System for facilitating production of variable offer communications
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A method of facilitating production of a set of offer communications containing different product-related information for different individual persons, the method comprising:
- with a computer system, automatically;
(a) selecting product-related information for each person of a set of persons, wherein;
(i) the product-related information selected for some of the persons concerns different products than the product-related information selected for others of the persons, and(ii) said selecting uses data stored in computer-accessible storage, the data including (A) personal data related to the persons of the set of persons, (B) product data related to products in a set of possible products, and (C) decision criteria specifying how to select appropriate product-related information based on a characteristic in the personal data; and
(b) generating electronic communication data defining a set of human-readable communications, the communications being separately directed to the persons and containing respective offers, wherein;
(i) the electronic communication data is formatted to allow automatic production of the communications of the set of communications via an output device,(ii) the respective offers contain a common portion and a variable portion,(iii) the common portion is common to the offers in all communications of the set of communications,(iv) the variable portion for some of the communications is different than for others of the communications, and(v) the variable portion contains the respective product-related information selected for the respective persons.
3 Assignments
Litigations
3 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method use client information to automatically select products appropriate for the client. According to one aspect of the invention, client information, information about the products, ancillary data, and decision criteria pertaining to selection from among the products are stored in a storage device Decision-making logic circuitry use the stored data to select the products. An output device prepares a client communication identifying the selected products and incorporates a portion of the client information and a portion of the product information into the client communication.
171 Citations
58 Claims
-
1. A method of facilitating production of a set of offer communications containing different product-related information for different individual persons, the method comprising:
with a computer system, automatically; (a) selecting product-related information for each person of a set of persons, wherein; (i) the product-related information selected for some of the persons concerns different products than the product-related information selected for others of the persons, and (ii) said selecting uses data stored in computer-accessible storage, the data including (A) personal data related to the persons of the set of persons, (B) product data related to products in a set of possible products, and (C) decision criteria specifying how to select appropriate product-related information based on a characteristic in the personal data; and (b) generating electronic communication data defining a set of human-readable communications, the communications being separately directed to the persons and containing respective offers, wherein; (i) the electronic communication data is formatted to allow automatic production of the communications of the set of communications via an output device, (ii) the respective offers contain a common portion and a variable portion, (iii) the common portion is common to the offers in all communications of the set of communications, (iv) the variable portion for some of the communications is different than for others of the communications, and (v) the variable portion contains the respective product-related information selected for the respective persons. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
25. An apparatus for facilitating production of a set of offer communications containing different product-related information for different individual persons, the apparatus comprising:
a computer system structured and programmed to automatically; (a) select product-related information for each person of a set of persons, wherein; (i) the product-related information selected for some of the persons concerns different products than the product-related information selected for others of the persons, and (ii) said selecting uses data stored in computer-accessible storage, the data including (A) personal data related to the persons of the set of persons, (B) product data related to a set of possible products, and (C) decision criteria specifying how to select appropriate product-related information based on a characteristic in the personal data; and (b) generate electronic communication data defining a set of human-readable communications, the communications being separately directed to the persons and containing respective offers, wherein; (i) the communication data is formatted to allow automatic production of the communications of the set of communications via an output device, (ii) the respective offers contain a common portion and a variable portion, (iii) the common portion is common to the offers in all communications of the set of communications, (iv) the variable portion for some of the communications is different than for others of the communications, and (v) the variable portion contains the respective product-related information selected for the respective persons. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
-
52. A computerized apparatus for facilitating production of a set of offer communications containing different product-related information for different individual persons, the computerized apparatus comprising:
-
(a) an electronic storage device holding data including (i) personal data related to the persons of the set of persons, and (ii) product data related to the products of a set of possible products; (b) a decision module, comprising either or both of a computer program or logic circuitry, and implementing decision criteria specifying how to select appropriate product-related information based on a characteristic of the personal data; and (c) a computer processor structured and programmed to automatically; (i) access the data in the electronic storage device and control the logic circuitry to cause the apparatus to select product-related information for each person of a set of persons, wherein the product-related information selected for some of the persons concerns different products than the product-related information selected for others of the persons; and (ii) generate electronic communication data defining a set of human-readable communications, the communications being separately directed to the persons and containing respective offers, wherein; (A) the communication data is formatted to allow automatic production of the communications of the set of communications via an output device, (B) the respective offers contain a common portion and a variable portion, (C) the common portion is common to the offers in all communications of the set of communications, (D) the variable portion for some of the communications is different than for others of the communications, and (E) the variable portion contains the respective product-related information selected for the respective persons. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
-
Specification