METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING PURCHASE INCENTIVE MAILING BASED ON PRIOR PURCHASE HISTORY

A technique for customizing mailed purchase incentives for selected consumer households, based on a detailed purchasing history of the consumers. Purchase transactions of many consumers, generally in different stores, are accumulated in a purchase history database over a long period of time and then used to generate customized incentive offers for selected consumers. For a selected product category, usually related to a promotional theme, the purchase history database is scanned to select consumers who have made purchases in the same product area as the selected product category. Then each selected consumer's purchase transactions are analyzed to determine a profile for the consumer, such as loyal to the promoted brand, loyal to a competitive brand, or new to the selected product category, although a purchaser of related products. The consumer profile is then used to customize a purchase incentive package generated for each consumer household. The package also includes other printed materials to enhance the purchase incentives. Post-processing provides results reports of response and redemption rates, and retention analysis is used to track the targeted consumers' shopping behavior to assess the long-term effects of a promotion.