Method and system for collecting shopper response data tied to marketing and merchandising elements

Abstract

The present invention is a method and system for capturing a dataset over time that represents the response of shoppers to a set of marketing and merchandising stimuli or 'elements'. The response includes exposure metrics, engagement metrics and conversion metrics for different shopper segments. The shopper segments may be defined by demographics such as gender, age and ethnicity or by the type of trip, such as a quick trip or a fill-up trip. The system comprises a plurality of means for capturing images, such as cameras, covering the area of interest in the vicinity of the marketing or merchandising element. The method comprises automated and semi-automated analysis of the video to extract the shopper behavior and demographics data for computing the defined metrics. The captured data can be further combined with information such a promotions and advertisement outside the store to further enhance the applications of the data collected in-store from the invention. The captured shopper data can be used for many applications such as comparison of the effectiveness of different marketing elements or the relative effectiveness of different types of promotions, variation of the relative effectiveness of different marketing elements over time or differences between the relative effectiveness of a marketing element for different demographic segments.