AUTOMATICALLY PRESCRIBING TOTAL BUDGET FOR MARKETING AND SALES RESOURCES AND ALLOCATION ACROSS SPENDING CATEGORIES

1 . A method in a computing system for automatically prescribing an allocation of resources to a total marketing budget for a distinguished offering, with the goal of optimizing a distinguished business outcome for the offering that is expected to be driven at least in part by the allocation of resources to the total marketing budget, comprising:

receiving qualitative attributes of the distinguished offering from a user;

retrieving an experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget lift factor;

adjusting the experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget lift factor based upon at least two of the received qualitative attributes of the distinguished offering; and

using the adjusted experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget lift factor to determine an allocation of resources to a total marketing budget that tends to optimize the distinguished business outcome.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising persistently storing the determined allocation of resources.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying the determined allocation of resources to a user.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the retrieved experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget lift factor is an experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget elasticity measure.

5 . A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to perform a method for automatically prescribing an allocation of resources to a total marketing budget for a distinguished offering, with the goal of optimizing a distinguished business outcome for the offering that is expected to be driven at least in part by the allocation of resources to the total marketing budget, comprising:

receiving qualitative attributes of the distinguished offering from a user;

retrieving an experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget lift factor;

adjusting the experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget lift factor based upon at least two of the received qualitative attributes of the distinguished offering; and

using the adjusted experimentally-obtained average total marketing budget lift factor to determine an allocation of resources to a total marketing budget that tends to optimize the distinguished business outcome.

6 . A method in a computing system for automatically prescribing an allocation of resources to each of one or more activities to be performed with respect to a distinguished offering, with the goal of optimizing a business outcome for the offering that is expected to be driven at least in part by the activities, comprising:

receiving information from a user characterizing attributes of the distinguished offering;

for each of the activities, determining a lift factor derived from experimental results for one or more offerings that, while distinct from the distinguished offerings, are determined to be similar to the distinguished offerings based on the received information characterizing attributes of the distinguished offering, the lift factor indicating the predicted effect of the activity on the business outcome; and

using the retrieved lift factors to generate an allocation of resources for each of the activities.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the determining comprises:

using the received information characterizing a first portion of the attributes of the distinguished offering to select a lift factor corresponding to experimental results for offerings whose first portion of attributes are characterized in a similar way; and

adjusting the selected lift factor based on using the received information characterizing a second portion of the attributes of the distinguished offering.

8 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising automatically committing resources to at least one of the activities in accordance with the allocation generated for those activities.

9 . A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to perform a method for automatically prescribing an allocation of resources to each of one or more activities to be performed with respect to a distinguished offering, with the goal of optimizing a business outcome for the offering that is expected to be driven at least in part by the activities, the method comprising:

receiving information from a user characterizing attributes of the distinguished offering;

for each of the activities, determining a lift factor derived from experimental results for one or more offerings that, while distinct from the distinguished offerings, are determined to be similar to the distinguished offerings based on the received information characterizing attributes of the distinguished offering, the lift factor indicating the predicted effect of the activity on the business outcome; and

using the retrieved elasticity measures to generate an allocation of resources for each of the activities.

10 . The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the determining comprises:

using the received information characterizing a first portion of the attributes of the distinguished offering to select a lift factor corresponding to experimental results for offerings whose first portion of attributes are characterized in a similar way; and

adjusting the selected lift factor based on using the received information characterizing a second portion of the attributes of the distinguished offering.

11 . The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further comprising automatically committing resources to at least one of the activities in accordance with the allocation generated for those activities.

12 . One or more computer memories collectively storing a generalized marketing lift factor data structure, comprising a plurality of entries each for a different business offering profile, each business offering profile describing a group of one or more business offerings that are qualitatively distinguished from groups of business offerings of the other business offering profile, each entry containing a lift factor indicating the effect of a marketing activity with respect to the group of business offerings on a business outcome, such that, for a distinguished business offering described by a distinguished one of the profiles, the lift factor indicated by the distinguished entry may be used to automatically specify an allocation of marketing resources to the distinguished business offering.

13 . The computer memories of claim 12 wherein the lift factor contained by each entry is an elasticity measure.