PROGRAM, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LINKING COMMUNITY PROGRAMS AND MERCHANTS IN A MARKETING PROGRAM

• US 20140379457A1
• Filed: 09/09/2014
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Edatanetworks Inc.
• Original Assignee: Edatanetworks Inc.
• Inventors: Tietzen, Terrance Patrick, Mackay, Ronald James, Bates, Matthew Arnold Macpherson
• Granted Patent: US 10,902,449 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0233 Method of redeeming a frequent usage reward
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search

Abstract

The present invention is a system, data access management utility and a method of generating links between local merchants and community programs, whereby the merchant may provide incentives to customers in relation to community programs. The present invention may track community programs, as well as both online and offline customer transactions between participants that make use of the incentive. The present invention may include as participants, customers, merchants, community organizations, intermediaries, and other groups or individuals. Participants may have participant identifiers, which may be linked to a payment source. Data may be collected about all participants, either expressly, or from offline or online transactions between participants utilizing a participant identifier, and said data may be stored in a data storage area. All data in the data storage area may be utilized by logic tool, which may provide information, such as details of consumer behaviour and analytic reporting. Matches between transactions and members and/or member activities may be identified by the system, and a level of certainty that the match is accurate may be determined.

Claims

1. A marketing system for promoting one or more merchants and the products and services of the one or more merchants in an inter-connected environment, comprising:

one or more data storage devices and at least one processor configured to;

receive or access data related to at least one of browsing activity and searching activity associated with a member of the environment;

receive data associated with a transaction conducted with a merchant, the data associated with the transaction including a transaction amount, and a payment identifier associated with a form of payment used in the transaction;

when the payment identifier is linked to the member, determine the transaction is associated with the member;

determine, at the at least one processor, a level of certainty that the transaction is linked to an activity associated with the member based on the data associated with the transaction and the data related to at least one of browsing activity and searching activity;

and based on the level of certainty, generating signals to cause redirection of a portion of the transaction amount an account associated with an intermediary.

2. The marketing system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to receive or access data regarding the member and the merchant, the data regarding at least one of the member and the merchant includes at least one of:

information provided during a sign-up process;

information provided based on activities of the one or members and the one or more merchants corresponding to the marketing program; and

information provided by a third party data source to the marketing system.

3. The marketing system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate one or more incentives based at least in part on the browsing activity and searching activity, at least one of the one or more incentives including at least one of the following:

a discount, a donation to a community program, a giveaway, a sweepstakes entry, and rewards.

4. The marketing system of claim 3, wherein a data mining tool and analytic mode are applied to determine the effectiveness of at least one of the one or more incentives.

5. The marketing system of claim 3, wherein one or more incentives are provided by cross-selling collaboration between at least two of the one or more merchants.

6. The marketing system of claim 3, wherein one or more incentives are provided as part of a cross-loyalty or cross-marketing program between at least two of the one or more merchants, or at least one of the one or more merchants and at least one intermediary.

7. The marketing system of claim 3, wherein the one or more incentives include a benefit to an intermediary that is a community program, wherein the one or more processors matches a location of the community program to a location of the one or more members to generate the one or more incentives.

8. The marketing system of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors are configured to access or receive data from third party sources, and said third party data includes information applicable to generation of the one or more incentives, including at least one of the following:

sales reports for third party merchants indicating sales at particular periods of time;

dates of events or holidays;

or present or past weather forecasts.

9. The marketing system of claim 1, wherein information for at least two of the one or more members is accessed from a third party data source in accordance with a boarding process, wherein the boarding process allows the third party data source to associate with the marketing system, whereby the at least two of the one or members are signed-up with the marketing program, and other information may be received by the marketing program at any time after the sign-up process.

10. The marketing system of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate information, lists, reviews, reports, or other documents or displays of analyzed data results.

11. The marketing system of claim 1, wherein one or more incentives may be generated based upon consumer behavioural results as indicated by the determined likelihood that the one or more transactions is the result of the search results provided to the user generated by the one or more processors for two or more users, said users include one or more members of the marketing system.

12. The marketing system of claim 1, wherein one or more incentives are generated based upon the determined likelihood the one or more transactions is the result of search results provided to a user that indicate behavioural results for the user, said one or more incentives being generated by the marketing system to be applicable to the user specifically.

13. The marketing system of claim 1, wherein a post-transaction survey is provided to the user after the one or more transactions to gather information regarding the transaction, said post-transaction survey including a question asking the user if the search results provided to the user resulted in at least one of the one or more transactions, whereby the relationship between the search results and at least one of the one or more transactions may be determined definitively.

14. The marketing system of claim 1, wherein the inter-connected environment is the Internet, an intranet or a networked environment.

15. A method for a marketing program, the method comprising:

receiving, at least one processor, data related to at least one of browsing activity and searching activity associated with a member of the marketing program;

receiving, at the at least one processor, data associated with a transaction conducted with a merchant, the data associated with the transaction including a transaction amount, and a payment identifier associated with a form of payment used in the transaction;

when the payment identifier is linked to the member, determining the transaction is associated with the member;

determining, at the at least one processor, a level of certainty that the transaction is linked to an activity associated with the member based on the data associated with the transaction and the data related to at least one of browsing activity and searching activity;

and based on the level of certainty, generating signals for redirecting a portion of the transaction amount an account associated with an intermediary.

16. The marketing program method of claim 15, comprising applying a benefit to a community program, said benefit being a donation to the community program.

17. The marketing program method of claim 16, comprising wherein the community program redirects the benefit to a third party beneficiary for an emergency, said third party beneficiary being one or more of the following:

another community program;

an emergency relief organization;

or a team for a specific emergency event, whereby the redirection of the benefit is communicated to a media outlet and thereby communicated to the population generally, and whereby goodwill is generated for the merchant providing the benefit to the community program that is redirected.

18. The marketing program method of claim 15, comprising generating an incentive based on the browsing and searching activities, the incentive being applied to provide a benefit to a member, said benefit being at least one of the following:

a discount, a donation to the community program, a giveaway, a sweepstakes entry, and rewards.

19. The marketing program method of claim 18, comprising communicating the incentive to one or more of the following:

a communication device of a participant of the marketing program;

a radio broadcaster;

a print media;

a television station;

a website; and

a search provider.

20. The marketing program method of claim 18, comprising accessing information from a remote data source and utilizing the remote data in the analysis to generate the future incentive suggestions.