Coupon delivery system

• US 6,076,068 A
• Filed: 09/12/1996
• Issued: 06/13/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Catalina Marketing Corporation
• Original Assignee: AD Response Micromarketing Corporation
• Inventors: DeLapa, James P., Willman, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US08/713,205
• Time in Patent Office: 1,370 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 235/383, 382/139, 382/100, 364/479.01, 186/52
• US Class Current: 705/14.26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0237 at kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/42 for ticket printing or like apparatus , e.g. apparatus for dispensing of printed paper tickets or payment cards

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and apparatus for generating coupons to provide discounts for purchases includes providing a computer-based kiosk at a retail establishment such as a grocery store. A user identification of a household is received at the kiosk. The kiosk outputs a series of targeted coupons which have been assigned to the individual household on the basis of at least one attribute of that household. Images of coupons may be formatted "on the fly" from parameters set forth in a coupon record. The system may further include an enhancement system which provides tools for enhancing the coupon offer data by designating particular offers as either a targeted coupon offer assigned to individual households as a function of purchases by that household or a mandatory coupon which is assigned to substantially all households. The kiosk may additionally print personalized messages by substituting for a keyword a value derived from an attribute of the identified household and outputting the graphic image of the personalized message.

Claims

1. A retail establishment discount coupon generating system, comprising:

a targeting system which assigns coupons to individual households as a function of purchases by each household and generates extract file containing coupon offer definition for substantially all assigned coupons, wherein said coupon offer definition includes an offer description, texts, bar code data and a discount value;

a delivery system which processes the extract file from said targeting system into coupon offer data for particular household which is retrievable by a remote device and stores the coupon offer data for a plurality of households on a particular storage device; and

a kiosk positioned at an entry area of a retail establishment including at least a user identification device and an output device wherein said kiosk retrieves data from said delivery system coupon offer data for coupons assigned to the household identified with said identification device and outputs coupons assigned to identified household solely in response to identification of a user; and

wherein said delivery system includes an enhancement system which provides tools for enhancing the coupon offer data by designating particular coupon offers as one of a targeted coupon offer assigned to individual households as a function of purchases by that household and a mandatory coupon which is assigned to substantially all households.

2. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said delivery system includes a coupon offer database and a household identification database.

3. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow particular coupon offers to be designated default coupons which are assigned to households when the number of targeted coupons is fewer than a particular level.

4. The coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow default coupons to be assigned to households that do not have targeted coupons assigned to them.

5. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow an operator to enable and disable coupon offers.

6. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow an operator to compose a plurality of printable messages.

7. The discount coupon generating system in claim 6 wherein particular messages are provided to particular households as a function of household attributes.

8. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow particular coupon offers to be designated mandatory coupons which are assigned to all households.

9. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to designate particular coupon offers as triggered offers which are deliverable to a household only if the household indicates a wish to received the triggered coupon.

10. The coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to provide a valid date range to each coupon offer.

11. The coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to enable and disable individual coupon offers.

12. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said targeting system assigns coupons as a function of accumulated purchases of each household.

13. The coupon generating system in claim 12 wherein said targeting system assigns coupons as a function of which decile a household'"'"'s accumulated purchases falls.

14. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said targeting system is an RMS system.

15. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein the delivery system encodes each coupon offer in a manner that a coupon image can be formatted for printing with a printer at the retail establishment.

16. The discount coupon generating system in claim 15 wherein said delivery system encodes each coupon offer with a plurality of variable-size offer statement fields.

17. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said extract file is a printable file.

18. A retail establishment discount coupon generating system, comprising:

a targeting and delivery system which assigns coupons to individual households as a function of purchases by each household including coupon offer definition for substantially all assigned coupons, wherein said coupon offer definition includes an offer description, text, bar code data and a discount value;

said targeting and delivery system processes the assigned coupons into coupon offer data for particular households which is retrievable by a remote device and stores the coupon offer data for a plurality of households on a particular storage device;

a kiosk positioned at an entry area of a retail establishment including at least a user identification device and an output device wherein said kiosk retrieves data from said targeting and delivery system coupon offer data for coupons assigned to the household identified with said identification device and outputs coupons assigned to the identified household in response to identification of a user; and

wherein said targeting and delivery system includes an enhancement system which provides tools for enhancing the coupon offer data by designating particular coupon offers as one of a targeted coupon offer assigned to individual households as a function of purchases by that household and a mandatory coupon which is assigned to substantially all households.

19. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow particular coupon offers to be designated default coupons which are assigned to households when the number of targeted coupons is fewer than a particular level.

20. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow an operator to compose a plurality of printable messages.

21. The discount coupon generating system in claim 20 wherein particular messages are provided to particular households as a function of household attributes.

22. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to designate particular coupon offers as triggered offers which are deliverable to a household only if the household indicates a wish to received the triggered coupon.

23. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said targeting and delivery system assigns coupons as a function of accumulated purchases of each household.

24. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow default coupons to be assigned to households that do not have targeted coupons assigned to them.

25. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow an operator to enable and disable coupon offers.

26. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to provide a valid date range to each coupon offer.

27. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to enable and disable individual coupon offers.

28. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said targeting and delivery system assigns coupons as a function of accumulated purchases of each household.

29. The discount coupon generating system in claim 28 wherein said targeting and delivery system assigns coupons as a function of which decile a household'"'"'s accumulated purchases falls.

30. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said targeting and delivery system is an RMS system.

31. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said targeting and delivery system encodes each coupon offer in a manner that a coupon image can be formatted for printing with a printer at the retail establishment.

32. The discount coupon generating system in claim 31 wherein said targeting and delivery system encodes each coupon offer with a plurality of variable-size offer statement fields.

33. The discount coupon generating system in claim 18 wherein said targeting and delivery system includes a coupon offer database and a household identification database.