Internet-audiotext electronic advertising system with psychographic profiling and matching

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic advertising system. More specifically, the present invention provides a computer based psychographic matching system that is significantly more effective and convenient for the advertiser. In the present invention, when a person places a personal ad on the system, either via a telephone or via the Internet, the person creates a personal psychographic profile (a subjective makeup of preferences) of himself by selecting his preference for various items, such as musical pieces, environmental sounds, poetry selections, etc. At the conclusion of the profiling process, the system automatically finds other advertisers (whether they placed their ad via audiotext or the Internet) whose profiles match the new advertiser's profile. The system then gives the new advertiser information on how to contact all of the recorded matches.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08 / 744,879, filed Nov. 8, 1996.TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to audiotext systems designed to provide full access to traditional databases and telecommunications systems, such as local area networks, the Internet, other external databases, telephones and fax machines, etc., and more specifically to audiotext personal ad services. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Audiotext personal ad services are a popular way for people to meet, and are available in most newspapers and on many cable television systems. In a typical service, an advertiser calls a live operator and places a text personal ad. An advertiser then calls an audiotext system and records an audio message, often referred to as a greeting, which expands upon the advertiser's text ad by describing in more detail the advertiser and the type of person he is seeking. Personal ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] The present invention relates to an electronic advertising system. More specifically, the present invention provides a computer based psychographic matching system that is significantly more effective and convenient for the advertiser. In the present invention, when a person places a personal ad on the system, either via a telephone or via the Internet, the person creates a personal psychographic profile (a subjective makeup of preferences) of himself by selecting his preference for various items, such as musical pieces, environmental sounds, poetry selections, etc. At the conclusion of the profiling process, the system automatically finds other advertisers (whether they placed their ad via audiotext or the Internet) whose profiles match the new advertiser's profile. In addition, during the ad taking process, a person is asked to input a telephone number and an e-mail address. Thereafter, whenever a new personal ad comes on to the system that matches the person's profile (whether the ad originates on the audiotext system or on the Internet), the person is notified of the new ad and given instructions of how to contact the new match. Also, each time a person responds to a personal ad, the system automatically finds and presents other personal ads with similar characteristics to save the user time in finding an appealing ad. Finally, each time someone responds to a personal ad, the advertiser is automatically notified both via telephone and via electronic mail.

[0013] The significant advantages provided by the present invention are apparent from the above description. The present invention provides a more effective means of matching individuals than previous demographic style matching systems. Also, the system of the present invention does not require the advertiser to scan large numbers of ads, or to repeatedly scan for new ads. In addition, new advertisers can meet someone faster because they are automatically matched with other advertisers at the time of ad placement and notified when someone responds to their ad.

Problems solved by technology

The limitation of this approach is that an Internet user cannot listen to an audio recording of an advertiser, a feature that is the central to audiotext personal ad services.

Another limitation is that telephone users cannot exchange messages with Internet users.

Another limitation is that many people do not have Internet access, thus limiting the number of advertisers and respondents.

This approach still has the disadvantage of not allowing an Internet user to listen to an advertiser's voice greeting via the Internet.

Moreover, an Internet user can only respond to a personal ad via a telephone.

To summarize, existing Internet personal ad services are limited in that they lack many of the features available on audiotext personal ad services.

Also, existing personal ad services do not provide a means for those using an audiotext personal ad service to effectively communicate with those using an Internet personal ad service and visa versa.

A basic problem with the prior services is that when a person places an ad, he must wait for his ad to be published and then for someone to respond to it in order to meet someone.

Another problem is that if an advertiser wants to meet someone by responding to other personal ads, he must scan a large number of ads to identify a relatively small number of ads that meet his criteria.

Because of the quantity of ads in a given service, it can be difficult and tedious to search all the ads to find a compatible person.

The limitation, however, of demographic-based matching is that it does not take into account the subjective, “psychographic”, makeup of the individual, such as an individual's preference for visual images (photographs or paintings), writing (prose and poetry), or audio (music, sounds), etc. which are more in line with an individual's personality.

The limitation of this approach is that there is no way for telephone users to participate, thereby excluding a large percentage of potential matches.

Since large numbers of individuals continue to use each type of service on a more or less exclusive basis, failure to integrate the two environments significantly limits the database pool of potential matches.

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