Serious intent mechanism and method

• US 20020052780A1
• Filed: 05/23/2001
• Published: 05/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: BuyerLeverage, Inovia Telecoms Limited
• Original Assignee: BuyerLeverage
• Inventors: Landesmann, Mark
• Application Number:
  US09/862,466
• Publication Number:
  US 20020052780A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0211 Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

A method and system for providing at least one benefit to buyer entities with a serious intent to purchase a good or service, comprising the steps of: receiving from a buyer entity a declaration of intent to purchase a good or service; providing to the buyer entity an offer of benefits whose value is partly or fully contingent on receipt of a proof of the purchase within a predetermined period of time and whose value is not contingent on fulfillment of the requirement that the purchase be made from one particular predetermined vendor; receiving the proof of purchase from the buyer entity; and providing the value of the contingent benefits to the buyer entity.

Claims

1. A method for incenting submission of purchase information for a good or service, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a buyer entity a declaration of intent to purchase a good or service;

providing an offer of a benefit to the buyer entity if a proof of purchase of the good or service is received within a first predetermined period of time;

receiving a proof of purchase of said good or service within a predetermined period of time; and

providing the benefit referenced in said benefit offer to the buyer entity if the proof of said good or service has been received within the predetermined period of time.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein said good or service is determined to be in a category;

and

wherein said providing an offer with a benefit step comprises selecting at least one benefit that is correlated to the category of good or service.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the providing the benefit step comprises the step of crediting an account.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining non-purchase information about the buyer entity from a third party; and

searching the non-purchase information to obtain at least one attribute about the buyer entity;

correlating that attribute to a benefit from a plurality of benefits based on said correlated attribute; and

presenting said benefit to said buyer entity.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein said receiving proof of purchase step comprises linking to a third party database and obtaining information there from on whether the buyer entity made a purchase of the good or service in the declaration.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein said proof that the purchase was made comprises receiving proof of purchase records created by a third party source;

and further comprising the step of comparing the third party source of the proof of purchase records with a source database of third party sources and entering only those proof of purchase records if from third party sources that are in the source database.

7. A method for providing at least one benefit to buyer entities with a serious intent to purchase a good or service, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a buyer entity a declaration of intent to purchase a good or service;

providing to the buyer entity an offer of benefits whose value is partly or fully contingent on receipt of a proof of said purchase within a predetermined period of time and whose value is not contingent on fulfillment of the requirement that the purchase be made from one particular predetermined vendor;

receiving said proof of purchase from the buyer entity; and

providing the value of said contingent benefits to the buyer entity.

8. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein said receiving a declaration of intent step contains a declaration of said buyer entity'"'"'s intent or willingness to purchase at least a specified volume of a product or service or of a category of products or services from a single selling entity over a specified time period, and

wherein said receiving said proof of purchase step comprises receiving a proof that an amount equal or higher then said specified volume was purchased by said buyer entity over said specified time period.

9. The method as defined in claim 7, further comprising the step of obtaining a serious intent rating for the buyer entity;

and wherein the providing an offer of benefits step comprises determining at least one benefit to offer said buyer entity based at least in part on the value of the serious intent rating of the buyer entity.

10. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the providing a contingent benefit step comprises sending a communication to a third party to facilitate the third party providing the contingent benefit.

11. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein said providing said contingent benefit step comprises directly providing the contingent benefit to the buyer entity.

12. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the obtaining step comprising searching a database to obtain the serious intent rating for the buyer entity.

13. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

adjusting the value of the serious intent rating for said buyer entity based on receipt of said proof that the purchase was made.

14. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein the step of receiving a proof of purchase includes the step of accepting a submission of the proof of purchase from the buyer entity only if submitted within a predetermined time period.

15. The method as defined in claim 9,further comprising:

providing to the buyer entity an offer of benefits and/or penalties for future submittal of the proof of purchase;

receiving a selection of a benefit and/or penalty from the buyer entity;

providing the benefit or penalty based on whether the proof that the purchase was made is received within the predetermined time period.

16. The method as defined in claim 15, wherein the benefit and/or penalty comprises crediting and/or debiting an account.

17. The method as defined in claim 15,

wherein the providing an offer of benefits and/or penalties step comprises the steps of:

obtaining at least one threshold serious intent rating for the intended purchase;

comparing the threshold serious intent rating to the serious intent ratings of the buyer entity; and

selecting at least one benefit and/or penalty based on a result of the comparison to offer to the buyer entity.

18. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the providing an offer of a benefit step comprises the steps of:

obtaining at least one threshold serious intent rating for the intended purchase to be made by the buyer entity;

comparing the threshold serious intent rating to the serious intent rating of the buyer entity; and

selecting at least one benefit based on a result of this comparison.

19. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein the benefit comprises a set of benefits, with at least one of the set of benefits having a reward associated with its selection that is to be paid to the buyer entity.

20. The method as defined in claim 8, wherein the obtaining a threshold serious intent rating step comprises receiving a threshold serious intent rating from an external third party source.

21. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of

generating a charge to an advertiser providing benefits as a function of the serious intent rating of the buyer entity receiving the benefit.

22. The method as defined in claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

determining an income level for the buyer entity;

comparing the income level of the buyer entity to a threshold income level and only providing the offer of at least one benefit if the buyer entity income level exceeds the threshold income level.

23. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein the receiving a declaration of intent step comprises receiving a designation of one from a set of levels of intent from the buyer entity;

and

wherein the providing an offer of a benefit step comprises selecting at least one benefit based on this designated level of intent.

24. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of calculating the serious intent rating of a buyer entity based on the factors of the number of times the buyer entity has declared that it would purchase a product or service, and the number of times that proof that the product or service was purchased was received for the buyer entity within a predetermined time period.

25. The method as defined in claim 24, wherein the step of calculating the serious intent rating of a buyer entity also includes as part of the calculation the factors of the total amount of money that the buyer entity has spent for the product or service over a predetermined time period, and the total amount of money for the products and/or services that the buyer entity has declared a serious intent to purchase.

26. The method as defined in claim 25, wherein the serious intent rating is partly calculated by multiplying the number of times the buyer entity has declared that it will purchase a product or service by the percentage of times that the proof of purchase for the buyer entity related to the declaration of serious intent has been submitted within the predetermined time period, and partly calculated by multiplying the total amount of money spent in relation to serious intent declarations by the total amount of money for the product and/or services for which the buyer entity has made serious intent declarations.

27. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the steps of

determining a category for the goods or services designated in the intent to purchase from a set of categories;

wherein said obtaining a serious intent rating step comprises determining the serious intent rating for the buyer entity in the determined category of goods or services; and

selecting benefits from different vendors selling the designated goods or services in the determined category.

28. The method as defined in claim 27, further comprising the step of calculating a class serious intent rating for a particular buyer entity in accordance with a function of the separate serious intent ratings of a plurality of selected categories for the particular buyer entity;

and

wherein said providing an offer of a benefit step comprises selecting at least one benefit based on said class serious intent rating.

29. The method as defined in claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

receiving buyer entity preferences for particular benefits;

wherein said providing an offer of a benefit step comprises selecting a group of benefits for presentation to the buyer entity, based at least in part, on said buyer entity preferences.

30. The method as defined in claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a threshold value from the buyer entity that the benefits must meet before the buyer entity will receive the benefit;

providing only offers of benefits that meet or exceed said threshold value.

31. The method as defined in claim 30, wherein the providing an offer of a benefit step comprises:

offering a plurality of said benefits from different advertisers to the buyer entity; and

including the step of determining the sequence or the relative prominence of each of the plurality of the benefits offered to the buyer entity based on said serious intent rating.

32. The method as defined in claim 9, comprising:

obtaining non-purchase information about the buyer entity from a third party; and

recalculating the serious intent rating for the buyer entity based on the non-purchase information.

33. The method as defined in claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining non-purchase information about the buyer entity from a third party; and

searching the non-purchase information to obtain at least one attribute about the buyer entity;

correlating that attribute to a benefit from a plurality of benefits based on said correlated attribute; and

wherein the providing an offer of a benefit step comprises offering said correlated benefit to said buyer entity.

34. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of sending the serious intent rating of the buyer entity to a third party after receipt of an authorization from said buyer entity.

35. The method as defined in claim 9, storing electronically the serious intent rating for the buyer entity at a computer of said buyer entity.

36. The method as defined in claim 35, wherein said storing step comprises storing the serious intent rating on a cookie.

37. The method as defined in claim 35 , further comprising the step of said buyer entity sending said serious intent rating to a third party.

38. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein said providing an offer of a benefit step comprises comparing the serious intent rating to a set of threshold levels, with a different predetermined benefit associated with exceeding each different threshold level in said set of threshold levels;

and

selecting the benefit associated with the highest threshold level exceeded by the serious intent rating to be offered.

39. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein said receiving proof of purchase step comprises linking to a third party database and obtaining information there from on whether the buyer entity made a purchase of the good or services in the declaration and inputting this information to a database.

40. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein said proof that the purchase was made comprises receiving proof of purchase records created by a third party source;

and further comprising the step of comparing the third party source of the proof of purchase records with a source database of third party sources and entering only those proof of purchase records if from a third party source that are in the source database.

41. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

storing the serious intent rating for the buyer entity on a cookie at a computer of said buyer entity;

a merchant accessing said cookie and obtaining said serious intent rating;

said merchant correlating said accessed serious intent rating to at least one item of content; and

serving to the buyer entity said at least one item of content.

42. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the steps of storing the serious intent rating for a buyer entity on a cookie at a computer of said buyer entity;

and updating the serious intent rating on said cookie with a recalculated serious intent rating.

43. The method as defined in claim 7, further comprising monitoring the receipt of video to determine if an ad has been zapped;

and providing a benefit to the buyer entity if the ad has not been zapped.

44. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

monitoring the receipt of video to determine if an ad has not been zapped;

if the ad has not been zapped, then determining the benefit based on the serious intent rating in said category.

45. The method as defined in claim 44, wherein said buyer entity is determined based on receipt of an ID from the buyer entity.

46. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the receiving a declaration step comprises monitoring the receipt of video to obtain a declaration of an intent to purchase.

47. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the receiving a declaration of intent step further comprises,

asking the buyer entity at least one question relating to the buyer entity'"'"'s intent;

obtaining at least one answer to said at least one question from the buyer entity;

and further comprising

calculating or adjusting the serious intent rating on the basis of said at least one answer.

48. The method as defined in claim 47, wherein the calculating or adjusting the serious intent rating step further comprises,

correlating the at least one answer of the buyer entity to the incidence by which members of a comparison group comprising other buyer entities who have given the same or similar answer relative to the at least one answer when making the same or a similar declaration of intent have made a purchase conforming with or relating to said declaration of intent;

and

calculating or adjusting the serious intent rating based on said correlation.

49. The method as defined in claim 48, wherein said incidence is derived in whole or in part by comparing the number of members of said comparison group who have submitted said proof of purchase with the number of members of said comparison group who have not submitted said proof of purchase.

50. The method as defined in claim 48, wherein said comparison group comprises only other buyer entities that have submitted declarations of intent to purchase a good or service in a same category as the good or service in said declaration of intent.

51. The method as defined in claim 48, wherein members of said comparison group are selected to include members with demographic attributes that are similar to the demographic attributes of said buyer entity.

52. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

adjusting the value of the serious intent rating for said buyer entity based on receipt of said proof that the purchase was made; and

wherein the receiving a declaration of intent step comprises receiving a designation of one from a set of levels of intent from the buyer entity; and

wherein the providing an offer of a benefit step comprises selecting at least one benefit based on this designated level of intent.

53. The method as defined in claim 52, wherein the adjusting the value of the serious intent rating step comprises adjusting the value of the serious intent rating for the buyer entity based on receipt of the proof that the purchase was made and based on said designated level of intent.

54. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein said providing an offer of a benefit step comprises calculating a benefit by applying the serious intent rating as a variable in a mathematical formula.

55. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the receiving a declaration of intent step comprises receiving a declaration of intent from a buyer entity in which the buyer entity declares its intent to discontinue purchasing a product or service from a selling entity from which it has previously purchased said product or service;

and using that intent to discontinue information.

56. The method as defined in claim 55, wherein the receiving a declaration of intent step further comprises receiving from a buyer entity proof of purchase information which indicates the buyer entity'"'"'s past level of spending on said product or service.

57. The method as defined in claim 55, wherein said using step comprises using the intent to discontinue information to determine at least one benefit to be offered to the buyer entity.

58. The method as defined in claim 55, wherein said using step comprises using the intent to discontinue information to recalculate the serious intent rating.

59. The method as defined in claim 55, wherein said using step comprises designating the buyer entity so that it may be accessed by a search on intent to discontinue declarations.

60. The method as defined in claim 7, wherein said receiving a declaration of intent step comprises receiving a declaration of intent from a buyer entity in which it declares its intent to discontinue purchasing a product or service from a first selling entity from which it has previously purchased said product or service on a regular basis;

and

wherein said receiving said proof of purchase step comprises receiving a proof of purchase showing that said buyer entity has purchased said product or service from a second selling entity which is different from the first selling entity after submitting its declaration of intent.

61. The method as defined in claim 60, wherein the receiving a declaration of intent step further comprises receiving a proof purchase from a buyer entity which indicates its past level of spending on said product or service.

62. A system for incenting submission of purchase information for a good or service, comprising:

a first component for receiving from a buyer entity a declaration of intent to purchase a good or service;

a second component for providing an offer of a benefit to the buyer entity if a proof of purchase of the good or service is received within a first predetermined period of time;

a third component for receiving a proof of purchase of said good or service within a predetermined period of time; and

a fifth component for providing the benefit referenced in said benefit offer to the buyer entity if the proof of said good or service has been received within the predetermined period of time.

63. The system as defined in claim 62, wherein said good or service is determined to be in a category;

and

wherein said component for second providing an offer with a benefit step comprises selecting at least one benefit that is correlated to the category of good or service.

64. The system as defined in claim 62, wherein the providing the benefit step comprises the step of crediting an account.

65. The system as defined in claim 62, further comprising:

obtaining non-purchase information about the buyer entity from a third party; and

searching the non-purchase information to obtain at least one attribute about the buyer entity;

correlating that attribute to a benefit from a plurality of benefits based on said correlated attribute; and

presenting said benefit to said buyer entity.

66. The system as defined in claim 62, wherein said receiving proof of purchase step comprises linking to a third party database and obtaining information there from on whether the buyer entity made a purchase of the good or service in the declaration.

67. The system as defined in claim 62, wherein said proof that the purchase was made comprises receiving proof of purchase records created by a third party source;

and further comprising the step of comparing the third party source of the proof of purchase records with a source database of third party sources and entering only those proof of purchase records if from third party sources that are in the source database.

69. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein said component for receiving a declaration of intent contains a declaration of said buyer entity'"'"'s intent or willingness to purchase at least a specified volume of a product or service or of a category of products or services from a single selling entity over a specified time period, and

wherein said component for receiving said proof of purchase comprises a component for receiving a proof that an amount equal or higher then said specified volume was purchased by said buyer entity over said specified time period.

70. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising a component for obtaining a serious intent rating for the buyer entity;

and wherein the component for providing an offer of benefits operates to determine at least one benefit to offer said buyer entity based at least in part on the value of the serious intent rating of the buyer entity.

71. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein the component for providing a contingent benefit comprises a component for sending a communication to a third party to facilitate the third party providing the contingent benefit.

72. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein the component for providing said contingent benefit comprises a component for directly providing the contingent benefit to the buyer entity.

73. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein the component for obtaining comprising a component for searching a database to obtain the serious intent rating for the buyer entity.

74. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising:

a component for adjusting the value of the serious intent rating for said buyer entity based on receipt of said proof that the purchase was made.

75. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein the component for receiving a proof of purchase includes a component for accepting a submission of the proof of purchase from the buyer entity only if submitted within a predetermined time period.

76. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising:

a component for providing to the buyer entity an offer of benefits and/or penalties for future submittal of the proof of purchase;

a component for receiving a selection of a benefit and/or penalty from the buyer entity;

a component for providing the benefit or penalty based on whether the proof that the purchase was made is received within the predetermined time period.

77. The system as defined in claim 76, wherein the benefit and/or penalty comprises crediting and/or debiting an account.

78. The system as defined in claim 76, wherein the component for providing an offer of benefits and/or penalties comprises:

a component for obtaining at least one threshold serious intent rating for the intended purchase;

a component for comparing the threshold serious intent rating to the serious intent ratings of the buyer entity; and

a component for selecting at least one benefit and/or penalty based on a result of the comparison to offer to the buyer entity.

79. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein the providing an offer of a benefit step comprises the steps of:

a component for obtaining at least one threshold serious intent rating for the intended purchase to be made by the buyer entity;

a component for comparing the threshold serious intent rating to the serious intent rating of the buyer entity; and

a component for selecting at least one benefit based on a result of this comparison.

80. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein the benefit comprises a set of benefits, with at least one of the set of benefits having a reward associated with its selection that is to be paid to the buyer entity.

81. The system as defined in claim 69, wherein the component for obtaining a threshold serious intent rating comprises a component for receiving a threshold serious intent rating from an external third party source.

82. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising a component for generating a charge to an advertiser providing benefits as a function of the serious intent rating of the buyer entity receiving the benefit.

83. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising:

a component for determining an income level for the buyer entity;

a component for comparing the income level of the buyer entity to a threshold income level and only providing the offer of at least one benefit if the buyer entity income level exceeds the threshold income level.

84. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein the component for receiving a declaration of intent step comprises a component for receiving a designation of one from a set of levels of intent from the buyer entity;

and

wherein the component for providing an offer of a benefit comprises a component for selecting at least one benefit based on this designated level of intent.

85. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising a component for calculating the serious intent rating of a buyer entity based on the factors of the number of times the buyer entity has declared that it would purchase a product or service, and the number of times that proof that the product or service was purchased was received for the buyer entity within a predetermined time period.

86. The system as defined in claim 85, wherein the component for calculating the serious intent rating of a buyer entity also includes as part of the calculation the factors of the total amount of money that the buyer entity has spent for the product or service over a predetermined time period, and the total amount of money for the products and/or services that the buyer entity has declared a serious intent to purchase.

87. The system as defined in claim 86, wherein the serious intent rating is partly calculated by multiplying the number of times the buyer entity has declared that it will purchase a product or service by the percentage of times that the proof of purchase for the buyer entity related to the declaration of serious intent has been submitted within the predetermined time period, and partly calculated by multiplying the total amount of money spent in relation to serious intent declarations by the total amount of money for the product and/or services for which the buyer entity has made serious intent declarations.

88. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising

a component for determining a category for the goods or services designated in the intent to purchase from a set of categories;

wherein said component for obtaining a serious intent rating comprises a component for determining the serious intent rating for the buyer entity in the determined category of goods or services; and

a component for selecting benefits from different vendors selling the designated goods or services in the determined category.

89. The system as defined in claim 88, further comprising a component for calculating a class serious intent rating for a particular buyer entity in accordance with a function of the separate serious intent ratings of a plurality of selected categories for the particular buyer entity;

and

wherein said component for providing an offer of a benefit comprises a component for selecting at least one benefit based on said class serious intent rating.

90. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising:

a component for receiving buyer entity preferences for particular benefits;

wherein said component for providing an offer of a benefit comprises a component for selecting a group of benefits for presentation to the buyer entity, based at least in part, on said buyer entity preferences.

91. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising:

a component for receiving a threshold value from the buyer entity that the benefits must meet before the buyer entity will receive the benefit;

a component for providing only offers of benefits that meet or exceed said threshold value.

92. The system as defined in claim 91, wherein the component for providing an offer of a benefit comprises:

a component for offering a plurality of said benefits from different advertisers to the buyer entity; and

including a component for determining the sequence or the relative prominence of each of the plurality of the benefits offered to the buyer entity based on said serious intent rating.

93. The system as defined in claim 70, comprising:

a component for obtaining non-purchase information about the buyer entity from a third party; and

recalculating the serious intent rating for the buyer entity based on the non-purchase information.

94. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising:

a component for obtaining non-purchase information about the buyer entity from a third party;

a component for searching the non-purchase information to obtain at least one attribute about the buyer entity;

a component for correlating that attribute to a benefit from a plurality of benefits based on said correlated attribute; and

wherein the component for providing an offer of a benefit comprises offering said correlated benefit to said buyer entity.

95. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising the step of sending the serious intent rating of the buyer entity to a third party after receipt of an authorization from said buyer entity.

96. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising a component for storing electronically the serious intent rating for the buyer entity at a computer of said buyer entity.

97. The system as defined in claim 96, wherein said storing component stores the serious intent rating on a cookie.

98. The system as defined in claim 96, further comprising the a component for allowing said buyer entity sending said serious intent rating to a third party.

99. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein said component for providing an offer of a benefit comprises a component for comparing the serious intent rating to a set of threshold levels, with a different predetermined benefit associated with exceeding each different threshold level in said set of threshold levels;

and

a component for selecting the benefit associated with the highest threshold level exceeded by the serious intent rating to be offered.

100. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein said component for receiving proof of purchase comprises a component for linking to a third party database and obtaining information therefrom on whether the buyer entity made a purchase of the goo,d or services in the declaration and inputting this information to a database.

101. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein said proof that the purchase was made comprises receiving proof of purchase records created by a third party source;

and further comprising a component for comparing the third party source of the proof of purchase records with a source database of third party sources and entering only those proof of purchase records if from a third party source that is in the source database.

102. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising:

a component for storing the serious intent rating for the buyer entity on a cookie at a computer of said buyer entity;

a component for a merchant accessing said cookie and obtaining said serious intent rating;

said merchant correlating said accessed serious intent rating to at least one item of content; and

a component for serving to the buyer entity said at least one item of content.

103. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising a component for storing the serious intent rating for a buyer entity on a cookie at a computer of said buyer entity;

and updating the serious intent rating on said cookie with a recalculated serious intent rating.

104. The system as defined in claim 68, further comprising a component for monitoring the receipt of video to determine if an ad has been zapped;

and providing a benefit to the buyer entity if the ad has not been zapped.

105. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising:

a component for monitoring the receipt of video to determine if an ad has not been zapped and if the ad has not been zapped, then determining the benefit based on the serious intent rating in said category.

106. The system as defined in claim 105, further comprising a component for determining the buyer entity based on receipt of an ID from the buyer entity.

107. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein the component for receiving a declaration comprises a component for monitoring the receipt of video to obtain a declaration of an intent to purchase.

108. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein the component for receiving a declaration of intent further comprises

a component for asking the buyer entity at least one question relating to the buyer entity'"'"'s intent;

a component for obtaining at least one answer to said at least one question from the buyer entity;

and further comprising

a component for calculating or adjusting the serious intent rating on the basis of said at least one answer.

109. The system as defined in claim 108, wherein the component for calculating or adjusting the serious intent rating operates to

correlate the at least one answer of the buyer entity to the incidence by which members of a comparison group comprising other buyer entities who have given the same or similar answer relative to the at least one answer when making the same or a similar declaration of intent have made a purchase conforming with or relating to said declaration of intent;

and

calculate or adjust the serious intent rating based on said correlation.

110. The system as defined in claim 109, wherein said incidence is derived in whole or in part by comparing the number of members of said comparison group who have submitted said proof of purchase with the number of members of said comparison group who have not submitted said proof of purchase.

111. The system as defined in claim 109, wherein said comparison group comprises only other buyer entities that have submitted declarations of intent to purchase a good or service in a same category as the good or service in said declaration of intent.

112. The system as defined in claim 109, wherein members of said comparison group are selected to include members with demographic attributes that are similar to the demographic attributes of said buyer entity.

113. The system as defined in claim 70, further comprising:

a component for adjusting the value of the serious intent rating for said buyer entity based on receipt of said proof that the purchase was made; and

wherein the component for receiving a declaration of intent comprises a component for receiving a designation of one from a set of levels of intent from the buyer entity; and

wherein the component for providing an offer of a benefit comprises a component for selecting at least one benefit based on this designated level of intent.

114. The system as defined in claim 113, wherein the component for adjusting the value of the serious intent rating operates by adjusting the value of the serious intent rating for the buyer entity based on receipt of the proof that the purchase was made and based on said designated level of intent.

115. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein said component for providing an offer of a benefit operates by calculating a benefit by applying the serious intent rating as a variable in a mathematical formula.

116. The system as defined in claim 70, wherein the component for receiving a declaration of intent comprises a component for receiving a declaration of intent from a buyer entity in which the buyer entity declares its intent to discontinue purchasing a product or service from a selling entity from which it has previously purchased said product or service;

and using that intent to discontinue information.

117. The system as defined in claim 116, wherein the component for receiving a declaration of intent further comprises a component for receiving from a buyer entity proof of purchase information which indicates the buyer entity'"'"'s past level of spending on said product or service.

118. The system as defined in claim 116, wherein said component for using comprises a component for using the intent to discontinue information to determine at least one benefit to be offered to the buyer entity.

119. The system as defined in claim 116, wherein said component for using comprises a component for using the intent to discontinue information to recalculate the serious intent rating.

120. The system as defined in claim 116, wherein said component for using comprises a component for designating the buyer entity so that it may be accessed by a search on intent to discontinue declarations.

121. The system as defined in claim 68, wherein said component for receiving a declaration of intent comprises a component for receiving a declaration of intent from a buyer entity in which it declares its intent to discontinue purchasing a product or service from a first selling entity from which it has previously purchased said product or service on a regular basis;

and

wherein said component for receiving said proof of purchase comprises a component for receiving a proof of purchase showing that said buyer entity has purchased said product or service from a second selling entity which is different from the first selling entity after submitting its declaration of intent.

122. The system as defined in claim 121, wherein the component for receiving a declaration of intent further comprises a component for receiving a proof purchase from a buyer entity which indicates its past level of spending on said product or service.

68. A system for providing at least one exclusive benefit to buyer entities with a serious intent to purchase a good or service, comprising the steps of:

a first component for receiving from a buyer entity a declaration of intent to purchase a good or service;

a second component for providing to the buyer entity an offer of benefits whose value is partly or fully contingent on receipt of a proof of said purchase within a predetermined period of time and whose value is not contingent on fulfillment of the requirement that the purchase be made from one particular predetermined vendor;

a third component for receiving said proof of purchase from the buyer entity; and

a fourth component for providing the value of said contingent benefits to the buyer entity.