 may monitor internal databases 270 and external data sources 274 for indices of bonus payments by one or more organizations to one or more employees. Populating 234 may use data gathered by accessing 232 to populate consumer profile 300 in
Predicting 240 may identify possible bonus payment dates based on historical data and on press announcements 510 in external data sources 500 in
Data 250 comprises delivery schedules 252, luxury items 254, advertising resources 258, and targeted advertisements 260. Internal databases 270 may comprise payroll databases 272. Internal databases 270 may provide data such as data depicted in internal data 400 in
Computer system 200 solves a technical problem of reducing an amount of resources required for targeting advertising of luxury items. Computer system 200 accomplishes this in several ways. First, computer system 200 provides information regarding when one or more employees will receive a bonus payment. The information regarding when one or more employees will receive a bonus payment is valuable to individuals or companies that sell luxury items. As explained above, a luxury item may be a product that is not a necessity and that has a high income elasticity of demand. A luxury item is typically more costly and is normally purchased by individuals with an above average disposable income or an above average accumulated wealth. Therefore, a luxury item is a product for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises. Thus, knowing that a person is about to receive a bonus that will increase his disposable income or accumulated wealth may mean that the person is more likely to purchase a luxury item with the bonus payment than a person who did not receive a bonus payment. Second, computer system 200 can access data regarding the individual in a consumer profile and calculate a luxury item preference score, such as luxury item preference score 318 in
Third, computer system 200 can access data regarding the individual in a consumer profile and calculate a luxury item preference score to enable a prediction of which luxury item out of a number of luxury items the employee receiving the bonus payment would be more likely to purchase. Fourth, computer system 200 can determine a number of features of the luxury item with the highest luxury item preference score, and by using consumption preferences of the employee in the consumer profile of the employee, enable a prediction of which features would appeal most to the employee receiving the bonus payment. Computer system 200 may rank the features in order of preference to the employee who is to receive the bonus payment. Thus, the technical problem of determining who is most likely to purchase a luxury item, which luxury item the person is most likely to purchase, and which features of the luxury item have the most appeal to the employee who will receive a bonus payment, enable preparation of efficient advertising and delivery of the advertising on a schedule linked to the bonus payment date, thereby reducing advertising that would not arrive at the time of the bonus payment or that would not be directed to the luxury item and features of the luxury item that would most appeal to the employee who is to receive the bonus payment.
Thus, in one illustrative example, one or more technical solutions are present that overcome the technical problem of reducing resources assigned to advertising luxury items. Computer system 200, by identifying an employee who is to receive a bonus payment, determining a probability of the employee purchasing a luxury item, determining which luxury item would appeal most to the employee, determining which features of the luxury item would appeal most to the employee, and scheduling delivery of advertising at a time or times linked to the date the employee will receive the bonus payment, creates multiple technical effects that reduce computer resources and on-line resources in preparing, scheduling and delivery advertising for a particular luxury item to a particular individual.
As a result, computer system 200 operates as a special purpose computer system in which special advertising program 230 running on data processing system 210 and accessing payroll databases 272 enables addresses for employees to receive a bonus payment to be stored in predicted employee cache 266 for timely access of the information by clients using computer system 200 to sell luxury items in an efficient manner. In particular, special advertising program 230 transforms computer system 200 into a special purpose computer system as compared to currently available general computer systems that do not have special advertising program 230 running on data processing system 210. Furthermore, special advertising program 230 transforms computer system 200 into a delivery system on delivery schedules 252 for targeted advertisements 260 using advertising resources 258. Moreover, special advertising program 230 can use machine intelligence 220 to improve prediction using the luxury item preference score and also to improve the calculation of the luxury item preference score by employing machine learning 222, predictive algorithms 224, and human algorithms 226.
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Process 600 starts. A special advertising application running on a processor unit accesses a payroll database (step 602). The special advertising program may be special advertising program 230 in
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Process 700 starts. Responsive to identifying an employee, the special advertising application running on the processor unit accesses a consumer profile for the employee (step 702). The special advertising application may be special advertising program 230 in
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Process 800 starts. Responsive to identifying a bonus payment date, a special advertising application running on a processor unit determines a messaging schedule for delivering a targeted advertisement to an employee (step 802). Process 800 ends thereafter. The bonus payment date may be bonus payment date 312 in
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Process 900 begins. Responsive to determining a selected luxury item, the special advertising application running on the processor unit, determines a number of features of the selected luxury item (step 902). The special advertising application may be special advertising application 230 in
Responsive to determining the number of features of the selected luxury item, the special advertising application ranks the number of features in order of probability that a feature will appeal to an employee (step 904). Ranking the number of features may be performed by ranking application 248 in
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Process 1000 starts. Responsive to accessing a consumer profile, calculating, by a special advertising application running on a processor unit, a luxury item preference score for an employee (step 1002). The luxury item preference score may be luxury item preference score 318 in
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Processor unit 1104 serves to execute instructions for software that may be loaded into memory 1106. Processor unit 1104 may be a number of processors, a multi-processor core, or some other type of processor, depending on the particular implementation.
Memory 1106 and persistent storage 1108 are examples of storage devices 1116. A storage device is any piece of hardware that is capable of storing information, such as, for example, without limitation, at least one of data, program code in a functional form, or other suitable information either on a temporary basis, a permanent basis, or both on a temporary basis and a permanent basis. Storage devices 1116 may also be referred to as computer-readable storage devices in these illustrative examples. Memory 1106, in these examples, may be, for example, a random access memory or any other suitable volatile or non-volatile storage device. Persistent storage 1108 may take various forms, depending on the particular implementation.
For example, persistent storage 1108 may contain one or more components or devices. For example, persistent storage 1108 may be a hard drive, a solid state hard drive, a flash memory, a rewritable optical disk, a rewritable magnetic tape, or some combination of the above. The media used by persistent storage 1108 also may be removable. For example, a removable hard drive may be used for persistent storage 1108.
Communications unit 1110, in these illustrative examples, provides for communications with other data processing systems or devices. In these illustrative examples, communications unit 1110 is a network interface card.
Input/output unit 1112 allows for input and output of data with other devices that may be connected to data processing system 1100. For example, input/output unit 1112 may provide a connection for user input through at least one of a keyboard, a mouse, or some other suitable input device. Further, input/output unit 1112 may send output to a printer. Display 1114 provides a mechanism to display information to a user.
Instructions for at least one of the operating system, applications, or programs may be located in storage devices 1116, which are in communication with processor unit 1104 through communications framework 1102. The processes of the different embodiments may be performed by processor unit 1104 using computer-implemented instructions, which may be located in a memory, such as memory 1106.
These instructions are referred to as program code, computer usable program code, or computer-readable program code that may be read and executed by a processor in processor unit 1104. The program code in the different embodiments may be embodied on different physical or computer-readable storage media, such as memory 1106 or persistent storage 1108.
Program code 1118 is located in a functional form on computer-readable media 1120 that is selectively removable and may be loaded onto or transferred to data processing system 1100 for execution by processor unit 1104. Program code 1118 and computer-readable media 1120 form computer program product 1122 in these illustrative examples. In one example, computer-readable media 1120 may be computer-readable storage media 1124 or computer-readable signal media 1126.
In these illustrative examples, computer-readable storage media 1124 is a physical or tangible storage device used to store program code 1118 rather than a medium that propagates or transmits program code 1118.
Alternatively, program code 1118 may be transferred to data processing system 1100 using computer-readable signal media 1126. Computer-readable signal media 1126 may be, for example, a propagated data signal containing program code 1118. For example, computer-readable signal media 1126 may be at least one of an electromagnetic signal, an optical signal, or any other suitable type of signal. These signals may be transmitted over at least one of communications links, such as wireless communications links, optical fiber cable, coaxial cable, a wire, or any other suitable type of communications link.
The different components illustrated for data processing system 1100 are not meant to provide architectural limitations to the manner in which different embodiments may be implemented. The different illustrative embodiments may be implemented in a data processing system including components in addition to or in place of those illustrated for data processing system 1100. Other components shown in
The description of the different illustrative embodiments has been presented for purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments in the form disclosed. The different illustrative examples describe components that perform actions or operations. In an illustrative embodiment, a component may be configured to perform the action or operation described. For example, the component may have a configuration or design for a structure that provides the component an ability to perform the action or operation that is described in the illustrative examples as being performed by the component.
Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example, although the illustrative examples have been described with respect to supplying human resources profile information for generating advertising, other illustrative examples may be applied to personalizing web pages generated by web servers. In this manner, the different steps illustrated may be used to provide web pages to users that are more personalized. Web pages may be modified or dynamically generated using the human resources profile information.
Further, different illustrative embodiments may provide different features as compared to other desirable embodiments. The embodiment or embodiments selected are chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
