Dynamic time-of-purchasing-decision incentive system and method

• US 7,555,444 B1
• Filed: 02/05/2002
• Issued: 06/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: James D. Wilson
• Original Assignee: James D. Wilson
• Inventors: Wilson, Kristin Knauer, Wilson, James Dennis
• Primary Examiner(s): Stamber; Eric W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bekerman; Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/071,537
• Time in Patent Office: 2,702 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14
• 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 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements

Abstract

A system and method that provides suppliers or sellers with a competitive opportunity to influence consumers at the precise moment a purchasing decision is being made. A consumer using a personal wireless device (110), which has an integrated bar code scanner (120), scans the bar code of a product in a store. The device, using wireless communication (420), sends the scanned product information and a consumer ID to a processing application (430). The processing application (430) sends a profile of the consumer'"'"'s past shopping behavior, the scanned product information and other data to each interested supplier'"'"'s competitive incentive offer engine (470). Each supplier'"'"'s incentive engine determines the optimal incentive to offer and returns this data to the processing application (430) where the incentives are collectively sent back to the consumer'"'"'s device (110) using wireless communication (421). The device displays the competing incentives and the consumer selects one or more of the incentives presented and repeats this process throughout the store. Upon checkout, a bar code identifying the store and point of sale register is scanned and the incentives are redeemed by scanning them into the store'"'"'s point of sale register like conventional printed coupons via a display (240) on the device that dynamically renders standard coupon bar codes. The redeemed incentives are then sent from the device to the processing application using wireless communication (422) where they are reconciled and the store is given credit for the redeemed values.

Claims

1. A system for delivering shopping incentives individually customized to influence each customer by using products currently being considered by the customer and the customer'"'"'s past shopping behavior metrics to encourage the purchase of products having machine readable codes where said incentives are generated by a plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines each receiving data about the product being considered and the consumer'"'"'s past shopping behavior metrics to enable the targeted customization of each incentive said engine will generate to meet the manufacturer'"'"'s objectives, and where the incentives are presented to the customer at the time a purchase decision is being made, said system comprising:

a. a wireless device having a scanning means usable by the shopper to read machine readable codes;

b. a computer readable medium storing a processing application that accesses stored shopper data relating to determining a customer behavior customized shopping incentive for the shopper wherein said stored shopper data is comprised of demographic information and past shopping behavior metrics for each product class as derived from the item first scanned while shopping within the product class on a shopping trip, the product class incentives offered on said shopping trip, the product class incentives selected to be redeemed on said shopping trip, and the product class incentives declined on said shopping trip;

c. said wireless device having a first communication means for communicating the machine readable code and stored shopper data to said processing application;

d. one or more computer readable mediums storing a plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines having manufacturer controlled logic of a computer implemented process that creates a customized shopping incentive determined by combining the stored shopper data received from said processing application with the manufacturer'"'"'s internal concerns including at least marketing budget and internal market share objectives;

e. said processing application having a second communication means for communicating said data relating to determining a customized shopping incentive to the plurality of incentive offer engines;

f. each of the plurality of incentive offer engines having a third communication means for communicating the customized shopping incentives to said processing application;

g. said processing application having a fourth communication means for communicating the customized shopping incentives to said wireless device;

h. said wireless device having a user interface usable by the shopper to select the incentives to be redeemed;

i. said wireless device having a fifth communication means for communicating said customized shopping incentives to be redeemed to a point of sale system; and

j. said wireless device having a sixth communication means for communicating said customized shopping incentives to be redeemed to said processing application.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said scanning means comprises a bar code scanner and said machine readable codes are selected from the group consisting of universal product code bar codes, one dimensional bar codes, two dimensional bar codes, reduced space symbology, and composite symbology.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said first communication means, said fourth communication means, and said sixth communication means employ wireless communication methods as selected from the group consisting of cellular communications and radio frequency communications.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said second communication means, and said third communication means employ computer connections selected from the group consisting of local area network, wide area network, the internet, online network, direct modem, cellular communications and radio frequency communications.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said fifth communication means comprises a display that dynamically renders bar codes and is scannable by the (a) bar code reader of the point of sale system.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said fifth communication means comprises a wireless communication with the point of sale system employing short range wireless methods selected from the group consisting of radio frequency and infrared.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said wireless device further comprises global positioning system circuitry.

8. A method for delivering shopping incentives individually customized to influence each customer by using products currently being considered by the customer and the customer'"'"'s past shopping behavior metrics to encourage the purchase of products having machine readable codes where said incentives are generated by a plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines each receiving data about the product being considered and the consumer'"'"'s past shopping behavior metrics that enable the targeted customization of each incentive said engine will generate to meet the manufacturer'"'"'s objectives, and where the incentives are presented to the customer at the time a purchase decision is being made, said method comprising the steps of:

a. providing a wireless device having a scanning means usable by the shopper;

b. reading a machine readable code by the wireless device;

c. providing a processing application accessing stored shopper data relating to determining a customer behavior customized shopping incentive for the shopper wherein said stored shopper data is comprised of demographic information and past shopping behavior metrics for each product class as derived from the item first scanned while shopping within the product class on a shopping trip, the product class incentives offered on said shopping trip, the product class incentives selected to be redeemed on said shopping trip, and the product class incentives declined on said shopping trip;

d. communicating the machine readable code and stored shopper data to said processing application from said wireless device;

e. evaluating said machine readable code and stored shopper data to determine a consumer influence profile by said processing application;

f. providing a plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines each having manufacturer controlled logic of a computer implemented process that creates a dynamically-customized shopping incentive determined by combining the consumer influence profile received from said processing application with the manufacturer'"'"'s internal concerns including at least marketing budget and internal market share objectives;

g. communicating said consumer influence profile to said plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines from said processing application;

h. determining a dynamically-customized shopping incentive for said shopper by each of said independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines;

i. communicating said dynamically-customized shopping incentives to said processing application from said plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines;

j. communicating said dynamically-customized shopping incentives to said wireless device from said processing application;

k. selecting said dynamically-customized shopping incentives to be redeemed by the shopper;

l. communicating the selected dynamically-customized shopping incentives to be redeemed to a point of sale system from said wireless device; and

m. communicating the selected dynamically-customized shopping incentives to be redeemed to said processing application from said wireless device.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said step of communicating the machine readable code and stored shopper data to said processing application from said wireless device is performed by wireless communication means.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein said step of communicating said stored shopper data including data that comprises a consumer influence profile to said plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines from said processing application is performed by the processing application connected to each of the incentive offer engines via a connection selected from the group consisting of local area network, wide area network, the internet, online network, direct modem, cellular communications and radio frequency communications.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein said step of communicating said dynamicaliy-customized shopping incentives to said processing application from said plurality of independently competing manufacturer controlled dynamic incentive offer engines is performed by each of the competitive incentive offer engines connected to the processing application via a connection selected from the group consisting of local area network, wide area network, the internet, online network, direct modem, cellular communications and radio frequency communications.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein said step of communicating said dynamically-customized shopping incentive to said wireless device from said processing application is performed by wireless communication means.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein said step of communicating said selected dynamically-customized shopping incentive to a point of sale system from said wireless device is accomplished by dynamically rendering and displaying bar codes on the wireless device which are then read by the bar code scanner of the point of sale system.

14. The method according to claim 8, wherein said step of communicating said selected dynamically-customized shopping incentive to a point of sale system from said wireless device is accomplished with the point of sale system via wireless communication means.

15. The method according to claim 8, wherein said step of communicating said selected dynamically-customized shopping incentives to be redeemed to said processing application from said wireless device is accomplished with the processing application via wireless communication means.