System and method for compounded marketing

• US 20050004837A1
• Filed: 01/22/2004
• Published: 01/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharenet, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sharenet, Inc.
• Inventors: Rosenberg, Harry, Glisic, Radoj, Sweeney, Duane, Hopkinson, Stephanie
• Application Number:
  US10/763,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20050004837A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.160
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

A system and method to facilitate computer-based commerce is presented. The system may including a module to facilitate communicating a vendor offering to a user if the offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering. The acceptable categories may be stored in user profiles, a user profile being updated when the user chooses to add or remove an interest category. When a vendor offering is received, the offering is categorized and stored in an offerings database. The vendor offering is then matched with a category in the user profile When the vendor offering is communicated to the user, the user'"'"'s address or the user'"'"'s identity is not revealed to the vendor. If a user chooses to propagate a vendor offering to another user, the user may be entitled to a reward. The reward may be designated to the user or to a third party. A spam control module may also be provided to identify spam complaints and to take actions in response to the spam complaints.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate computer-based commerce, the system including:

an offering dispatch module to facilitate communicating a provider offering to a user if the offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering; and

a rewards module to reward the user if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering to a second user.

2. The system of claim 1, including:

a user profile monitor to maintain a user profile, the user profile including one or more user selections from a plurality of categories, each selection associated with an area of interest;

a vendor communication module to detect receipt of the provider offering; and

an offerings monitor in communication with the provider communication module to identify the offering as associated with an offering category and to store the offering in an offerings database.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the communicating of the provider offering to the user being without revealing the user'"'"'s contact information or the user'"'"'s identity to the provider.

4. The system of claim 2, including a user communication module in communication with the user profile monitor to receive a selection from the user and to store the selection in the user profile, wherein the selection includes one or more of adding a category and removing a category.

5. The system of claim 4, including an intelligent agent to:

identify a related category associated with the selection of the at least one category;

identify a product associated with the related category; and

publish the associated product to the user.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein intelligent agent being to invite the user to select the related category to be included in the user profile, responsive to identifying the user as being interested in the associated product.

7. The system of claim 2, including a statistics generator to automatically generate a value associated with a number of user profiles identified as including the offering category.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the user profile is independent from the user'"'"'s communication service provider.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein the offering dispatch module is to:

detect a change to the user profile,

identify the change as an additional category in the user profile,

identify a new interest offering in the offerings database, the new interest offering associated with the additional category in the user profile, and

facilitate communicating the new interest offering to the user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the reward criteria includes one or more events resulting from the user propagating the provider offering to the second user, the one or more events selected from a group including:

receiving a completed survey from the second user;

receiving an indication of a purchase by the second user;

receiving an indication of a click through by the second user; and

receiving a testimonial from the second user.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the reward includes one or more items selected from a group including a credit value, one or more points, and a monetary value.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the reward being designated to the user or a third party.

13. The system of claim 1, including a spam control module in communication with the offerings monitor to receive a spam complaint, to identify a user associated with the spam complaint, and to take an action in response to the spam complaint.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the awarding of the reward to the user is responsive to:

receiving a completed survey from the second user;

receiving an indication of a purchase by the second user;

receiving an indication of a click through by the second user; and

receiving a testimonial from the second user.

24. The method of claim 13, wherein the awarding of the reward to the user includes awarding to the user one or more items selected from a group including a credit value, one or more points, and a monetary value.

25. The method of claim 13, wherein the awarding of the reward to the user includes awarding the reward to a third party, the third party being designated by the user.

26. The method of claim 13, including:

detecting a spam complaint from the user;

identifying a provider associated with the spam complaint; and

taking an action in response to the spam complaint.

14. A method to facilitate computer-based commerce, the method including:

communicating a provider offering to a user if the provider offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering; and

awarding a reward to the user if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the communicating of the provider offering to the user includes:

receiving from the user a selection of at least one category from a plurality of categories, the at least one category associated with an area of interest;

storing the selection of the at least one category in a user profile;

detecting receipt of the provider offering;

identifying the provider offering as associated with an offering category; and

storing the provider offering in an offerings database.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the communicating of the provider offering to the user being without revealing the user'"'"'s contact information or the user'"'"'s identity to the provider.

17. The method of claim 15, including:

identifying a related category associated with the selection of the at least one category; and

identifying a product associated with the related category; and

publishing the associated product to the user.

18. The system of claim 17, including inviting the user to select the related category to be included in the user profile, responsive to identifying the user as being interested in the associated product.

19. The method of claim 15, including automatically generating a value associated with a number of user profiles identified as including a specific category.

20. The method of claim 15, including maintaining the user profile independent from the user'"'"'s communication service provider.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the communicating of the provider offering to the user includes:

detecting a change to the user profile,

identifying the change as an additional category in the user profile,

identifying a new interest offering in the offerings database, the new interest offering associated with the additional category in the user profile, and

communicating the new interest offering to the user.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the awarding of the reward to the user includes:

identifying the provider offering as a propagated offering; and

updating the propagated offering with the offering data stored in the offerings database.

27. A method to facilitate computer-based commerce, the method including:

means for communicating a provider offering to a user if the provider offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering; and

means for awarding a reward to the user if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering to a second user.