A computer 
system for planning and evaluating advertising for a retail entit y comprising: a computer 
system including an advertisement publication 
database and a transaction 
database, the computer 
system being configured to perform the steps of: (a) collecting in the advertisement publication 
database a first set of advertisement 
publication data for a plurality of featured products published by the retail entity over a first period of time, the advertisement 
publication data including data taken from a group consisting of data concerning the featured products in the advertisements, data concerning the type of advertisement, data concerning t he term of the advertisement, and data concerning the region of the advertisement; (b) collecting in the transaction database a first set of 
transaction data for a plurality of transactions conducted by a plurality of consumers 
purchasing a plurality of products from the retail entity over the first period of time; (c) analyzing the first set of advertising 
publication data with respect to the first set of 
transaction data over the first period of time; and (d) classifying t he plurality of featured products into advertising roles based upon the analyzing of the first set of advertising publication data with respect to the first set of 
transaction data, the plurality of advertising roles including one or more advertising roles take from a group consisting of featured products that attract consumers to a particular part of a retail entity, featured products that promote attracting a mixture of consumers of different 
consumer classifications to purchase the featured products, featured products that promote a balance of different types of products purchased by a 
consumer, featured products that promote an overall increase in sales by the retail entity, and featured products that promote a combination of two or more of the above advertising roles.