Internet-based method of and system for managing, distributing and serving consumer product related information to consumers in physical and electronic streams of commerce

• US 20060011716A1
• Filed: 05/03/2005
• Published: 01/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomas J. Perkowski
• Original Assignee: IPF Incorporated
• Inventors: Perkowski, Thomas J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation

Abstract

A novel Internet-based consumer product information system and method for use in retail shopping environments, wherein each Web-enabled bar code driven consumer product information kiosk deployed therewithin embodies e-mail messaging capabilities which enable consumers to automatically save and record the URLs of CPI-related Web documents within the message field of a preformatted e-mail message that is transmitted from a retailer-operated e-mail server, to a remote e-mail address specified by the consumer within the retail shopping environment. One or more central e-mail servers are used to collect copies of e-mail documents (and records thereof) transmitted from the Web/e-mail enabled kiosks within each retail shopping environments, for consumer and demographic information analysis, compilation, and storage within RDBMSs that are made accessible to retailers and manufacturers alike for use in product marketing, sales forecasting, customer intelligence, and like operations which enable more effective marketing of consumer products and services in both physical and electronic forms of commerce.

Claims

1. An Internet-based consumer product brand information management and communication system for use within the enterprise of a manufacturer of consumer products, said Internet-based consumer product brand information management and communication system comprising:

a central relational database management system (RDBMS) for storing and managing

(1) a plurality of universal product numbers (UPNs) assigned to a plurality of UPN-indexed consumer products manufactured by said manufacturer and registered with said central RDBMS by said manufacturer and/or its agent,

(2) a trademark (TM) symbolically linked to each said UPN,

(3) a product descriptor (PD) symbolically linked to each said UPN, and

(4) one or more uniform resource locators (URLs) symbolically linked to each said UPN, each said URL specifying the location of one consumer product brand information resource located on the Internet and related to one of said plurality of UPN-indexed consumer products registered with said central RDBMS;

wherein said central RDBMS maintains a UPN/TM/PD/URL data link record for each UPN-indexed consumer product registered with said central RDBMS;

said central RDBMS being operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, and storing and managing said UPN/TM/PD/URL data link records maintained for each said UPN-indexed consumer product registered with said central RDBMS;

a first Internet-based information server operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, for hosting and serving the plurality of consumer product brand information resources associated with each said UPN-indexed consumer product registered within said central RDBMS; and

a first Internet-enabled database server operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet and also to said central RDBMS, for receiving and servicing requests made by an Internet-enabled client computer operated by a consumer, for consumer product brand information resources on the Internet about at least one of said plurality of UPN-indexed consumer products registered with said central RDBMS;

a second Internet-enabled information server operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, for storing a Consumer Product Information Request (CPIR) enabling Servlet encoded with the UPN of each said consumer product registered within said central RDBMS;

a third Internet-enabled information server operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, for serving a Web page having HTML code, within which a CPIR-enabling Servlet tag associated with said CPIR-enabling Servlet is embedded;

said Internet-enabled client computer having a Web browser program for producing a first Web-browser enabled graphical user interface (GUI) for displaying said Web page with said CPIR-enabling Servlet tag embedded therein;

wherein, when said consumer clicks on said CPIR-enabling Servlet tag embedded within said Web page,

(1) said CPIR-enabling Servlet associated with said CPIR-enabling Servlet tag is automatically executed on said Internet, and a request for URLs relating to the UPN-indexed consumer product is automatically carried out against said first Internet-enabled database server operably connected to said central RDBMS; and

(2) in response to said request, said CPIR-enabling Servlet automatically generates a second Web-browser enabled graphical user interface (GUI) on said Internet-enabled client computer, for displaying said URLs accessed from said central RDBMS for access and use by said consumer.

2. The Internet-based consumer product brand information management and communication system of claim 1, wherein said CPIR-enabling Servlet tag is embedded within an image of a consumer product in said Web page, and wherein said second Web-browser enabled GUI functions as a cyber-kiosk for accessing and delivering consumer product brand information at points of presence on the World Wide Web (WWW).

3. The Internet-based consumer product brand information management and delivery system of claim 1, which further comprises a Web-based client computer for use by a brand management team member of said manufacturer so as to access said central RDBMS by way of the Internet, and remotely manage the URLs symbolically linked to each said UPN/TM/PD data string record stored within said central RDBMS.

4. The Internet-based consumer product brand information management and delivery system of claim 1, wherein said brand-building consumer product information resources comprise rich-media information resources hosted on the Internet.