1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to customer information management, and more particularly, to methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for targeting advertisements to customers based upon spend and/or browsing behavior, and measuring the effectiveness and relevance of those advertisements.
2. Related Art
Businesses frequently store a variety of information relating to the interests and activities of their customers. For example, transaction account companies (e.g., American Express, Visa, Discover, etc) typically maintain information about the purchasing habits and/or product affinities of their customers. Transaction account issuing companies and payment processors may use this information to target advertisements, promotional offers, discounts, and the like to their customers. Thus, the information that transaction account companies collect about their customers enables a more relevant provisioning of services to customers.
Although transaction account companies and payment processors often have access to a variety of purchasing information, many of these businesses suffer a dearth of information insofar as they are unable to incorporate into their marketing efforts data associated with the shopping (e.g., web-browsing) activities of their customers. In other words, transaction account companies and payment processors are limited in their efforts to provide relevant and useful offers and services to customers, due to their incomplete picture of the interests of their customers.
An improved system for understanding their customers is needed. This system should permit transaction account companies to target marketing and other promotional offers to customers based on the purchasing activities of those customers, and on the shopping/web-browsing activities of those customers. The system should further permit transaction account companies to measure the success and value of the system, particularly from a customer's standpoint. In other words, the system should incorporate an ability to evaluate the actual relevance of the advertisements, offers, promotions, and discounts offered by the system to customers.
Finally, the system should seek to preserve the privacy of the customers it aims to serve. To this end, the system should incorporate one or more methods for maintaining the anonymity of customers.