Systems and methods for providing pre-point-of-sale incentive marketing

• US 20040049422A1
• Filed: 12/24/2002
• Published: 03/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Label$Dollars Corporation
• Original Assignee: Label$Dollars Corporation
• Inventors: Mortimer, Lawrence
• Application Number:
  US10/329,289
• Publication Number:
  US 20040049422A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/00 Printed matter of special format or style not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0238 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/42 for ticket printing or like apparatus , e.g. apparatus for dispensing of printed paper tickets or payment cards
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0036 Checkout procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0288 Labels or tickets consisting of more than one part, e.g. with address of sender or other reference on separate section to main label; Multi-copy labels

Abstract

A system and method for printing coupons at various specialty departments within a retail store at the time a product selection is made, but prior to the point-of-sale. The coupons preferably provide incentives for complementary goods based upon the selected product, and may also take into account shopping history or other factors relevant to a particular consumer. The coupons are provided on a rotating basis in preferred examples so that particular coupons are selected from a pool of available incentives, but each purchase instance may result in a different set of coupons being attached to the product.

Claims

1. A system for generating a printable discount coupon in a retail store comprising:

a plurality of terminals at specialty department locations, each terminal including a label printing mechanism, and having an interface for receiving information about a customer'"'"'s product selection;

an incentive datastore having data describing available incentives, the available incentives being associated with particular product selections; and

mechanisms within the terminals responsive to received information about a customer'"'"'s product selection to access the incentive datastore to obtain at least one incentive description associated with the customer'"'"'s product selection and print a coupon implementing the incentive using the label printing mechanism.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the coupon is printed integrally with a product identification/quantity/pricing label otherwise used by the specialty department to indicate specific information about the customer'"'"'s selected product.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the coupon implements an incentive to buy a product and/or service that complementary to the customer'"'"'s product selection.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the selected incentive comprises an incentive to buy a product and/or service that is different from the customer'"'"'s product selection.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the coupon is printed after a customer has selected a particular, specific product from the specialty department location and before the customer has completed a purchase transaction.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a communication network coupled to the plurality of terminals;

a central controller coupled to the communication network comprising data processing mechanisms and the incentive database.

7. A locally printable product label comprising:

a product information portion having information specifically relevant to a particular consumer selection printed thereon; and

a coupon having an incentive offer that is specifically relevant to the particular consumer selection.

8. The product label of claim 7 wherein the product information and coupon are printed after product selection but before point of sale.

9. A terminal for use at a specialty department in a retail environment, the terminal comprising:

a label printing mechanism;

an interface for receiving information about a customer'"'"'s product selection; and

coupon processes operable at the time of a customer'"'"'s product selection that are responsive to received information about a customer'"'"'s product selection to identify at least one incentive description associated with the customer'"'"'s product selection and print a coupon implementing the identified incentive using the label printing mechanism.

10. The terminal of claim 9 further comprising an incentive datastore stored within the terminal, the incentive datastore containing data describing available incentives, the available incentives being associated with particular product selections.

11. The terminal of claim 9 further comprising an interface for coupling to an external incentive database, the incentive datastore containing data describing available incentives, the available incentives being associated with particular product selections.

12. The terminal of claim 9 further comprising department-specific mechanisms for performing department specific functions independent of the coupon processes.

13. Software for generating a coupon in response to a consumer product selection comprising:

product selection processes for identifying information about a specific customer product selection, the information selected from the group consisting of product type, name, brand, quantity, grade, price per unit, UPC, weight, source, and shelf life;

coupon selection processes for identifying one or more coupon offers associated with the information identified by the product selection processes; and

printing processes for printing a product label comprising both information about the specific product selection and a printed representation of the coupon offer.

14. A method for implementing a marketing incentive program comprising:

within a retail environment, after a product selection has been made but before a product purchase has been completed, providing an incentive coupon based upon the product selection but for goods and/or services different from that of the product selection.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

charging one or more manufacturers an amount based on the number of coupons provided;

providing the retailer a first share of revenue generated by charging the manufactures, while providing a marketing entity that provides the incentive coupon a second share of the new revenue.

16. The method of claim 14 comprising:

charging one or more manufacturers an amount based on the number of coupons provided;

retaining all of the revenue generated by charging the one or more manufacturers in a marketing entity that provides the incentive coupon; and

subsidizing label costs incurred by the retailer using revenue retained by the marketing entity.