CENTRALIZED ESTABLISHMENT-BASED TRACKING AND MESSAGING SERVICE
First Claim
1. A method of providing a centralized establishment-based tracking and messaging service, the method comprising:
- associating a unique establishment identifier with each of a plurality of physical establishments;
receiving at least one electronic attendance message from each of a plurality of portable computing devices, each electronic attendance message conveying a unique establishment identifier and a unique user identifier, each electronic attendance message indicating that a user associated with the unique user identifier is currently in attendance within a physical establishment associated with the unique establishment identifier;
storing, in a attendance database, current patronage data for each of a plurality of physical establishments, the current patronage data for each physical establishment including an indication of which of a plurality of individual users are identified as currently being in attendance within the physical establishment; and
sending at least one establishment-specific message to at least one portable computing device, the at least one establishment-specific message including content relating to a particular physical establishment of the plurality of physical establishments, the at least one establishment-specific message being sent to the at least one portable computing device in response to a message received from the at least one portable computing device that includes an establishment identifier associated with the particular physical establishment.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system is provided to track customer patronage within each of a plurality of physical establishments such as restaurants, bars, and retail stores, and enable real-time establishment-specific messages to be sent directly to the portable computing devices of current and prior patrons. A centralized server that is configured to receive electronic attendance messages that indicate when a particular user is in attendance within a particular establishment and maintain an attendance database that includes current and historical patronage data. The server also executes an automated targeted messaging process by which establishment-specific messages are be sent to portable computing devices of users based upon their current and/or historical patronage. The server may also access a personal profile database that stores demographic characteristics of users. Using such personal profile data, highly targeted messaging is enabled in which establishment-specific messages are sent to users with dependence upon one or more demographic characteristics.
150 Citations
49 Claims
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1. A method of providing a centralized establishment-based tracking and messaging service, the method comprising:
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associating a unique establishment identifier with each of a plurality of physical establishments;
receiving at least one electronic attendance message from each of a plurality of portable computing devices, each electronic attendance message conveying a unique establishment identifier and a unique user identifier, each electronic attendance message indicating that a user associated with the unique user identifier is currently in attendance within a physical establishment associated with the unique establishment identifier;
storing, in a attendance database, current patronage data for each of a plurality of physical establishments, the current patronage data for each physical establishment including an indication of which of a plurality of individual users are identified as currently being in attendance within the physical establishment; and
sending at least one establishment-specific message to at least one portable computing device, the at least one establishment-specific message including content relating to a particular physical establishment of the plurality of physical establishments, the at least one establishment-specific message being sent to the at least one portable computing device in response to a message received from the at least one portable computing device that includes an establishment identifier associated with the particular physical establishment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of providing a centralized establishment-based tracking and messaging service comprising:
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associating a unique establishment identifier with each of a plurality of physical establishments;
receiving at least one electronic attendance message from each of a plurality of portable computing devices, each electronic attendance message conveying a unique establishment identifier and a unique user identifier, each electronic attendance message indicating that a particular user associated with the unique user identifier is then currently in attendance within a physical establishment associated with the unique establishment identifier;
storing historical patronage data for each of a plurality of physical establishments, the historical patronage data for each establishment including a history of user attendance within the establishment over a prior period of time;
selecting using an automated software process, at least one portable computing device from the plurality of portable computing devices, the selecting being performed based at least in part upon the historical patronage data indicating that a user of the at least one portable computing device was previously in attendance within a particular physical establishment at least once during the prior period of time; and
sending at least one establishment-specific message to at least one portable computing device, the at least one establishment-specific message including content relating to the particular physical establishment. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A centralized establishment-based tracking and messaging system comprising:
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an attendance database for storing patronage data for each of a plurality of physical establishments, each establishments being associated with a unique establishment identifier;
a promotional message database, the promotional message database comprising a plurality of promotional messages that are each relationally associated with at least one physical establishment and at least one demographic characteristic;
a personal profile database for storing personal profile data for each of a plurality of users, the personal profile data for each user including at least one demographic characteristic associated with that user, each user associated with a unique user identifier;
one or more processors in processing communication with the attendance database, the promotional message database, and the personal profile database, the one or more processors executing routines operative to receive at least one electronic attendance message from each of a plurality of portable computing devices, each electronic attendance message conveying an unique establishment identifier and a unique user identifier, each electronic attendance message indicating that a user associated with the unique user identifier is currently in attendance within a physical establishment associated with the unique establishment identifier, update the attendance database based at least in part upon one or more received electronic attendance messages, the updating including the recording an indication that at least one user was in attendance within at least one establishment, and send a particular promotional message to the portable computing device of a particular user, the particular user being associated with at least one received electronic attendance message, the particular promotional message being selected from among a plurality of promotional messages within the promotional message database based at least in part upon a demographic characteristic associated with the particular user in the personal profile database matching a demographic characteristic associated with the particular promotional message in the promotional message database. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49)
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Specification