Coupon delivery system

• US 6,954,732 B1
• Filed: 12/21/1999
• Issued: 10/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Catalina Marketing Corporation
• Original Assignee: AD Response Micromarketing Corporation
• Inventors: DeLapa, James P., Willman, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US09/468,698
• Time in Patent Office: 2,121 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/10, 705/1, 705/26, 705/27, 235/375, 283/56, 283/74
• US Class Current: 705/14.35
• 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 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• 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: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

A retail establishment discount coupon generating system for use with a chain made up of a plurality of retail establishments includes a targeting and delivery system which may assign coupons to individual households as a function of purchases by each household and a kiosk. The kiosk may be positioned at an entry area of a retail establishment and include at least a user identification device and an output device. The kiosk retrieves data from the targeting and delivery system for coupons assigned to the individual household and outputs coupons assigned to the individual household in response to identification of a user. The targeting and delivery system includes an enhancement function which provides tools for enhancing the coupon offer data. This includes tools for enhancing the coupon offers including the ability to select particular coupon offers for dispensing by particular retail establishments. This allows an operator to select different coupon offers for dispensing at different retail establishments.

Claims

1. A retail establishment discount coupon generating system, adapted for use with a chain comprising a plurality of retail establishments, said coupon generating system comprising:

a generating and delivery system which generates discount coupon offers and delivers said coupon offers to a plurality of different retail establishments, said coupon offers comprising an offer description and a discount value;

wherein said generating and delivery system including an enhancement function which provides tools for enhancing said coupon offers including selecting particular ones of said coupon offers for dispensing by particular one or ones of said retail establishments and not by other one or ones of said retail establishments; and

dispensers at said retail establishments dispensing coupon offers selected by said tools for dispensing at the retail establishments at which the respective dispensers are located, whereby an operator can select different coupon offers for dispensing at different retail establishments, wherein said coupon offers include targeted coupons that are assigned to individual households as a function of at least one attribute of each household, wherein the discount value is variable among said targeted coupons and targeted coupons having different discount values are assigned to individual households at least in part as a function of said at least one attribute of each household.

2. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said dispensers comprise kiosks including printers for printing said coupon offers.

3. The discount coupon generating system in claim 2 wherein said generating and delivery system additionally generates messages for displaying to users and wherein said kiosks include displays for displaying said messages.

4. The discount coupon generating system in claim 2 wherein said kiosks are positioned at an entry area of the retail establishments in which they are located.

5. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said coupon offers include mandatory coupons that are assigned to substantially all households.

6. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said targeted coupons are assigned to individual households as a function of purchases by each household.

7. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said targeted coupons are assigned to individual households as a function of accumulated purchases of each household.

8. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said coupon offers include default coupons that are assigned to households when the number of targeted coupons is fewer than a particular level.

9. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said coupon offers include default coupons that are assigned to households that do not have targeted coupons assigned to them.

10. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for enhancing said coupon offers including establishing batches of said coupon offers.

11. The discount coupon generating system in claim 10 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting particular coupon offers from a batch for dispensing by the dispensers located at particular one or ones of said retail establishments and not by dispensers located at other one or ones of said retail establishments.

12. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for enabling and disabling particular ones of said coupon offers.

13. The discount coupon generating system in claim 12 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting ones of said coupon offers for enabling at particular one or ones of said retail establishments.

14. The discount coupon generating system in claim 12 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting ones of said coupon offers for disabling at particular one or ones of said retail establishments.

15. The discount coupon generating system in claim 1 wherein said dispensers examine which coupon offers are available for dispensing at the associated retail establishment and dispense at least some of said coupon offers available for dispensing.

16. The discount coupon generating system in claim 15 wherein said dispensers include user identification devices and wherein said dispensers examine which coupon offers are available for dispensing in response to identification of users with said user identification devices.

18. The discount coupon generating system in claim 4 wherein said kiosks include printers for printing said at least one of coupon offers and messages.

19. The discount coupon generating system in claim 4 wherein said kiosks include displays for displaying said messages.

20. The discount coupon generating system in claim 4 wherein said kiosks are positioned at an entry area of the retail establishments in which they are located.

21. The discount coupon generating system in claim 4 wherein said items include mandatory coupons that are assigned to substantially all households.

17. A retail establishment discount coupon generating system, adapted for use with a chain comprising a plurality of retail establishments, said coupon generating system comprising:

a targeting and delivery system which assigns items selected from the group consisting of discount coupon offers and messages and delivers said items to a plurality of different retail establishments, wherein said items are assigned to individual households by said targeting and delivery system as a function of at least one attribute of each household, said discount coupon offers comprising an offer description and a discount value;

wherein said targeting and delivery system including an enhancement function which provides tools for enhancing said items including selecting particular ones of said items for dispensing by particular one or ones of said retail establishments and not by other one or ones of said retail establishments; and

kiosks at said retail establishments dispensing items selected by said tools for dispensing at the retail establishments at which the respective kiosks are located, whereby an operator can select different items for dispensing at different retail establishments,

wherein the discount value is variable among said discount coupon offers and discount coupon offers having different discount values are assigned to individual households at least in part as a function of said at least one attribute of each household.

22. The discount coupon generating system in claim 17 wherein said items are assigned to individual households as a function of purchases by each household.

23. The discount coupon generating system in claim 22 wherein said items are assigned to individual households as a function of accumulated purchases of each household.

24. The discount coupon generating system in claim 17 wherein said items include default coupons that are assigned to households when the number of coupon offers is fewer than a particular level.

25. The discount coupon generating system in claim 17 wherein said items include default coupons that are assigned to households that do not have coupon offers assigned to them.

26. The discount coupon generating system in claim 17 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for enhancing said items including establishing batches of said items.

27. The discount coupon generating system in claim 26 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting particular items from a batch for dispensing by the dispensers located at particular one or ones of said retail establishments and not by dispensers located at other one or ones of said retail establishments.

28. The discount coupon generating system in claim 17 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for enabling and disabling particular ones of said items.

29. The discount coupon generating system in claim 28 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting ones of said items for enabling at particular one or ones of said retail establishments.

30. The discount coupon generating system in claim 28 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting ones of said items for disabling at particular one or ones of said retail establishments.

31. The discount coupon generating system in claim 17 wherein said kiosks examine which items are available for dispensing at the associated retail establishment and dispense at least some of said items available for dispensing.

32. The discount coupon generating system in claim 17 wherein said kiosks include user identification devices and wherein said dispensers examine which items are available for dispensing in response to identification of users with said user identification devices.

33. A retail establishment discount coupon generating system, adapted for use with a chain comprising a plurality of retail establishments, said coupon generating system comprising:

a targeting and delivery system which assigns coupons to individual households as a function of at least one attribute of 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;

kiosks positioned at an entry area of retail establishments including at least user identification devices and output devices wherein said kiosk retrieves 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 function which provides tools for enhancing the coupon offer data by selecting particular ones of said coupon offers for dispensing by particular one or ones of said retail establishments and not by other one or ones of said retail establishments, whereby an operator can select different coupon offers for dispensing at different retail establishments,

wherein the discount value is variable among said targeted coupons and targeted coupons having different discount values are assigned to individual households at least in part as a function of said at least one attribute of each household.

34. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said enhancement function 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.

35. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said enhancement system provides tools to allow an operator to compose a plurality of printable messages.

36. The discount coupon generating system in claim 35 wherein particular messages are provided to particular households as a function of the at least one attribute of each household.

37. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said enhancement function 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.

38. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said targeted coupons are assigned to individual households as a function of purchases by each household.

39. The discount coupon generating system in claim 38 wherein said targeting and delivery system assigns coupons as a function of accumulated purchases of each household.

40. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said enhancement function provides tools to allow default coupons to be assigned to households that do not have targeted coupons assigned to them.

41. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said enhancement function provides tools to allow an operator to enable and disable coupon offers.

42. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said enhancement function provides tools to provide a valid date range to each coupon offer.

43. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said enhancement function provides tools to enable and disable individual coupon offers.

44. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said targeting and delivery system assigns coupons as a function of accumulated purchases of each household.

45. The discount coupon generating system in claim 44 wherein said targeting and delivery system assigns coupons as a function of which decile a household'"'"'s accumulated purchases falls.

46. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said targeting and delivery system includes a targeting system of the type marketed by RMS Corporation.

47. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 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.

48. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said targeting and delivery system encodes each coupon offer with a plurality of variable-size offer statement fields.

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

50. The discount coupon generating system in claim 49 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting ones of said coupon offers for enabling at particular one or ones of said retail establishments.

51. The discount coupon generating system in claim 49 wherein said enhancement function provides tools for selecting ones of said coupon offers for disabling at particular one or ones of said retail establishments.

52. The discount coupon generating system in claim 33 wherein said kiosks examine which coupon offers are available for dispensing at the associated retail establishment and dispense at least some of said coupon offers available for dispensing.