Offer delivery system

• US 8,620,740 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2006
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bergh, Christopher P., Bauer, Michael S., Michon, Sidra, Miloushev, Zack, Furbish, Kevin, Evett, Charles, Erman, Gregory, Mandel, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US11/549,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150334A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,633 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.1, 705/14.25, 705/14.35
• US Class Current: 705/14.35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

An offer delivery system provides a mechanism for coordinating presentation of offers to customers that may originate from multiple different sources and that may be delivered to the customers over different channels. The systems makes use of rules to prioritize, select, and time the delivery of offers to any particular customer, allocate limited resources in the channels to deliver offers to a set of customers, and provide mechanisms for users or their agents to limit the delivery of offers, for example, by their frequency or type.

Claims

1. A computer-controlled method for managing and distributing sets of offer data comprising:

preparing sets of offer data characterizing a plurality of offers, each set of offer data associated with a corresponding targeted individual and one of a plurality of channels for presenting corresponding, associated sets of offer data to targeted individuals;

selecting by a computer one or more offers from the sets of offer data to present to the individuals associated with those sets of offer data, the selection based on a rule-based engine executed by the computer the rule-based engine executing offer data processing rules, the offer data processing rules comprising a set of time based rules including a direct rule that immediately instantiates offers based on an offer campaign, a triggered rule that instantiates offers based on the occurrence of particular conditions, and a staged rule that instantiates offers based on user interaction with previous offers;

selecting one of these time based rules to determine which offers from the sets of offer data can be sent to the individuals;

executing the selected time based rules to determine the selected offers; and

presenting the selected offers to the associated individuals over the associated ones of the plurality of channels.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting from the sets of offer data includes

prioritizing offers for individuals, and selecting offers according to their priorities.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting from the sets of offer data includes:

allocating capacity of the plurality of channels to the selected offers according to a capacity associated with each of the channels.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein presenting the selected offers includes:

accepting information from individuals and limiting presentation of the offers to individuals according to accepted information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the accepted information characterizes acceptable timing of presentation of offers to the individuals, and limiting presentation of offers includes scheduling presentation of offers to the individuals according to the acceptable timing.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein preparing the sets of offer data characterizing the offers includes preparing data characterizing conditions under which said offers are to be presented.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein preparing the sets of offer data

characterizing the offers includes preparing data characterizing the target groups associated with said offers.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein preparing the sets of offer data characterizing the offers includes preparing data characterizing information to be presented with the offers.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

tracking activities of the individuals to whom the offers were presented; and

generating statistics related an effectiveness of the offers.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

tracking activities of the individuals to whom the offers were presented; and

presenting a sequence of related offers to those individuals based on their tracked activities.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein preparing the sets of offer data characterizing the offers includes, for at least some of the offers, a first user preparing data characterizing a class of offers, passing the data characterizing the class of offers to a second user, and the second user preparing additional data characterizing the offer.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the prepared sets of offer data in a shared storage, and wherein selecting from the sets of offer data is performed in a distributed manner in which separate computers access the shared storage.

13. A computer-controlled method for managing and distributing sets of offer data comprising:

preparing sets of offer data characterizing a plurality of offers, each set of offer data associated with a corresponding targeted individual and one of a plurality of channels for presenting sets of offer data to targeted individuals;

selecting by one or more computers, one or more offers from the sets of offer data to present to the individuals associated with those sets of offer data, including;

prioritizing sets of offer data for particular individuals, and selecting offers according to the priorities,

allocating capacity of the plurality of channels to the selected offers according to a capacity associated with each of the channels,

accepting information from individuals and limiting presentation of the offers according to said accepted information,

executing by a computer system a rule-based engine that executes offer data processing rules, the rules comprising a set of time based rules including a direct rule that immediately instantiates offers based on an offer campaign, a triggered rule that instantiates offers based on the occurrence of particular conditions, and a staged rule that instantiates offers based on user interaction with previous offers;

selecting one of these time based rules to determine which offers can be sent to each of the individuals; and

presenting the selected offers to the associated individuals over the associated ones of the plurality of channels.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprises:

tracking activities of the individuals to whom the offers were presented; and

presenting a sequence of related offers to those individuals based on their tracked activities.

15. A computerized offer management system, the computerized system comprising:

an offer design component for preparing sets of offer data characterizing a plurality of offers, each set of offer data associated with a corresponding target group of individuals; and

a delivery component for selecting and presenting one or more offers from the sets of offer data, to the individuals in the corresponding target groups, with the selection based on a rule-based engine that executes offer data processing rules, the rules comprising execution of at least one time based rule that is selected from a set of time based rules that includes a direct rule that immediately instantiates offers based on an offer campaign, a triggered rule that instantiates offers based on the occurrence of particular conditions, and a staged rule that instantiates offers based on user interaction with previous offers, the delivery component limiting presentation of offers to individuals in the corresponding targets groups.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprises:

a capacity allocation component that allocates the plurality of channels to the selected offers, according to a capacity associated with each of the channels.

20. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions to cause the processor to:

allocate capacity of the plurality of channels to the selected offers according to a capacity associated with each of the channels.

17. An offer management system comprising:

a processor;

memory;

a computer storage medium comprising a computer program product comprising instructions for causing the processor to;

prepare sets of offer data characterizing a plurality of offers, each set of offer data associated with a corresponding targeted individual and one of a plurality of channels for presenting sets of offer data to targeted individuals;

determine a selection of one or more offers from the sets of offer data for presenting to the individuals associated with those sets of offer data,

execute by the processor offer data processing rules, at least one of the rules comprising a time based rule, with the time based rule selected from a set of time based rules including a direct rule that immediately instantiates offers based on an offer campaign, a triggered rule that instantiates offers based on the occurrence of particular conditions, and a staged rule that instantiates offers based on user interaction with previous offers;

selecting of one of the time based rules to determine which offers can be sent to each of those individuals; and

cause the selected offers to be presented to the associated individuals over the associated ones of the plurality of channels.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions to cause the processor to:

allocate capacity of the plurality of channels to the selected offers according to a capacity associated with each of the channels.

19. A computer program product tangibly stored on computer-readable storage media comprising instructions for causing a computer system to:

prepare sets of offer data characterizing a plurality of offers, each set of offer data associated with a corresponding targeted individual and one of a plurality of channels for presenting sets of offer data to targeted individuals;

receive by one or more computer systems a selection of one or more offers from the sets of offer data to present to the individuals associated with those sets of offer data, the selection based on a rule-based engine executed by the computer system that executes offer data processing rules, the rules comprising a set of time based rules including a direct rule that immediately instantiates offers based on an offer campaign, a triggered rule that instantiates offers based on the occurrence of particular conditions, and a staged rule that instantiates offers based on user interaction with previous offers;

receive by one or more computer systems a selection of one of these time based rules to determine which sets of offer data can be sent to each of those individuals; and

cause the selected offers to be presented to the associated individuals over the associated ones of the plurality of channels.