How is this different from a regular market mix model?

Question

In reference to the patent: US 2013/0166351 A1

Many organizations have market mix models implemented within a defined processing system. How is this different?

Answer 1

While B. Johnson's answer is fine for what it is, I'd like to provide some interpretation. When novices read patents they sometimes see long and complicated claims and think "Wow, this is covering everything". When experienced folk look at long and complicated claims, they think "Wow, this is pretty narrow". In order to infringe on a claim, you need to implement each and every element in the claim. Looking at claim 1 of US9208462, to me it is very long and includes many steps. Thus it likely opens the door to many ways to circumvent its coverage.

Answer 2

The document you are referencing is a publication of a pending patent application. However, this application recently issued as US Pat. 9208462 B2:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US9208462B2/en

The claims define what is "patented" so you should look at them to determine what is "different." (Claim 1 is reproduced below but also check out the other independent claims - 12 and 19)

If you really want to know what specific elements the Examiner found to be patentable (i.e. different), check out the application file history on the USPTO PAIR system.

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a plurality of marketing-mix variables through a display, each of the plurality of marketing-mix variables being associated with marketing strategies for one or more products,

pre-modeling, by a processor, marketing data based on the received plurality of marketing-mix variables, the pre-modeling including,

analyzing, by a processor, the plurality of marketing mix variables by performing exploratory data analysis (EDA), the EDA being based on univariate analysis in which conditional histograms are generated using Sturges formula to determine bin sizes for a range of the marketing data,

generating, by a processor, at least one of a sales based response model and revenue based response model to identify contributory marketing-mix variables from among the plurality of marketing-mix variables that affect at least one of sales and revenue of the one or more products, and

analyzing, by a processor, the at least one of the sales based response model and the revenue based response model to determine individual contribution of each of the contributory marketing-mix variables towards at least one of the sales and the revenue of the one or more products;

receiving, by a processor, through the display one or more parameters to be optimized along with optimization constraints;

generating, by a processor, a new marketing-mix solution through multi-layered optimization using the determined individual contributions, the one or more parameters, and the optimization constraints, the multi-layered optimization being based on one or more algorithms selected from among at least one of genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, particle swarm optimization, and ant colony optimization; and

providing, by a processor, the new marketing-mix solution and a real-time tracking of the generation of the new marketing-mix solution, on the display.