BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate the present invention and, together with the description, further serve to explain the principles of the invention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to make and use the invention.
FIG. 1 is an illustration of example data sources for data mining.
FIG. 2 is an illustration of a sample record of charge that may be used to obtain customer, merchant, and/or transaction data.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example method by which customers may be targeted according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 4A-4D are charts illustrating demand for example individual restaurants on a per-day basis.
FIGS. 5A-5C are charts illustrating demand for restaurants across example geographic areas on a per-day basis.
FIGS. 6A-6C are charts illustrating demand for restaurants across example neighborhoods on a per-day basis.
FIGS. 7A-7B are charts illustrating demand by an example customer on a per-day and per-hour basis, respectively.
FIGS. 7C-7D are charts illustrating demand by another example customer on a per-day and per-hour basis, respectively.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a method for processing data according to an example concentric circles algorithm.
FIG. 9 is an illustration of an example result from the method of FIG. 8.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method for further processing data according to an example concentric circles algorithm.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method for targeting customers.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system useful for implementing the present invention.