Determining the relevance of offers

• US 20050038893A1
• Filed: 08/11/2003
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Graham, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,458,033 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Offers are targeted to consumers by comparing offer profiles and consumer profiles. Offer profiles are created by analyzing the cumulative content of communications associated with consumers who respond to the offers. Consumer profiles are created by analyzing the cumulative content of communications associated with a user of an electronic communications system. An offer may be selected to be sent to a user based on the relative similarity between the user'"'"'s consumer profile and the offer profile.

Claims

1. A method of determining the relevance of offers to consumers, comprising:

a) providing a plurality of offer profiles, each of the offer profiles associated with an offer and based at least in part on the content of at least one communication unrelated to the offer;

b) providing a plurality of consumer profiles, each of the consumer profiles associated with a consumer and based on the content of at least one communication associated with the consumer; and

c) determining the relevance of one of the offers to one of the consumers by comparing the offer profile associated with that offer to the consumer profile associated with that consumer.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, prior to step a), sending the offers to at least one consumer.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one communication is associated with the at least one consumer.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising, prior to step a), receiving information about a response of one of the consumers to one of the offers.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising basing the offer profile at least in part on the information received about the response of one of the consumers to one of the offers.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising weighting the at least one communication unrelated to the offer based on the information received about the response of one of the consumers to one of the offers.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the offers comprises an advertisement.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one of the communications unrelated to the offer comprises an electronic communication.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the electronic communication comprises at least one of an email message, an instant message, or voice.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the communications associated with the consumer comprises an electronic communication.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the electronic communication comprises at least one of an electronic mail message, an instant message, or voice.

12. A system for determining the relevance of offers to users of an electronic communications system, comprising:

a) a first profiler for determining an offer profile for an offer based at least in part on the content of at least one communication unrelated to the offer;

b) a second profiler for determining a consumer profile for a user of the electronic communications system, the consumer profile based at least in part on the content of electronic communications associated with the user of the electronic communications system; and

c) a comparison engine for comparing the offer profile to the consumer profile to determine the relevance of the offer to the user.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising a delivery engine for delivering one or more offers to the users of the electronic communications system.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising a receiver for receiving information about a response by a user of the electronic communications system to the one or more offers delivered to the user of the electronic communications system.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the first profiler for determining an offer profile assigns a weight to a communication unrelated to the offer based on the information about a response by a user of the electronic communications system to the one or more offers delivered to the user of the electronic communications system.

16. The system of claim 12 further comprising a database server for storing at least one of the offer, the offer profile, the consumer profile, the information about a response by a user of the electronic communications system to the one or more offers delivered to the user of the electronic communications system, and the electronic communication.

17. The system of claim 12 further comprising a communications server for facilitating communications among the users of the electronic communications system.

18. The system of claim 12 wherein the first and second profilers are implemented as one software component.

19. A method of creating an offer profile, comprising:

a) associating with an offer at least one consumer communication unrelated to the offer; and

b) creating a profile for the offer based at least in part on the content of the at least one consumer communication unrelated to the offer.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the offer comprises an advertisement.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising, prior to step a), sending the offer to at least one consumer.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the at least one consumer communication is associated with the at least one consumer.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising, prior to step a), receiving information about a response to the offer by a consumer.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising basing the offer profile at least in part on the information received about a response to the offer by a consumer.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising weighting the at least one consumer communication unrelated to the offer based on the information received about a response to the offer by a consumer.

26. A method of creating a consumer profile, comprising:

a) assigning communications between two or more consumers to at least one of the two or more consumers; and

b) creating a consumer profile for at least one of the two or more consumers based at least in part on the content of the communications assigned to the at least one of the two or more consumers.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the communications between two or more consumers are electronic communications.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the electronic communications comprise at least one of an electronic mail message, an instant message, or voice.