Data integration and analysis

Abstract

Uncorrelated data from a variety of sources, such as consumer panels or retailer points of sale, are combined with maximal coverage of a universal data set for a population in a manner that permits useful inferences about behavioral propensities for the population at an individual or household level.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 one or more processors;   a first memory bearing instructions that, when executed, causes the one or more processors to:   receive a universal data set comprising geographic data for a plurality of customers within a geographic area, the universal data set having an order and the universal data set aggregated at a household level;   import to a second memory consumer panel data according to the order of the universal data set, the consumer panel data including a number of customer-reported transactions for a first subset of the plurality of customers and the consumer panel data aggregated at an individual customer level;   import to a third memory retailer data according to the order of the universal data set, until a pre-determined threshold of a retailer for obtaining the retailer data from the retailer is achieved, the retailer data including customer data from the retailer for a second subset of the plurality of customers, wherein the second subset overlaps the first subset, and the retailer data aggregated at a retailer-provided level; and   combine the consumer panel data and the retailer data according to the order of the universal data set at a normalized level of aggregation, thereby providing data set representative of the first subset of the plurality of customers and the second subset of the plurality of customers.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the retailer data includes point of sale data. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the retailer data includes shipping data. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the retailer data includes media delivery data. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the retailer data includes credit card data. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the retailer data includes clickstream data. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the instructions further include instructions for modeling a propensity for a specific behavior for the plurality of customers in the universal data set according to the data set representative of the first subset of the plurality of customers and the second subset of the plurality of customers. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7  wherein the specific behavior includes at least one of:
 buying a particular brand of goods or services, 
 purchasing a specified collection of goods or services, or a dollar amount worth of goods or services, and 
 consuming media from a particular media outlet. 
 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the specific behavior includes shopping at a particular store. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the specific behavior includes buying goods or services at a discount.