WO2004032004A1 - Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-tv, wireless devices and other electronic means - Google Patents

Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-tv, wireless devices and other electronic means Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2004032004A1
WO2004032004A1 PCT/CN2003/000850 CN0300850W WO2004032004A1 WO 2004032004 A1 WO2004032004 A1 WO 2004032004A1 CN 0300850 W CN0300850 W CN 0300850W WO 2004032004 A1 WO2004032004 A1 WO 2004032004A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
consumer
consumers
promotional
promotional offer
coupon
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/CN2003/000850
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Jeffrey W. Mankoff
Original Assignee
Hibonus Limited
Shanghai Aial Information Consulting Company Limited
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Hibonus Limited, Shanghai Aial Information Consulting Company Limited filed Critical Hibonus Limited
Priority to AU2003269672A priority Critical patent/AU2003269672A1/en
Priority to EP03750269A priority patent/EP1554673A4/en
Priority to JP2004540453A priority patent/JP2006514351A/en
Publication of WO2004032004A1 publication Critical patent/WO2004032004A1/en

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Classifications

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    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00Commerce
    • G06Q30/02Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G06Q30/0207Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
    • G06Q30/0239Online discounts or incentives
    • GPHYSICS
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    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
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    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
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    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
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    • GPHYSICS
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    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00Commerce
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    • GPHYSICS
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    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
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    • G06Q30/0207Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
    • G06Q30/0238Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates at point-of-sale [POS]
    • GPHYSICS
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    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
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    • G06Q30/0241Advertisements
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    • G06Q30/0267Wireless devices
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    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00Commerce
    • G06Q30/02Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G06Q30/0241Advertisements
    • G06Q30/0277Online advertisement

Definitions

  • Patent Application No. 10/081 ,257 which has a filing date of February 22, 2002 and
  • Coupons can be for a specific store or for a specific item. Challenges for the use
  • Paper coupons are a traditional method of attracting new consumers. These paper
  • Payment systems include
  • a credit card with a coupon database, such that coupons stored in the coupon
  • the consumer also has a personal coupon website
  • the consumer by using his or her associated payment system, is accordingly able to readily redeem accepted coupon offers stored in the
  • the paperless offer can be pre-
  • list owners such as Yahoo!, AOL and Amazon
  • Such card-matching agents would typically receive lists of consumers'
  • identifiers such as consumers' email addresses, and their credit card information.
  • an offer may be created by a merchant or other advertiser with
  • the list manager creates the offer and enables it to be organized (in some embodiments)
  • the list manager may take a 10% off offer for
  • Retailer XYZ and then pre-organize the offer as "apparel,” “furniture,” “grocery,”
  • the list owner then delivers the limits of the
  • the list manager then appends the consumer's email address
  • the list manager Upon receipt, the list manager transmits the email
  • the coupon database may be a
  • Promotional offers or coupon offers are described herein in embodiments
  • coupon offers may also encompass purchased vouchers or tickets or other items that are
  • a list owner transfers a consumer
  • identifier e.g., an e-mail address
  • the credit card number associated with the
  • a promotional offer is then created for an advertiser.
  • the email contains embedded within it a consumer identifier, which may be the
  • identifier in this case the email address, and associates it with the credit card number that
  • the matching agent or other entity associates the paperless coupon offer with the consumer's credit card or other payment system.
  • the consumer can redeem the coupon offer using his or her
  • the consumer could be delivered either at the retail location itself at the time of purchase
  • FIGURE 2 provides an exemplary screenshot of an email-delivered version of a
  • FIGURE 3 is an exemplary pop-up window that could be presented to a consumer
  • FIGURE 4 is an exemplary screen shot from a graphical user interface for the
  • FIGURE 5 illustrates a screen shot of an acknowledgement message sent upon
  • FIGURE 6 is an exemplary process flow diagram for the collection
  • FIGURE 7 illustrates a data structure of an exemplary promotional offer
  • FIGURE 8 provides an exemplary block diagram of a promotional offer
  • FIGURE 9 provides an exemplary block diagram of another embodiment of a
  • FIGURE 10 provides still another exemplary block diagram of an embodiment of a promotional offer distribution, organization, and redemption system.
  • FIGURE 1 is a block diagram for a coupon
  • coupon database 102 that can be associated with the consumers' payment system, such as
  • the consumers receive, accept, and manage the coupon offers in the
  • PDAs Personal Digital Assistants
  • FIGURE 10 electronic devices 109
  • a credit card interface 108 Within or external to the marketer site 104 is provided a credit card interface 108,
  • network 105 can be detected, whereby geographic-specific offers can be made to a
  • a particular consumer's location can be
  • an offer can make the targeted offers more flexible.
  • an offer can be any suitable offer.
  • consumer electronic contact addresses e.g., cell phone numbers
  • the consumer 103 can simply
  • consumer 103 might be in the vicinity of Retailer XYZ 120, and the consumer
  • the offer accordingly might be given an offer for 25% off of purchases at that retailer made within 3 hours (or, as another example, the same day).
  • the offer might decrease 5% in value
  • next time period e.g., between 3 hours and 12 hours or during the next day.
  • FIGURE 10 Given the time and the consumer's location, the consumer 103 might
  • the offer might be good only for the evening, or it
  • the consumer 103 may
  • the consumer redeems his coupons by the use of an associated credit card
  • the credit cards would be run at the Point-Of-Sale ("POS") Terminal 122.
  • the POS Terminals 122 would typically communicate through a secure connection to the credit
  • This secure connection may be through a security interface unit 125
  • the connection between the retailer 120 and the credit card bank 130 could be any connection between the retailer 120 and the credit card bank 130.
  • the connection between the retailer 120 and the credit card bank 130 could be any connection between the retailer 120 and the credit card bank 130.
  • this broad function may be more specifically
  • One site as an
  • example would be the acquiring or merchant servicing bank site, which would interface
  • the second site in the example would be the credit
  • Both the first and the second site are functionally encompassed within the
  • the credit card approval and clearing operation may occur as follows.
  • the consumer would bring his associated credit card to the merchant 120 after the consumer has had electronic coupons stored in his coupon database 102.
  • the consumer would bring his associated credit card to the merchant 120 after the consumer has had electronic coupons stored in his coupon database 102.
  • the credit card computer system 130 may then
  • this coupon clearing process may alternatively be an entirely parallel network between
  • the merchant 120 and the credit card computer systems 130 are the merchant 120 and the credit card computer systems 130.
  • the consumer discount can be applied in a number of ways.
  • One way is to
  • FIGURE 2 provides an exemplary screen shot of what an email delivered
  • the screen image 200 shows the entire coupon offer, including the addressing section 202 and the main message window 204.
  • a clickable target 206 that allows the consumer
  • the offer 200 can
  • FIGURE 3 shows a pop-up window 310 that could be presented to a consumer
  • the consumer does not presently have a coupon database 102
  • the pop-up window also provides
  • clickable target 322 allows the consumer to submit his or her selections to the marketer
  • FIGURE 4 shows a screen shot from a graphical user interface for the coupon
  • Such record 402 shows the entry for the coupon offer 200 that has been discussed above.
  • Fields shown for this record includes the advertiser 404, a brief description of the offer
  • the user interface 400 also includes items to assist the user
  • clickable targets 414 are provided to allow the consumer to search, for example,
  • columns 404 through 410 could be clickable in order to sort on those fields. Also
  • coupon categories 416 which can allow the consumer to filter
  • FIGURE 5 illustrates a screen shot of a confirming email that may be sent to a
  • 500 is one of a number of types of email that may be sent to a consumer according to
  • FIGURE 6 is a process flow diagram for the collection and redemption of virtual
  • This database 102 can be set up in a
  • consumer information provided by the list owner may be pre- enrolled at one time by using the information provided by the list owner. Alternatively, the consumer can subscribe directly, and in some instances this may occur before a
  • coupon offer has been sent to the consumer (such as described with respect to block
  • the coupon database may have consumer profile information associated with it,
  • coupon offers can be sent to the particular consumer.
  • This association may be at the marketer site 104 (which may store
  • the actual consumer credit card number or an encoded version thereof it may be at the
  • agent 830 it may be provided by a logically separate but
  • the card-matching agent 830 provides
  • the matching agent 830 can provide enhanced security for the coupon
  • the means of presentment may be through mass emails
  • the list can be sent from the marketer 104 or the list owner 810.
  • the offer can also be made
  • coupon or other payment system information.
  • mass emailing the coupon
  • offers can be presented and delivered to consumers 103 through web banner ads, possibly
  • the list owner also sends a list 810 of
  • the matching agent 830 can, at this stage or in block 604, mass enroll the list with the
  • the marketer 104 can then send to the list owner an "enabled offer," that may be characterized, for instance, by having embedded identification/validation numbers that will associate a particular offer with a particular
  • the validation numbers or other consumer identifier provides a measure of
  • the list owner 810 in turn presents the enabled
  • coupon offers can be any suitable validation numbers, consumer identifiers, or enabled offers.
  • banner ad or other coupon offer presented to the consumer or the storage can be the
  • database at block 608 can be redeemed by using the consumer's credit card that is
  • the credit card may be used at a
  • AR Authorization Request
  • the credit card company server 132 is comprised of a credit clearing bank or acquiring bank computer system that communicates with the merchant 120, a
  • AC Approval Code
  • coupon can be applied at the merchant POS terminal 122, it can be applied to the
  • server 132 will communicate with the credit card interface server 108 at the marketer 104
  • top-level transactional data such as the amount purchased and the cardholder identity. Should actual coupon clearing at the merchant POS 120 be desired,
  • VPN Virtual Private Network
  • card server 132 or a database server (such as credit card interface server 108 or virtual
  • an attribute file is associated with a coupon offer to
  • FIGURE 7 illustrates a data structure 730 describing an example of how
  • attribute information 740 can be set up and associated with a virtual coupon offer
  • attributes 743 user ID 744, or other attributes 745.
  • Other attributes might include merchant class, website URL, merchant address, map, and email information.
  • FIGURE 8 provides a block diagram for a system for the redemption of coupon
  • the merchant 120 may be synonymous with the merchant 120 or may be a separate entity with a direct or
  • the advertiser 820 provides to a
  • marketing entity 104 a definition of an offer that it wishes to be made to a certain group.
  • the marketer 104 may have its own list for distribution or it may receive a list from a list
  • the consumers 103 are associated with credit cardholder
  • the list owner 810 may have a list of email
  • the credit card company 130 may be an entity that is separate from the credit card company 130 or it may be a separate
  • the marketer 104 can provide these offers to the list 810 of consumers via email or
  • PDA Personal Digital Assistant
  • the consumer 103 can then accept the coupon offer by clicking on a clickable
  • the hardware at the marketer site 104 can be implemented
  • a virtual document server 106 as shown in FIGURE 1 is shown in FIGURE 1
  • the consumer can be directed to register with the marketer 104 such as by
  • the marketer site 104 is preferably synchronized
  • the POS terminals 122 may send an AR to the credit card company 130. This transaction may immediately or later be cleared through the card-matching agent 830 to determine
  • card-matching agent 830 will apply a credit either to the consumer's credit card statement
  • this credit may be transmitted back
  • the POS 120 may communicate through the credit card site 130, or, as shown by the
  • the POS 120 may also communicate in either instance directly
  • coupon database 102 may be located at either the
  • marketer site 104 or the matching agent site 830 may be at another location.
  • transaction data from the POS can be compared to the stored accepted promotional offers
  • a "redemption notice" may be sent to the card-matching
  • FIGURE 9 provides a block diagram or network diagram for a coupon
  • FIGURE 8 In the embodiment of FIGURE 9, instead of the marketer 104 sending out
  • FIGURE 830 again provides this list with the encoded credit
  • the list owner 810 delivers the promotional
  • FIGURE 8 embodiment of FIGURE 8 or another method.
  • the consumer 103 can accept the offers made
  • FIGURE 10 illustrates and emphasizes that the systems and methods described
  • coupon offers can be delivered to consumers
  • network hub 1010 Through interactive television networks, represented in FIGURE 10 by network hub 1010
  • hub 1020 and consumer device 109a or to PDAs or cell phones as shown by hub 1020 and
  • FIGURES 2-3 user interfaces at the marketer 104 could be provided
  • the displays provided on these devices are typically smaller than
  • the consumer communication devices can be used.
  • the consumer communication devices can be used.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays.
  • voice response may be made and accepted by means other than visual displays. For example, voice response
  • Such acceptance by key presses and/or vocalization can be applied to both cell-phone- based and land-based phone offers.
  • coupon offers would typically be both made and received through an interactive media
  • card-matching agent 830 can be provided to translate credit card numbers to and from
  • the interactive media server 1030 may also in this
  • embodiments provide the web interface 840 whereby consumers can manage their virtual
  • the credit card interface server 108 can synchronize the accepted coupon
  • card-matching agent 830 again can provide the translation between credit card numbers
  • the matching agent 830 the matching agent 830
  • a "client” should be broadly construed to
  • client should also be broadly construed to mean one who requests or gets the file
  • the "server” is the entity that downloads the file.
  • Coupled including other billing systems described in this application.
  • Coupled including other billing systems described in this application.
  • Registered user websites may be provided for consumers to
  • the websites could be hosted by the marketer, card matching agent, list owner,
  • the registered user website may be an interface to the coupon database or

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and systems for redeeming virtual coupons by associating the coupons with consumers' credit cards for redemption. In disclosed methods, coupon databases are associated with consumers and associated with the consumers' credit cards. Coupon offers are stored in the coupon databases and are redeemed by consumers by the use of the credit cards that are associated with the consumers' coupon databases.

Description

DELIVERY, ORGANIZATION, AND REDEMPTION OF VIRTUAL
OFFERS FROM THE INTERNET, INTERACTIVE-TV, WIRELESS
DEVICES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC MEANS
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority to and is a continuation-in-part application of U.S.
Patent Application No. 10/081 ,257, which has a filing date of February 22, 2002 and
Application No. 09/611,672, which has a filing date of July 7, 2000, both of which claim
priority to the following provisional patent applications: 60/142,611, filed July 7, 1999
and 60/191,352, filed March 22, 2000. The above applications - 10/081,257,
09/611,672, 60/142,611, and 60/191,352 - are hereby incorporated by reference into this
application. This application is further related to commonly owned U.S. patent
application no. 09/309,989, which has a filing date of May 11, 1999, which is also hereby
incorporated by reference herein.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
Coupons are an effective way direct marketers use to drive customers to their
stores. Coupons can be for a specific store or for a specific item. Challenges for the use
of coupons can be broken into three areas: 1) delivery, 2) organization, and 3)
redemption.
Paper coupons are a traditional method of attracting new consumers. These paper
coupons have traditionally been delivered to consumers through printed media and
through direct mail marketing. Delivery of printed paper coupons is expensive for the
marketer, and it is also difficult for the marketer to narrowly target the paper coupons to those most likely to use them, given the typical breadth of traditional printed media and
direct mail lists. In addition to incurring the cost of printing and delivering the offer, the
marketer incurs the cost of training personnel to accept the offer at the Point of Sale
("POS"), the time it takes the personnel to input the coupon at the POS, the cost to store
the paper offer and the cost to audit the offer. In addition, there is a fraud cost associated
with the use of paper coupons.
Once the coupon is delivered to the consumer, the consumer then clips or selects
the paper coupons. As far as the consumer is concerned, organizing paper coupons is
difficult and time-consuming. Consumers often place their paper coupons in a kitchen
drawer or other unorganized receptacle. The coupons oftentimes are unredeemed in the
drawer, and ultimately expire, unused. The consumers often fail to redeem the coupons
because it is difficult for them to find needed coupons or even remember that they have
coupons that can be applied to their purchases. Further, consumers may forget to take
their coupons with them to the store or may not have the coupons with them for other
reasons. In sum, the paper coupons are difficult for the consumer to clip, organize, and to
redeem at the POS.
On-line marketing is increasingly common, as on-line marketers are readily able to
rent lists from list owners and send, through mass e-mailings, e-mail offers to the
thousands of consumers on the list owner's list. Paperless coupons delivered through
these methods and systems can be redeemed at on-line merchants without the necessity of
printing those coupons, such as by delivering a coupon code electronically and having the
consumer manually input the code at the online payment page. For brick-and-mortar merchants, however, the consumer is still left with the classic problem of having to create
and use paper coupons, such as by printing out the electronically delivered coupon offers.
Thus, consumers are again confronted with the organizational and redemption associated
with paper coupons. Further to the above approaches, although marketers have avoided
the costs of printing and delivery of the offers, the marketers still face significant costs
associated with fraud and fraud detection, auditing of the paper coupons, and with
training of personnel at the POS.
BRIEF SUMMARY
Parent applications to this application have described novel ways to deliver,
organize, and redeem paperless coupons or other promotional offers. The present
application continues to build on those prior applications, from which priority has been
claimed herein and which have been incorporated by reference herein. For example,
provisional patent application U.S. Application No. 60/142,611, filed July 7, 1999,
disclosed, among other things, the associating of accepted coupon offers with credit cards
along with embodiments describing how paperless or virtual coupons could be delivered
to the consumers and redeemed by the consumers, including by the use of consumers'
credit cards to make qualified product or service purchases. U.S. Application No.
60/191,352, filed March 22, 2000, described, among other things, methods and systems for automatically organizing paperless coupons and other virtual documents, as does U.S.
Application No. 09/611 ,672, filed July 7, 2000, which claims priority from the July 7, 1999 and March 22, 2000 applications. The foregoing applications, and also U.S. Patent Application No. 10/081,257,
further describe different delivery and organization methods, including the delivery of
paperless coupon offers to PDAs, wireless PDAs and interactive television.
The embodiments described in this application merge electronic delivery of on¬
line or virtual coupon offers with consumers' payment systems. Payment systems include
credit cards, debit cards, electronic payment accounts, consumer billing systems, cell¬
phone-based electronic payment systems, and PDA-based electronic coupon systems.
Further applications for the promotional offers can be for reward-type incentives, such as
frequent flyer miles or other "points" or "credits" that may be redeemable for reward
goods and/or services.
The merger of these approaches result in the electronic delivery of virtual,
paperless coupons or promotional offers. Paperless redemption at the point of sale or on
the consumers' payment systems statements are also enabled by embodiments disclosed
in this application. To use the described approaches, consumers would associate, as an
example, a credit card with a coupon database, such that coupons stored in the coupon
database can automatically be redeemed by the consumer when making qualifying
purchases. In some embodiments, the consumer also has a personal coupon website,
where the consumer can "clip" and save coupons, thereby allowing the consumer to
organize his or her coupons at a personal website for organizing the coupons saved in the
personal website. The above approaches allow the consumer to manage his or her
coupons at the personal website, while also associating the coupon database with the
consumer's payment system. The consumer, by using his or her associated payment system, is accordingly able to readily redeem accepted coupon offers stored in the
coupon database.
In embodiments described in this application, systems and methods are provided
for delivering a paperless coupon offer to a consumer and allowing the consumer to
accept that offer without having to provide the consumer's credit card information. This
approach mitigates consumers' natural reluctance to provide credit card information in
response to a banner ad or email.
Embodiments described in this application accordingly provide for the delivery or
communication of paperless offers through email, cell phone, satellite phone, land-based
or wired phones, wireless PDAs, kiosks, interactive TV, two-way pagers, wireless
networks, or other communication systems and devices. The paperless offer can be pre-
associated with the consumers' payment systems (e.g., credit card, debit card, bank card,
or other payment system). For example, list owners such as Yahoo!, AOL and Amazon
(all marks of their respective owners) may have three important pieces of data: 1) an
email address, 2) permission to offer third party offers to their consumer's email address,
and 3) credit card numbers. With this information, the above embodiments can be
practically implemented.
In embodiments described below, the marketer or advertiser who makes the
coupon or other promotional offers to the consumers may not have access to the
consumers' credit card information. "Advertiser" as used in this application includes
product manufacturers, merchants, and other companies or entities desiring to make a promotional offer. One mechanism to associate the consumers with their credit cards without giving that information to the marketer or advertiser would be through card-
matching agents. Such card-matching agents would typically receive lists of consumers'
identifiers, such as consumers' email addresses, and their credit card information.
In such approaches, an offer may be created by a merchant or other advertiser with
the help of the list owner's agent or list manager, or the advertiser's agent, the list broker.
The list manager creates the offer and enables it to be organized (in some embodiments)
and redeemed paperlessly. For example, the list manager may take a 10% off offer for
Retailer XYZ and then pre-organize the offer as "apparel," "furniture," "grocery,"
"hardware," merchandise," or some other category (see FIGURE 4). The list manager
then gives the offer an identifier number. The list owner then delivers the limits of the
offer to the matching agent. The list manager then appends the consumer's email address
to the email itself. When the consumer "clicks" or accepts the enabled offer, it will cause
an electronic acceptance message to be sent to the list manager, where the message
comprises the email address that was associated with the offer identifier number when the offer was sent to the consumer. Upon receipt, the list manager transmits the email
address and offer identifier to the matching agent, which then associates the email
address with the consumer's associated credit card and adds the coupon identifier to the
consumer's coupon database for later matching to a retail good or service transaction in which the consumer redeemed the promotional offer. The coupon database may be a
simple database at the matching agent side or at the marketer site or at another location,
or it may be an organized, consumer-manageable database such as described in FIGURE 4 and in U.S. Patent. Appl. No. 09/611,672. There may also be both types of databases,
and the data contained in those databases can be synchronized according to system design
requirements. Promotional offers or coupon offers are described herein in embodiments
relating to "money-off ' purchasing of goods or services. Such promotional offers or
coupon offers may also encompass purchased vouchers or tickets or other items that are
redeemable or otherwise have value. Still other promotional offers may relate to
redeemable "reward points" or similar incentives that can be redeemed by consumers for
goods or services.
In one implementation of such an embodiment, a list owner transfers a consumer
identifier (e.g., an e-mail address) and the credit card number associated with the
consumer to a matching agent. A promotional offer is then created for an advertiser. The
offer is built into an email, which is forwarded to the consumer at the consumer's email
address. The email contains embedded within it a consumer identifier, which may be the
consumer's email address or encoded credit card information or other identifier. Upon
receipt of the offer by a consumer, with one click of a button several things can happen: (1) the consumer identifier is forwarded via XML or other protocol to the matching agent
along with the paperless coupon identifier; (2) the matching agent then takes the
identifier, in this case the email address, and associates it with the credit card number that
it has on file; and (3) the matching agent or other entity associates the paperless coupon offer with the consumer's credit card or other payment system. Once the coupon offer has been accepted and associated with a consumer's credit
card or other payment system, the consumer can redeem the coupon offer using his or her
credit card or other payment system to purchase the product or service referred to in the
coupon offer. At this point, the merchant sends data of the purchase to the card-matching
agent, who would then match the credit card transaction to the appropriate consumer's
coupon database in order to determine whether a discount should be applied. If the
conditions of the offer are met, a discount would be applied. Notice of the discount to
the consumer could be delivered either at the retail location itself at the time of purchase
or via email, and notice could also be given in the consumer's credit card statement.
The above summary has outlined the embodiments described in this application,
but should be used in the context of the entire specification to illustrate some of the
features of these embodiments. Accordingly, other features and a fuller understanding of
these embodiments may be had by referring to the entire specification. None of these
embodiments are limiting of the scope of the invention, which must be determined by the
claims set forth in the claims section.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGURE 1 is a block diagram for a promotional offer distribution, organization,
and redemption system;
FIGURE 2 provides an exemplary screenshot of an email-delivered version of a
promotional offer;
FIGURE 3 is an exemplary pop-up window that could be presented to a consumer
after the consumer's acceptance of a promotional offer;
FIGURE 4 is an exemplary screen shot from a graphical user interface for the
coupon database organizer;
FIGURE 5 illustrates a screen shot of an acknowledgement message sent upon
redemption of an accepted promotional offer;
FIGURE 6 is an exemplary process flow diagram for the collection and
redemption of promotional offers;
FIGURE 7 illustrates a data structure of an exemplary promotional offer;
FIGURE 8 provides an exemplary block diagram of a promotional offer
distribution, organization, and redemption system;
FIGURE 9 provides an exemplary block diagram of another embodiment of a
promotional offer distribution, organization, and redemption system; and
FIGURE 10 provides still another exemplary block diagram of an embodiment of a promotional offer distribution, organization, and redemption system.
All of these drawings are illustrations of certain embodiments. The scope of the
claims is not limited to the specific embodiments illustrated in the drawings and described below.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Shown in FIGURE 1 is a block diagram for a coupon
offer/organization/redemption system 100 in which consumers are each provided with a
coupon database 102 that can be associated with the consumers' payment system, such as
credit card, debit card, electronic fund transfer account or other payment means. The
consumers' virtual coupons are stored in their coupon databases 102, which would be
under the control of a marketer 104, which provides, through virtual document 106,
coupon offers to consumers through email, through websites on the Internet, or through
other networks 105. The consumers receive, accept, and manage the coupon offers in the
virtual coupon database through the consumers' personal computers 110, Personal Digital
Assistants ("PDAs") 112, or other electronic devices 109 (see FIGURE 10).
Within or external to the marketer site 104 is provided a credit card interface 108,
which is used to link coupons stored and associated with consumers' coupon databases
102 with credit card transactions that are being cleared through the credit card mainframe
132. Through these linkages, proper credit can be applied in those instances in which
consumers have redeemable coupons for products they have purchased stored in their
associated coupon database 102.
Many possible coupon offer variations, as well as variation in coupon delivery
mechanisms, are possible. For example, the virtual coupon offers can be delivered to the consumers 103 through mobiles phones, wireless PDAs, interactive televisions, two-way pagers or other electronic communication systems. It is further possible through the
consumers' electronic communications systems to detect where the consumers 103 are
located and thereby to target offers to consumers 103 based on their location. For
example, when connecting through wireless connections, the particular wireless tower or
access point (see FIGURE 10) through which the consumer 103 is connecting to the
network 105 can be detected, whereby geographic-specific offers can be made to a
plurality of consumers 103. As further examples, a particular consumer's location can be
detected by use of: satellite-based positioning systems; triangulation from land-based
radio transmissions; detection of which transmission tower is communicating with a
consumer's cell-based electronic device; and detection of a communication hub
communicating with a consumer's local-area-network-based electronic device.
The direct association of paperless coupon offers with the consumers' payment
systems can make the targeted offers more flexible. In a specific example, an offer can
be made to a consumer 103 for a store 120 that is close to the consumer 103 based on the
consumers' location. Such offers could, for example, be advantageously delivered to
consumers' portable devices, such as cell phones or wireless PDAs, based on the
consumers' detected locations. Rather than delivering an offer to be displayed on such
portable devices for display to a merchant as a means of redemption, the present
embodiments allow consumers to electronically accept the offers and have those offers be
associated with the consumers' credit cards or other payment systems. As with paper
coupons, this electronic acceptance and association with the consumers' payment system
also mitigates against possible fraudulent attempts to redeem invalid offers, such as by displaying a contrived or unauthorized offer screen to the merchants. The described
embodiments further may negate the need for the merchant to install additional
equipment, such as might be used if an accepted offer were to be electronically "beamed"
from the consumers' portable devices to the merchant POS terminal 102 or other
equipment at the merchant POS.
Another exemplary system would be for the delivery of promotional offers to cell
phones or PDAs to be made by a cell phone service provider (or other wireless
communications provider) to act as the list owner. The cell phone company would then
provide the list of consumer electronic contact addresses (e.g., cell phone numbers) and
credit card numbers to a matching agent, which in rum would build an offer. The offer
would then be delivered to the cell phones via instant messaging or some other means,
and the consumers could then "click" to accept the offer or take other action (e.g. press a
number key, vocalize an acceptance) to accept the offer and have it associated with the
consumers' payment systems.
Because the consumer has been freed from the necessity of printing out the
coupon or otherwise downloading it to a local device, the consumer 103 can simply
accept the offer and thereby associate it with the consumer's credit card or other payment
system. Also, because of the immediacy of storing coupon offers on the consumer's
payment system, as well as the trackability of where the offer has been clicked or
accepted, it is readily possible to make the offer time-adaptable. For example, the
consumer 103 might be in the vicinity of Retailer XYZ 120, and the consumer
accordingly might be given an offer for 25% off of purchases at that retailer made within 3 hours (or, as another example, the same day). The offer might decrease 5% in value
during the next time period (e.g., between 3 hours and 12 hours or during the next day),
and decrease another 5% in the next period, and so on.
When the capability of locating a consumer is coupled with the offering of time-
i triggered and time-sensitive offers, certain synergies emerge. For example, a consumer
103 might be "out on the town" on a Saturday night with their cell phone (see, e.g.,
FIGURE 10). Given the time and the consumer's location, the consumer 103 might
receive a real-time coupon offer on their cell phone (or PDA or similar device) for a
close-by eatery or nightclub 120. The offer might be good only for the evening, or it
> might be worth less at a later time or date. By accepting the offer, the consumer 103 may
accordingly associate the offer with their credit card, and the offer can then be readily
redeemed at the local area, while the consumer is still in that area. By this approach, not
only is the delivery, acceptance, and redemption of the coupon offer streamlined relative
to traditional coupon delivery method, but it also more effectively targets the market for
the paperless coupon offer relative to more traditional approaches.
To redeem his or her coupons, the consumers 103 visit the merchants 120 ~
traditional or online ~ connected to the network as shown in FIGURE 1. In this
embodiment, the consumer redeems his coupons by the use of an associated credit card
issued by the credit card issuer 130. The online or traditional merchant 120 would
communicate with the credit card issuing bank 130 whenever the consumers' payment
systems are presented to the merchants 120. At a traditional merchant, for instance, the credit cards would be run at the Point-Of-Sale ("POS") Terminal 122. The POS Terminals 122 would typically communicate through a secure connection to the credit
card mainframe 132. This secure connection may be through a security interface unit 125
provided at both ends of the connection between the merchant 120 and the credit card
bank 130. The connection between the retailer 120 and the credit card bank 130 could be
through the Internet or through traditional point-to-point communications, such as leased
or dial-up telecommunications data lines.
Although the functional block represented by the card issuer 130 is shown as a
single credit card mainframe at a single site, this broad function may be more specifically
implemented using at least two separate sites and/or computer systems. One site as an
example would be the acquiring or merchant servicing bank site, which would interface
with the merchant 120 receiving Authorization Requests and returning Approval Codes
through the security interface 125. The second site in the example would be the credit
card issuing bank, which would communicate with the acquiring bank computer system
to gather the transaction data and communicate with the credit card interface servers 108
in order to determine when to apply appropriate discounts to the consumers' credit card statement. Both the first and the second site are functionally encompassed within the
card issuer 130.
For example, the credit card approval and clearing operation may occur as follows.
The consumer would bring his associated credit card to the merchant 120 after the consumer has had electronic coupons stored in his coupon database 102. The consumer
would then give his card to the merchant employee, who would swipe the card through a
credit card reader associated with the POS Terminal 122 as is normally done in a credit card transaction. The merchant 120 would then communicate with the credit card
computer system 130 in order to seek an authorization code for the transaction from the
credit card computer system. The credit card computer system 130 may then
communicate with the marketer computer system 104 to determine whether the consumer
is entitled to a coupon discount according to that consumer's purchases at the merchant
130. It is also possible that the credit card system 130 would gather the necessary data
offline, e.g., separate from the regular credit card authorization process. The interface for
this coupon clearing process may alternatively be an entirely parallel network between
the merchant 120 and the credit card computer systems 130.
The consumer discount can be applied in a number of ways. One way is to
transmit the discount back to the POS Terminal 122 through the security interfaces 125 as
a part of the normal credit card approval process. A second way would be to apply the
discount to the monthly statement of the consumer in the credit card computer system
130. And a third way would be for the coupon discounts to be accumulated and
reimbursed to the consumer through the issuance of a check from either the credit card
system 130 or the marketer system 104.
There are also a number of ways by which coupon offers can be delivered to
consumers. FIGURE 2 provides an exemplary screen shot of what an email delivered
version of a coupon offer might look like. This illustrated offer is for 20% off of
purchases at Retailer XYZ. As in a normal email, there is a header section 202. This
section specifies the source of the coupon offer, the date, the person for whom the offer is intended, and the subject of the coupon offer. The screen image 200 shows the entire coupon offer, including the addressing section 202 and the main message window 204.
Within the main message window 204 is a clickable target 206 that allows the consumer
to select this offer for storing his or her coupon organizer/credit card. The offer 200 can
also provide useful information to the consumer such as the location of nearby stores
through the target 208 and/or an option for changing the consumer's preferences for
receiving emails from the marketer 104 via the clickable target 210.
FIGURE 3 shows a pop-up window 310 that could be presented to a consumer
after the consumer had clicked the target 206 to accept the coupon offer 200. In the
example shown here, the consumer does not presently have a coupon database 102
associated with the consumer's credit card, because in the pop-up window 310 the offer
is being described as the consumer's "first coupon." The pop-up window also provides
fields for the consumer's email address 312, first name 314, zip code 316, and password
318. It also provides options for whether the consumer desires to receive other
promotional offers from the marketer 104 through the indicated check boxes 320. The
clickable target 322 allows the consumer to submit his or her selections to the marketer
104 so that the accepted offer can be stored in a new or existing database 102.
FIGURE 4 shows a screen shot from a graphical user interface for the coupon
database 102. Shown in this graphical display are records of the coupon offers that may
be accepted by the consumer with whom the coupon database 102 is associated. The first
such record 402 shows the entry for the coupon offer 200 that has been discussed above.
Fields shown for this record includes the advertiser 404, a brief description of the offer
406, the expiration date 408, and merchant contact information 410. Also provided is a means to delete offers from the coupon database 102, which is provided by the
"DELETE" checkbox 412. The user interface 400 also includes items to assist the
consumer in navigating and organizing the contents of their coupon database. For
example, clickable targets 414 are provided to allow the consumer to search, for example,
by advertiser 404 or expiration date 408. Alternatively, the column headers for the
columns 404 through 410 could be clickable in order to sort on those fields. Also
provided are a number of coupon categories 416, which can allow the consumer to filter
down the many offers into more manageable groups.
FIGURE 5 illustrates a screen shot of a confirming email that may be sent to a
consumer upon successful redemption of one of his coupons. This confirmation email
500 is one of a number of types of email that may be sent to a consumer according to
their email preferences, which may be updated by clicking on the target 502 shown in the
email 500. Also provided are targets by which a consumer can forward coupon offers to
their friends through clickable target 504, add the coupon database link to their
"Favorites" through the clickable target 506, or be taken directly to their coupon database
through the target 508.
FIGURE 6 is a process flow diagram for the collection and redemption of virtual
coupons by consumers using their credit cards or other payment systems. At block 602 a
consumer's coupon database 102 is established. This database 102 can be set up in a
number of ways, such as by pre-enrolling a consumer using credit card, email, and other
consumer information provided by the list owner. Multiple consumers may be pre- enrolled at one time by using the information provided by the list owner. Alternatively, the consumer can subscribe directly, and in some instances this may occur before a
coupon offer has been sent to the consumer (such as described with respect to block
606)). The coupon database may have consumer profile information associated with it,
including information about the consumer's coupon preferences, such that targeted
coupon offers can be sent to the particular consumer.
In accordance with embodiments described in this application, at block 604 the
consumer's coupon database 102 is associated with one of the consumer's credit cards or
other payment system. This association may be at the marketer site 104 (which may store
the actual consumer credit card number or an encoded version thereof), it may be at the
credit card computer site 130 (which may store the consumer account number that is
associated with the consumer at the marketer 104), or the association may be through a
card-matching agent 830. The card-matching agent 830 (see FIGURES 8-10) may be
physically separate from both the marketer site 104 and the credit card computer site 130,
or, in those systems using the agent 830, it may be provided by a logically separate but
physically co-located item at one of those sites. The card-matching agent 830 provides
the advantage that the marketer 104 can send out coupon offers and process coupon
redemptions without having to be provided actual consumer credit card information.
Accordingly, the matching agent 830 can provide enhanced security for the coupon
transactions.
Still referring to FIGURE 6, at block 606 coupon offers are delivered and
presented to consumers 103. The means of presentment may be through mass emails
using a list owned by the marketer 104 or a list that is leased from a list owner 810. The list can be sent from the marketer 104 or the list owner 810. The offer can also be made
to cell phone, cable, or interactive television subscribers through messages sent to them,
in which case their service providers for their respective services may act as the list
owners 810, as they would have the consumer's electronic contact address and credit card
or other payment system information. As other alternatives to mass emailing, the coupon
offers can be presented and delivered to consumers 103 through web banner ads, possibly
based on the consumers 103 already having an account with the marketer 104, or also
possibly without the consumers 103 having such accounts. No matter the approach used
above, it may be desirable to provide for the sending of coupon offers to consumers not
registered with the marketer 104, allowing the consumers to register when they
electronically accept the coupon for storage in their coupon database 102.
Still referring to FIGURE 6, and in a more specific embodiment method is
described here such as might be employed with the system illustrated in the systems of
FIGURES 8-10 (discussed below). For this embodiment, the marketer 104 creates details
of an offer for the merchant/advertiser 120/820. Within block 606, the marketer 104
sends the coupon offer to a matching agent 830. The list owner also sends a list 810 of
associated email addresses 812 and credit card numbers 814 to the matching agent 830.
The matching agent 830 can, at this stage or in block 604, mass enroll the list with the
marketer 104, depending on business models and whether the list owner has permission
to mass enroll the list 810 under the prescribed conditions with its list members. Whether
or not the list 810 has been mass enrolled, the marketer 104 can then send to the list owner an "enabled offer," that may be characterized, for instance, by having embedded identification/validation numbers that will associate a particular offer with a particular
consumer. The validation numbers or other consumer identifier provides a measure of
security against fraud or coupon misuse. The list owner 810 in turn presents the enabled
offers to the consumers 103, who may receive the offers at their PCs 110, interactive TVs
109a, PDAs 109b, or cell phones 109c (see FIGURE 10). No matter the sources for the
validation numbers, consumer identifiers, or enabled offers, the coupon offers can be
presented to the consumers 103 by a number of different sources and through a number
of different media.
At block 608, and still referring to FIGURE 6, coupons that have been selected or
accepted by a consumer are stored in the consumer's coupon database 102. This storage
can be as a result of the consumer clicking an "I accept" target on received email or on a
banner ad or other coupon offer presented to the consumer, or the storage can be the
result of an automatic process by which coupons are automatically placed in the
consumer's coupon database 102 in accordance with the consumer's stored coupon
preferences.
As shown in block 610, the coupons that were stored in the consumer's coupon
database at block 608 can be redeemed by using the consumer's credit card that is
associated with the consumer's coupon database 102. The credit card may be used at a
"brick and mortar" or on-line merchant 120. Upon use of the credit card, the merchant
120 will send an Authorization Request ("AR") to the credit card company server 132
through security interface units 125. In such a transaction, typically the entity logically
referred to here as the credit card company server 132 is comprised of a credit clearing bank or acquiring bank computer system that communicates with the merchant 120, a
credit card issuing computer system that manages the cardholder/consumer accounts, and
a credit card association server that is associated with the particular credit card
association, such as Visa® or MasterCard®. These various servers all communicate in
order to clear the ARs and reconcile the cardholders' credit card statements. Once the AR
has been cleared, the credit card company server 132, which as discussed above
comprises the servers of one or more entities, will send an Approval Code ("AC") back to
the merchant 120 for the requested transaction. This transaction will also trigger the
redemption of qualifying purchases for which the consumer 103 has a stored credit card
offer, although there are be a number of possible methods by which this redemption can
be accomplished.
Still referring to the redemption block 610 of FIGURE 6, the redemption of the
coupon can be applied at the merchant POS terminal 122, it can be applied to the
consumer's credit card statement by the credit card mainframe 132, or it can be paid by a
separate check or credit be sent to the consumer 103. Using any method, the credit card
server 132 will communicate with the credit card interface server 108 at the marketer 104
to determine for a particular cardholder/consumer whether a particular purchase included
products for which the consumer had accepted and stored a coupon offer in the
consumer's coupon database 102. Normally, the AR/AC communications sent between a
merchant 120 and a credit card company server 132 do not include specific transaction
data about what particular items have been purchased. These communications typically
comprise just top-level transactional data such as the amount purchased and the cardholder identity. Should actual coupon clearing at the merchant POS 120 be desired,
however, it would be possible to embed specific transactional data in the AR and
particular redemption data in the AC, such that the coupon discount can be applied at the
POS. It is also possible to communicate over a separate, parallel communications
channel, such as the Internet or an intranet, or a Virtual Private Network ("VPN") to
separately request and apply a coupon discount between the merchant POS and the credit
card server 132 or a database server (such as credit card interface server 108 or virtual
document server 106 or another server) for the consumer database 102. It is still further
possible to communicate, as described above or using other means, the transaction details
including items purchased in order to separately reconcile qualifying purchases and to
apply the coupon discount to the consumer's credit card statement or otherwise provide a
separate credit or payment to the consumer for the redeemed coupons.
Referring now to FIGURE 7, an attribute file is associated with a coupon offer to
facilitate the filtering and storage of the virtual coupon offers in the consumers' coupon
databases. FIGURE 7 illustrates a data structure 730 describing an example of how
attribute information 740 can be set up and associated with a virtual coupon offer
information 741. Information contained within the attribute file 740, which is associated
with the VRCD data file 741, might include a merchant ID 742, offer or promotion ID
743, user ID 744, or other attributes 745. Other attributes might include merchant class, website URL, merchant address, map, and email information.
FIGURE 8 provides a block diagram for a system for the redemption of coupon
offers stored on a consumer's credit card. There are many different ways in which such a system can be configured, and the system of FIGURE 8 provides one such system.
Common to the embodiments disclosed in this application are an advertiser 820, which
may be synonymous with the merchant 120 or may be a separate entity with a direct or
indirect business relationship with the merchant 120. The advertiser 820 provides to a
marketing entity 104 a definition of an offer that it wishes to be made to a certain group.
The marketer 104 may have its own list for distribution or it may receive a list from a list
owner 810. In this embodiment, the consumers 103 are associated with credit cardholder
accounts. In this example, for instance, the list owner 810 may have a list of email
addresses 812 and credit card numbers 814 for each consumer 103.
In the embodiment of FIGURE 8, the actual credit card numbers are not provided
to the marketer 104, but instead are passed through a card-matching agent 830, which
may be an entity that is separate from the credit card company 130 or it may be a separate
function provided by the credit card company 130. The card-matching agent 830
provides the list 810 in this embodiment with encoded credit card numbers or consumer
identifiers, which the card-matching agent 830 can later use to identify redeemed offers.
Still referring to the embodiment of FIGURE 8, once the marketer 104 has
received the list of consumers 103 and has received a defined offer from the advertiser
820, the marketer 104 can provide these offers to the list 810 of consumers via email or
through other delivery means such as a web-based banner ad, interactive television ad,
wireless Personal Digital Assistant ("PDA") offer, cell phone offer, or through other
means. The consumer 103 can then accept the coupon offer by clicking on a clickable
button or other means provided in the offer. Upon accepting the offer, a message is sent from the consumer back to the marketer 104 and the offer can be saved at the consumer's
registered user website 840. The hardware at the marketer site 104 can be implemented
in number of ways. For example, a virtual document server 106 as shown in FIGURE 1
can be provided at the marketer site in order to email or otherwise deliver the coupon
offers to the consumer. This virtual document server 106 may also be configured to
receive the accepted coupon offers from the consumer devices 109, 110, store those
accepted offers in the consumer database 102, and reflect the consumer's accepted
coupon offers at the registered user website 840. In those instances where the consumer
is not already registered for a website 840 and/or a consumer database 102 with the
marketer 104, the consumer can be directed to register with the marketer 104 such as by
the method shown in FIGURE 3.
Referring further to FIGURE 8, once the accepted coupon offers are stored in the
consumer database 102 (see FIGURE 1), the marketer site 104 is preferably synchronized
with the credit card company 130 either directly or through the card-matching agent 830.
There are a number of different ways to configure the synchronization process between
the marketer 104 and the credit card company 130. In the embodiment of FIGURE 8, for
instance, once a coupon offer has been accepted and stored at the registered user website
840 and coupon database 102, a "coupon notice" is sent to the card-matching agent 830,
which may thereupon be prepared to redeem that accepted coupon offer when the
consumer/cardholder uses his credit card to make a qualified purchase at the merchant
120. Thus, when the consumer 103 makes his purchase at the merchant 120, the POS terminals 122 may send an AR to the credit card company 130. This transaction may immediately or later be cleared through the card-matching agent 830 to determine
whether a qualified purchase using an accepted coupon offer has been made. If so, the
card-matching agent 830 will apply a credit either to the consumer's credit card statement
according to the credit card mainframe server 132, or this credit may be transmitted back
to the merchant 120 through its POS terminal 122 so that the discount can be applied
directly at the Point-Of-Sale ("POS") terminal 122.
When checking specific transaction data against the consumer's coupon database
102, the POS 120 may communicate through the credit card site 130, or, as shown by the
double dashed lines connecting the two sites 120,830, it may communicate directly with
the matching agent 830. The POS 120 may also communicate in either instance directly
with the marketer 104. Thus, the coupon database 102 may be located at either the
marketer site 104 or the matching agent site 830, or may be at another location. The
transaction data from the POS can be compared to the stored accepted promotional offers
in the coupon database 102, and that transaction data may be fed directly from the POS
site 120 to the location of the coupon database 102 or it may go indirectly, through
another site such as the matching agent 830. When an accepted promotion offer is found
in the coupon database 102, a "redemption notice" may be sent to the card-matching
agent from the site, such as marketer 104, that is hosting the coupon database 102. In
those instances where the card-matching agent 830 maintains the coupon database 102
and receives the transaction data from the POS 120, however, the "coupon notice" and
"redemption notice" between the two sites may not be used. In some embodiments, on
the other hand, parallel databases may exist at the marketer site 104 and the card- matching agent site 830. In such instances, there still may be a synchronization process
between the two databases, even if no explicit "redemption notice" or "coupon notice" is
sent between them.
FIGURE 9 provides a block diagram or network diagram for a coupon
redemption system that is configured differently from the coupon redemption system of
FIGURE 8. In the embodiment of FIGURE 9, instead of the marketer 104 sending out
the coupon offers to the consumers 103, the list owner 810 performs this function. To
enable the list owner 810 to send out these coupon offers and to synchronize these offers
with the consumer credit cards and credit card companies 130 and with the particular
offers, the list owner 810 provides its list to the card-matching agent 830, as was done in
FIGURE 8. The card-matching agent 830 again provides this list with the encoded credit
card numbers or consumer identifiers to the marketer 104, which then associates the list
with offers and validation codes. The updated list, associated with promotional offers
and validation codes, is provided back to the card-matching agent 830, which then passes
this information on to the list owner 810. The list owner 810 delivers the promotional
offers to the consumers 109 using one of the methods described with respect to the
embodiment of FIGURE 8 or another method.
As before with respect to FIGURE 8, the consumer 103 can accept the offers made
to him or her, and in this instance that acceptance would cause a notification to be sent to
the registered user website 840 and coupon database 102 in order to store the offer in the
user website 840. As with the embodiment of FIGURE 8, the marketer 104 could then
send a coupon notice to the card-matching agent 830, which could remain in communication with the credit card company 130 to insure that the coupon offer discount
is applied to either the consumer's purchase at the merchant POS 120 or is applied to the
consumer's credit card statement.
FIGURE 10 illustrates and emphasizes that the systems and methods described
above can be used in networks other than Internet and/or traditional email delivery
networks 105. For example, as shown here coupon offers can be delivered to consumers
through interactive television networks, represented in FIGURE 10 by network hub 1010
and consumer device 109a or to PDAs or cell phones as shown by hub 1020 and
consumer devices 109b-c. The form of these coupon offers may be similar to those
illustrated in FIGURES 2-3, and user interfaces at the marketer 104 could be provided
similar to those shown in FIGURE 4. Confirmations can be made similar to the ones
shown in FIGURE 5. The user interfaces, however, need not be limited to the approaches
shown in these preceding figures. For example, with current cell-phone technology
and/or PDA technology, the displays provided on these devices are typically smaller than
would be provided in a computer terminal or interactive television set, and accordingly
reduced screens can be used. In some instances, the consumer communication devices
may not have display screens at all, and it would be possible to configure these offers to
be made and accepted by means other than visual displays. For example, voice response
systems could be used to make and receive the coupon offers to and from the consumers.
Such acceptance by key presses and/or vocalization can be applied to both cell-phone- based and land-based phone offers.
When employing the systems of the type shown in FIGURE TO, because of the proprietary nature of the networks through which these offers are made and received, the
coupon offers would typically be both made and received through an interactive media
server 1030 acting through the hubs 1010, 1020 of the proprietary networks. As before, a
card-matching agent 830 can be provided to translate credit card numbers to and from
consumer identification numbers or to otherwise encode or disguise the credit card
numbers from the marketer 104. The interactive media server 1030 may also in this
embodiment provide the web interface 840 whereby consumers can manage their virtual
coupons that have been accepted and stored in their coupon databases 102.
By accepting the coupon offers through their proprietary networks via the hubs
1010, 1020, these accepted coupon offers are stored in the consumers' databases 102,
whereupon the credit card interface server 108 can synchronize the accepted coupon
offers with the consumers' credit card accounts with the credit card company 130. The
card-matching agent 830 again can provide the translation between credit card numbers
and consumer identifiers or equipped credit card numbers through which the consumers
are known to the marketer 104.
Upon redemption of the coupon offer by the consumer 109 by the use of his
associated credit card at the merchant 120, the merchant 120 sends the transaction data to
the credit card company 130 and/or the matching agent 830. The matching agent 830, the
credit card company 130, or the credit card company through the matching agent 830 or
directly through the marketer 104, depending on how the system is set up, then matches
the transaction data to the consumer's credit card, whereupon the discount is either
applied directly at the merchant 120 or to the consumer's credit card statement. Although the various methods described herein have been described for
implementation in a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by
software, one of ordinary skill in the art would also recognize that such methods may be
carried out in hardware, in firmware, or in more specialized apparatuses constructed to
perform the methods. Further, as used herein, a "client" should be broadly construed to
mean any computer or component thereof directly or indirectly connected or connectable
in any known or later-developed manner to a computer network, such as the Internet. A
"client" should also be broadly construed to mean one who requests or gets the file, and
the "server" is the entity that downloads the file.
References to credit cards in the specific embodiments above should be
understood to refer broadly to other payments systems and methods such as debit cards,
electronic payment systems, automated billing systems, or other payment systems,
including other billing systems described in this application. "Coupons," "coupon
offers," and "promotional offers" should be broadly construed to include tickets, vouchers
purchased for value, and other items that are redeemable or otherwise have value, such as
frequent flyer miles or other "points" or "credits" that may be redeemable for reward
goods and/or services.
In all the above-described embodiments, the actual locations of the coupon
databases and the nature of the communications between different sites may be adapted
depending on system design considerations. For example, depending on the relative
locations of the coupon databases and the sites receiving transaction data from the POSs, it may not be necessary to have redemption notices and coupon notices sent. Further, depending on where offers are "built" from lists of electronic contact addressers and
advertiser information, it may not be necessary in some instances to send lists and offers
with validation codes and/or cardholder ID numbers among the list owner, card matching
agent, and marketer. Registered user websites may be provided for consumers to
maintain their coupon databases, but it not necessary to provide such websites. When
provided, the websites could be hosted by the marketer, card matching agent, list owner,
or other entity. The registered user website may be an interface to the coupon database or
to another database that may be synchronized with the coupon database.
Applicant intends that the claims shall not invoke the application of 35 U.S.C §
112, TJ 6 unless the claim is explicitly written in means-plus-step or means-plus-function
format.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:
1. A method of distributing promotional offers to consumers comprising:
a) creating a promotional offer;
b) establishing a list of electronic contact addresses for a plurality of
consumers;
c) distributing the promotional offer to the electronic contact addresses for the
plurality of consumers, wherein the promotional offer can be electronically accepted by
at least one of the plurality of consumers;
d) upon the electronic acceptance of the promotional offer by the at least one
consumer, placing the promotional offer in a coupon database associated with the at least
one consumer; and
e) establishing or maintaining an association of the at least one consumer's
coupon database with the at least one consumer's payment system.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one consumer's coupon database
is established or maintained at a marketer site.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one consumer's coupon database
s established or maintained at a matching agent site.
4. The method of claim 1 and further comprising establishing the at least one
consumer's coupon database associated with the at least one consumer's payment system
upon the at least one consumer's electronic acceptance of the promotional offer.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein to accept the promotional offer and place
the promotional offer in the coupon database requires that the at least one consumer
associate a payment system with the consumer's coupon database.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the coupon database was previously
existing when the promotional offer was to the plurality of consumers.
7. The method of claim 6 and further comprising associating the coupon
database with the at least one consumer's payment system upon the consumer's
acceptance of the promotional offer.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the payment system is selected from the
group consisting of: credit cards, debit cards, electronic payment accounts, consumer
billing systems, cell-phone-based electronic payment systems, and PDA-based electronic communication systems.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the form of distributing the promotional
offers is chosen from the group consisting of: emails, banner ads, interactive television, cell phones, satellite phones, land-based phones, PDA-based wireless devices, and
electronic kiosks.
10. The method of claim 1 and further comprising detecting the plurality of
consumers' locations.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein the promotional offer is distributed to at
least some of the detected consumers according to the consumers' detected locations.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the promotional offer is distributed to at
least some of the detected consumers according to the time of the consumers' detected
presence.
13. The method of claim 10 wherein the method of detecting the consumer's
location is selected from the group consisting of: use of a satellite-based positioning system; use of triangulation from land-based radio transmission; detection of which
transmission tower is communicating with a consumer's cell-based electronic device; and
detection of a communication hub communicating with a consumer's local-area-network-
based electronic device.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the times at which certain offers are made
to consumers are according to consumers' stored preferences associated with the
consumers' coupon databases.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein the times at which certain offers are made
to consumers are according to advertisers' preferences.
16. The method of claim 1 wherein the values of at least some of the
promotional offers diminish with time.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein the values diminish with time relative to
the times the offers were distributed.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein the values diminish with time relative to
the times the offers were accepted.
19. The method of claim 16 wherein the values of the promotional offers
diminish with time in steps shorter than a single day.
20. The method of claim 16 wherein the diminishing-value promotional offers
are made to consumers according to their geographic locations.
21. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the electronic contact
addresses are Internet addresses and wherein the distributing of the promotional offers is
at least in part via the Internet.
22. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the electronic contact
addresses are interactive television addresses and wherein the distributing of the
promotional offers is at least in part via interactive television.
23. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the electronic contact
addresses are cellular phone numbers and wherein the distributing of the promotional
offers is at least in part via cellular phone network communications.
24. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the electronic contact
addresses are satellite communication network addresses and wherein the distributing of
the promotional offers is at least in part via a satellite communication network.
25. A method of redeeming promotional offers comprising:
a) presenting a promotional offer to a plurality of consumers identified in a list
according to their electronic contact addresses, wherein the promotional offer is presented
to the consumers with a method of electronically accepting the promotional offer;
b) storing accepted promotional offer data in coupon databases that are
associated with payment systems of the consumers who accepted those offers; and c) redeeming the accepted promotional offer by crediting the consumers'
payment system accounts when the consumers' payment systems are used for the
transaction specified in the promotional offer.
26. The method of claim 25 wherein the list of electronic contact addresses and
associated payment system account numbers are provided from a list owner to a card-
matching agent which generates cardholder identifiers to identify the plurality of
consumers in lieu of their payment system account numbers.
27. The method of claim 26 wherein upon receipt of at least one consumer's
acceptance of the promotional offer, the list owner provides to the matching agent the
cardholder identifier for the at least one consumer.
28. The method of claim 27 wherein upon receipt of the cardholder identifier
and the promotional offer data, the matching agent stores the promotional offer data in
the coupon database associated with the at least one consumer.
29. The method of claim 28 wherein retailers provide transaction-specific
purchase information to the matching agent whereby the matching agent can determine
whether consumers' purchases comprise the redemption of the promotional offer.
30. The method of claim 26 wherein upon receipt of the at least one
consumer's acceptance of the promotional offer, the matching agent stores the
promotional offer data in the coupon database the associated with the at least on
consumer.
31. The method of claim 25 wherein at least some of the cardholder identifiers
are associated with the promotional offer.
32. The method of claim 25 wherein consumers' email addresses are associated
in the list of consumers with the consumers' payment system account numbers.
33. The method of claim 25 wherein the promotional offer is presented via an
electronic communication to at least one consumer and wherein the electronic
communication further comprises the consumer's cardholder identifier.
34. The method of claim 33 wherein the consumer electronically accepts the
offer by responding to the electronic communication.
35. The method of claim 33 wherein the consumer's acceptance includes
sending the consumer's cardholder identifier in an acceptance electronic message,
whereby the accepted promotional offer can be stored in the consumer's coupon database.
36. The method of claim 35 wherein a matching agent receives the consumer's
cardholder identifier in the acceptance electronic message and matches that cardholder
identifier with the consumer's payment system account.
37. The method of claim 25 wherein the coupon databases are established in a
coupon server.
38. The method of claim 37 wherein at least one consumer purchase is cleared
through a credit card server, and further comprising the credit card server communicating
with the coupon server to determine whether the at least one consumer has an accepted
promotional offer to be redeemed by the purchase.
39. The method of claim 38 wherein a redeemed promotional offer is applied at
the time of purchase.
40. The method of claim 38 wherein a redeemed promotional offer is applied to
the consumer's payment system account and reflected in the consumer's payment system
account statement.
41. The method of claim 40 and further comprising sending an email to the
consumer notifying of the successful redemption of the redeemed promotional offer.
42. The method of claim 40 and further comprising indicating the promotional
offer redemption in the consumers' respective coupon databases.
43. The method of claim 25 wherein the payment system is a credit card.
44. A method for delivery and acceptance of promotional offers:
a) establishing a consumer database list, wherein the database list comprises
consumer records and wherein each record comprises fields for an electronic message
address and an electronic payment system for individual consumers;
b) associating consumers with records in the database list; and
c) making promotional offers to a plurality of the consumers, wherein one of
the offers can only be accepted by a consumer through electronic registration of an
electronic delivery means for that consumer in the database list.
45. A method of distributing promotional offers to subscribers to interactive
television, the method comprising:
a) creating a promotional offer;
b) distributing the promotional offer to the subscribers according to their
established electronic contact addresses associated with the interactive television service,
wherein the promotional offer can be electronically accepted by at least one of the subscribers; c) upon electronic acceptance of the promotional offer, placing the accepted
promotional offer in a coupon database associated with the accepting subscriber; and
d) establishing or maintaining an association of the coupon database with the
accepting subscriber's payment system.
46. The method of claim 45 wherein the acceptance of the promotional offer is
made conditional upon an establishment by the accepting subscriber of a payment system
associated with the subscriber's interactive television account.
47. The method of claim 46 wherein the promotional offer is delivered over a
subscription interactive television channel.
48. The method of claim 47 wherein the subscription channel is a shopping
channel for which subscriber pays a separate fee.
49. The method of claim 48 wherein the separate fee is credited against
purchases made through the subscription-shopping channel.
50. A method of redeeming promotional offers by associating the promotional
offers with a consumer's payment system for redemption, the method comprising:
a) establishing a coupon database associated with the consumer; b) associating the coupon database with the consumer's payment system
account data at a credit card server;
c) storing promotional offers to be redeemed in the coupon database, the
promotional offers specifying conditions under which they can be redeemed;
d) redeeming at least one of the promotional offers to the consumer's payment
system account when the consumer purchases an item specified in the at least one
promotional offer.
51. The method of claim 50 wherein the promotional offer is applied in the
consumer's payment system account statement as a credit for the promotional offer
redemption.
52. The method of claim 51 wherein the promotional offer is applied to the
total purchase amount at the time that the consumer purchases the item.
53. The method of claim 50 wherein the promotional offer is a voucher that has
been purchased for value by the consumer.
54. The method of claim 50 wherein the promotional offers are automatically
stored in the coupon database according to a consumer interest profile.
55. The method of claim 50 wherein the item is purchased from an online
merchant.
56. The method of claim 50 wherein the item is purchased from a "brick and
mortar" store.
57. The method of claim 50 and further comprising establishing a personal
website for the consumer through which the consumer can view promotional offers stored
for redemption.
58. The method of claim 57 wherein the personal website further allows the
consumer to manage the consumer's promotional offers.
59. The method of claim 50 wherein the coupon database is established to be
accessed by a coupon server.
60. The method of claim 50 and further comprising presenting a promotional
offer to the consumer for the consumer to select for storage in the coupon database.
61. The method of claim 60 wherein the method of presenting the promotional
offer to the consumer is selected from the group consisting of: delivering the promotional
offer to the consumer through an email; displaying the promotional offer to the consumer as a banner website; displaying the promotional offer on an interactive television display;
delivering the promotional offer to the consumer's cell phone; delivering the promotional
offer to the consumer's satellite phone; and delivering the promotional offer to the
consumer's personal digital assistant.
62. The method of claim 50 wherein a coupon server is provided to
communicate with the credit card server and to provide information from the consumer's
coupon database to the credit card server.
PCT/CN2003/000850 2002-10-01 2003-10-08 Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-tv, wireless devices and other electronic means WO2004032004A1 (en)

Priority Applications (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU2003269672A AU2003269672A1 (en) 2002-10-01 2003-10-08 Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-tv, wireless devices and other electronic means
EP03750269A EP1554673A4 (en) 2002-10-01 2003-10-08 Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-tv, wireless devices and other electronic means
JP2004540453A JP2006514351A (en) 2002-10-01 2003-10-08 Distribution, organization and exchange of multiple virtual offerings from the Internet, interactive TV, multiple wireless devices and other electronic media

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US10/262,767 US7593862B2 (en) 1999-07-07 2002-10-01 Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-TV, wireless devices and other electronic means
US10/262,767 2002-10-01

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2004032004A1 true WO2004032004A1 (en) 2004-04-15

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ID=32068263

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US (7) US7593862B2 (en)
EP (1) EP1554673A4 (en)
JP (1) JP2006514351A (en)
CN (1) CN1525370A (en)
AU (1) AU2003269672A1 (en)
WO (1) WO2004032004A1 (en)

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JP2006514351A (en) 2006-04-27
US20070250380A1 (en) 2007-10-25
US8825522B2 (en) 2014-09-02
EP1554673A4 (en) 2005-12-07
US20110320257A1 (en) 2011-12-29
US20070136131A1 (en) 2007-06-14
US8036934B2 (en) 2011-10-11
US7593862B2 (en) 2009-09-22
AU2003269672A1 (en) 2004-04-23
US20140324566A1 (en) 2014-10-30
US20030028518A1 (en) 2003-02-06
US8244580B2 (en) 2012-08-14
US8140386B2 (en) 2012-03-20
CN1525370A (en) 2004-09-01
EP1554673A1 (en) 2005-07-20
US20120310721A1 (en) 2012-12-06
US7870021B2 (en) 2011-01-11

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