SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MARKETING VEHICLES RESIDING ON A DEALERSHIP LOT
First Claim
1. A method of marketing vehicles residing on a dealership lot, said method comprising:
- operating a first computer having a display and a radio frequency (RF) network interface, said first computer being located at one of said vehicles, and said display being viewable from outside said one vehicle;
controlling a second computer, said second computer being in real time data communication with said first computer through said RF network interface;
forming, using said second computer, promotion presentation data configured to foster a sale of said one vehicle;
routing said promotion presentation data through said RF network interface to said first computer;
displaying, at said display of said first computer, said promotion presentation data.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic system (30) includes several computers (32, 34, 36, 40) in data communication with one another. An electronic window sticker computer (EWS) (32) resides at each vehicle (28) on a dealership lot (22). The EWS computers (32) communicate with the remainder of the system (30) through an RF network (54). A book-in process (78) and/or a lot manager process (146) form a VIN record 96 for a vehicle (28) to which an EWS (32) has been assigned. The VIN record (96) includes a robust set of promotion presentation data (74) that are presented at the EWS (32) using a plurality of screens (112). User inputs are collected at the EWS (32) and routed to the lot manager process (146). Updates to the promotion presentation data (74) may be made frequently, and some updates may be made automatically (204). The updates are reflected at the EWS (32) in real time.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method of marketing vehicles residing on a dealership lot, said method comprising:
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operating a first computer having a display and a radio frequency (RF) network interface, said first computer being located at one of said vehicles, and said display being viewable from outside said one vehicle; controlling a second computer, said second computer being in real time data communication with said first computer through said RF network interface; forming, using said second computer, promotion presentation data configured to foster a sale of said one vehicle; routing said promotion presentation data through said RF network interface to said first computer; displaying, at said display of said first computer, said promotion presentation data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A system for marketing vehicles residing on a dealership lot, said system comprising:
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a first computer having a display, an input device, and a radio frequency (RF) network interface, said first computer being located at one of said vehicles, and said display being viewable from outside said one vehicle; and a second computer, said second computer being in real time data communication with said first computer through said RF network interface, said second computer being configured to form promotion presentation data configured to foster a sale of said one vehicle; wherein, said promotion presentation data is routed through said RF network interface to said first computer, said promotion presentation data is partitioned into a plurality of display screens and displayed at said display of said first computer, user response data is collected from said user input device of said first computer, and said user response data is routed through said RF network interface. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A method of marketing vehicles residing on a dealership lot, said method comprising:
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operating a plurality of electronic window sticker (EWS) computers, wherein each EWS computer has a display, an input device, and a radio frequency (RF) network interface, and each EWS computer is located at a corresponding one of said vehicles so that said display of each EWS computer is viewable from outside said corresponding vehicle; controlling a second computer, said second computer being in real time data communication with each of said EWS computers through said RF network interfaces; forming, using said second computer, promotion presentation data configured to foster sale of said vehicles, said promotion presentation data including style data and data which are descriptive of said vehicles, wherein said data descriptive of said vehicles include vehicle price data and vehicle photographs; routing said promotion presentation data through said RF network interfaces to said EWS computers; displaying, at said displays of said EWS computers, said promotion presentation data partitioned into a plurality of display screens and a menu structure for navigating through said screens; collecting, at said EWS computers, interest-in-vehicle indicators from said user input devices of said EWS computers; routing said interest-in-vehicle indicators through said RF network interfaces; and responding to said interest-in-vehicle indicators in real time to foster sales of said vehicles.
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Specification