SOCIAL GROUP BUYING

• US 20130132220A1
• Filed: 08/24/2010
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Baum, Geoff
• Granted Patent: US 9,454,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• 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 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A group offer is provided to a first-level recipient that meets a set of criteria. Further, the group offer is activated upon a consumer participant threshold being met, the consumer participant threshold equaling a number of consumers. In addition, a social incentive structure is established that provides a reward to the first-level recipient if the first-level recipient shares the group offer with a second-level recipient that (i) is in a social circle associated with the first-level recipient and (ii) meets a set of qualifications.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

provide a group offer to a first-level recipient that meets a set of criteria;

activate the group offer upon a consumer participant threshold being met, the consumer participant threshold equaling a number of consumers; and

receive, from an offering merchant, a set of qualifications that includes a type of consumer with whom the offering merchant would like the first-level recipient to share the group offer;

provide the set of qualifications to the first-level recipient to enable the first-level recipient to determine whether or not to share the group offer with a second-level recipient; and

establish a social incentive structure that provides a reward to the first-level recipient based, at least in part, on determining that;

the first-level recipient shares the group offer with the second-level recipient;

the second-level recipient receiving the group offer from the first-level recipient is in a social circle associated with the first-level recipient; and

the second-level recipient meets the set of qualifications provided to the first-level recipient.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the social incentive structure also penalizes the first-level recipient for sharing the group offer with a different second-level recipient that is in the social circle associated with the first-level recipient, but does not meet the set of qualifications.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the social incentive structure includes an acceptance ratio that equals accepted offers to number of invites.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the social incentive structure includes a quality ratio that equals new customers invited by the first-level recipient that match a merchant'"'"'s customer attributes to total number of new customers invited by the first-level recipient.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program when executed on the computer is further caused to, upon the first-level recipient sharing the group offer with a second-level recipient that is in the social circle and meeting the set of qualifications, (i) generate a unique communication and a unique offer for the second-level recipient and (ii) store the unique communication and the unique offer in a database.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the computer readable program when executed on the computer is further caused to determine if the second-level recipient acted on the offer by looking up the unique offer in the database.

21. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the social incentive structure includes a sliding scale discount that increases and decreases based on a social incentive formula defined by the merchant.

22. The computer program product of claim 2, the penalty including reducing a discount to the first-level recipient below a baseline amount.

23. The computer program product of claim 1, the set of qualifications including a user profile, the user profile including a description of a type of consumer the offering merchant hopes to attract with the group offer.

3. (canceled)

8. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions;

providing a group offer to a first-level recipient that meets a set of criteria the group offer being provided to the first-level recipient upon a consumer participant threshold being met, the consumer participant threshold equaling a number of consumers;

receiving, from an offering merchant, a set of qualifications that includes a type of consumer with whom the offering merchant would like the first-level recipient to share the group offer;

providing the set of qualifications to the first-level recipient to enable the first-level recipient to determine whether or not to share the group offer with a second-level recipient; and

establishing a social incentive structure that provides a reward to the first-level recipient based, at least in part, on determining that;

the first-level recipient shares the group offer with the second-level recipient;

the second-level recipient receiving the group offer from the first-level recipient is in a social circle associated with the first-level recipient; and

the second-level recipient meets the set of qualifications provided to the first-level recipient.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising penalizing the first-level recipient for sharing the group offer with a different second-level recipient that is in the social circle associated with the first-level recipient, but does not meet the set of qualifications.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the social incentive structure includes an acceptance ratio that equals accepted offers to number of invites.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the social incentive structure includes a quality ratio that equals new customers invited by the first-level recipient that match a merchant'"'"'s customer attributes to total number of new customers invited by the first-level recipient.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising, upon the first-level recipient sharing the group offer with a second-level recipient that is in the social circle and meets the set of qualifications, (i) generating a unique communication and a unique offer for the second-level recipient and (ii) storing the unique communication and the unique offer in a database.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining if the second-level recipient acted on the offer by looking up the unique offer in the database.

10. (canceled)

15. A system comprising:

a server configured to;

provide a group offer to a first-level recipient that meets a set of criteria;

activate the group offer upon a consumer participant threshold being met;

receive, from an offering merchant, a set of qualifications that includes a type of consumer with whom the offering merchant would like the first-level recipient to share the group offer;

provide the set of qualifications to the first-level recipient to enable the first-level recipient to determine whether or not to share the group offer with a second-level recipient;

establish a social incentive structure that provides a reward to the first-level recipient based, at least in part, on determining that the first-level recipient shares the group offer with the second-level recipient that is in a social circle associated with the first-level recipient and the second-level recipient meets the set of qualifications provided to the first-level recipient; and

generate a unique e-mail and a unique offer for the second-level recipient, the consumer participant threshold equaling a number of consumers; and

a database that stores the unique e-mail and the unique offer.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the social incentive structure also penalizes the first-level recipient for sharing the group offer with a different second-level recipient that is in the social circle associated with the first-level recipient, but does not meet the set of qualifications.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the social incentive structure includes an acceptance ratio that equals accepted offers to number of invites.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the social incentive structure includes a quality ratio that equals new customers invited by the first-level recipient that match a merchant'"'"'s customer attributes to total number of new customers invited by the first-level recipient.

17. (canceled)

20. A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

provide a set of data to a first-level recipient that meets a set of criteria, the first-level recipient being a member of an online social network;

receive, from an offering merchant, a set of qualifications that includes a type of consumer with whom the offering merchant would like the first-level recipient to share the set of data;

provide the set of qualifications to the first-level recipient to enable the first-level recipient to determine whether or not to share the set of data with a second-level recipient; and

establish a social incentive structure that provides (i) a reward to the first-level recipient based, at least in part, on determining that the first-level recipient shares the set of data with the second-level recipient that is in the social network and the second-level recipient meets the set of qualifications provided to the first-level recipient, and provides (ii) a penalty to the first-level recipient if the first-level recipient shares the set of data with a different second-level recipient that is in the social network without meeting the set of qualifications.