System and method for evaluating vehicle purchase loyalty

Abstract

One embodiment of the system and method described herein provides a vehicle loyalty system that gathers data on an individual's or a household's vehicles and analyzes purchase and disposal records within a particular time frame relative to the purchase date of each unique vehicle to determine brand and related loyalties. The system and method offer unique window definitions surrounding each purchase record such that data straddling a study time frame will still be caught and analyzed.

1 . A non-transitory computer readable medium whose contents include computer-executable instructions which direct a vehicle loyalty evaluation system to:
 select purchase records dated within an analysis time period;   group related purchase records by household;   add related historical purchase and disposal records to grouped purchase records;   define at least one correlation window; and   analyze selected purchase records with at least some of the related historical records within the correlation window to determine household loyalty, wherein at least some of the related historical records fall within the correlation window but outside the analysis time period.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the correlation window includes a time period with respect to at least one selected purchase record. 
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the correlation window includes a time period of between 1 and 150 days before and between 1 and 150 days after the date of at least one selected purchase record. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further direct the system to supplement the purchase records with related information. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 4 , wherein related information comprises at least one of customer demographic, geographic, and behavioral data. 
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 5 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further direct the system to strip household identifying data from the records. 
     
     
         7 . 
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein to analyze selected purchase records, disposal loyalty metrics are determined. 
     
     
         9 . A computer-implemented vehicle loyalty evaluation system comprising:
 a processor that supports operation of a software application;   a repository of vehicle data comprising a plurality of data items regarding vehicle purchases and a plurality of data items regarding vehicle disposals within an analysis time period, wherein the repository is accessible by the processor;   a household matching module configured to match at least one of the plurality of data items regarding vehicle purchases and at least one of the plurality of data items regarding vehicle disposals to one of the plurality of households, wherein the household matching module is executed on the computer system;   a repository of vehicle data comprising a plurality of historical data items regarding vehicle purchases and vehicle disposals associated with at least one of the plurality of households, wherein the repository is accessible by the computer system; and   a loyalty module programmed to analyze, for at least one household, the matched plurality of data items regarding vehicle purchases, the matched plurality of data items regarding vehicle disposals and the plurality of historical data items, within at least one correlation time window, to determine garage loyalty and disposal loyalty metrics, wherein at least some of the historical data items fall within the correlation window but outside the analysis time period, wherein the loyalty module is executed on the computer system.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , further comprising a repository of supplemental data comprising a plurality of geodemographic data items regarding the plurality of households. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the plurality of geodemographic data items comprise items related to at least one of the following: race and ethnic origin; age; family status; non-family household types; travel to work; education; employment by industry and occupation; income; forms of income; housing tenure; housing type; vehicle ownership; household size; age of dwelling and tenure. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the loyalty module is further programmed to analyze for at least one household, the matched plurality of data items regarding vehicle purchases, the matched plurality of data items regarding vehicle disposals and the plurality of historical data items, within at least one correlation time window, to determine garage migration and disposal migration metrics, wherein at least some of the historical data items fall within the correlation window but outside the analysis time period, wherein the loyalty module is executed on the computer system. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein at least one of the plurality of data items regarding vehicle purchases, at least one of the plurality of data items regarding vehicle disposals and at least one of the plurality of historical data items regarding vehicle purchases and vehicle disposals comprises information relating to the vehicles' manufacturer, make and model. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein garage loyalty metric for a given household may be an indicator of consistency between at least one of the vehicle manufacturer, make and model associated with at least one data item regarding a vehicle purchase for the given household, and the vehicle manufacturer, make or model associated with at least one historical data item regarding a vehicle purchase for the given household. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein disposal loyalty metric may be an indicator of consistency between at least one of the vehicle manufacturer, make and model associated with at least one data item regarding a vehicle purchase for the given household, and the vehicle manufacturer, make or model associated with at least one historical data item regarding a vehicle disposal for the given household. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein at least one of the plurality of data items regarding vehicle purchases, at least one of the plurality of data items regarding vehicle disposals and at least one of the plurality of historical data items regarding vehicle purchases and vehicle disposals comprises information relating to at least one vehicle's manufacturer; make; model; segment. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the vehicle's segment comprises one of: SUV, Pickup, Van, Small Car, Mid Range, Upscale, Sport Car, Alternative Power, Sport Wagon, Traditional, Sport Wagon. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein garage migration metric may be an indication of the vehicle manufacturer, make, model and segment associated with at least one data item regarding a vehicle purchase for the given household, in relation to the vehicle manufacturer, make, model or segment associated with at least one historical data item regarding a vehicle purchase for the given household. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein disposal migration metric may be an indication of the vehicle manufacturer, make, model and segment associated with at least one data item regarding a vehicle purchase for the given household, in relation to the vehicle manufacturer, make, model or segment associated with at least one historical data item regarding a vehicle disposal for the given household.