Method and system for electronic distribution of product redemption coupons

Abstract

Provided is a method and system for the electronic distribution of product redemption coupons to remote personal computers located at users' homes. A centrally located repository, such as an online service provider or web site on the Internet, stores packages of coupon data for downloading on demand to the user's computer. The user may view, select, sort and print desired coupons from the downloaded package. The user's demographic as well as coupon selection data is provided back to the online service and coupon distributor and issuers for subsequent marketing analysis. The online service can perform subsequent coupon processing on previously downloaded coupon packages such as variation of discount amounts. The online service provider can also determine how many times a particular coupon was viewed. When the printed coupons are presented at a retail store, the discount is provided to the user. Upon redemption by the store via a coupon redeeming center transaction data is also supplied to the coupon issuers and distributor for integration into marketing analysis. The electronic coupon system is secure due to the inclusion of user-specific identification indicia printed thereon.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to the electronic distribution of secure money saving or discount coupons and other marketing incentives and in particular to use of a centrally located online computer system for interactively distributing such coupons to remotely connected consumer computers and for collecting user-specific data regarding coupon usage and user demographic information from the remote computers. [0002] Millions of consumers regularly use product redemption coupons and realize substantial savings as a result. Significant time is spent clipping and sorting coupons, discarding expired coupons and organizing current coupons for use on shopping trips. Conventional coupon distribution results in significant wasted time due to consumers' attempts to manage their coupon use. [0003] Coupons are delivered to consumers through a variety of media. The primary coupon distribution is via pull-out sections in newspapers, which are known as free stand...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention is a system for distributing and generating product redemption coupons at a remote site. The system includes a centrally located repository of electronically stored coupons, transmission means for providing data communication between the repository and user computers, and a user computer operative associated with the transmission means. The user computer has interface means for user interaction with the centrally located repository, a memory, and a coupon data management program. The coupon data management program requests coupons from the centrally located repository, stores the coupons in the user's memory, and generates printable coupons. The user's computer can also transmit the printable coupons electronically to the centrally located repository or directly to the retailer for electronic coupon redemption. The coupon data management program allows the user to select and store desired coupons, and a shopping list is correlated to the coupons printed for subsequent redemption. The data exchange capabilities of the system allow the automatic transfer of valuable information from the user computer to the centrally located repository and the coupon distributors and issuers. The system also allows for secure coupon generation by printing each coupon with unique user-specific data to prevent duplication."

Problems solved by technology

Conventional coupon distribution results in significant wasted time due to consumers' attempts to manage their coupon use.

For most consumers, attempts to maintain an organized coupon file often fails.

The “bother” and time required to maintain organized coupon files often results in neglect of those files, even though diligent shoppers know that a consistent significant savings is easily achievable using coupons.

Often, coupon price incentives significantly reduce brand loyalty, and manufacturers must issue more coupons than desired to maintain market share.

The competitive nature of the retail industry does not allow manufacturers to reduce coupon distribution, and in some market sectors, such as cereals, the majority of purchases are made with coupons.

The primary factors which keep the redemption rate low include consumers not needing or wanting the product advertised, consumers not bothering to clip coupons, losing clipped coupons or leaving them behind on shopping trips, lack of 100% distribution of newspapers, overcouponing within specific areas, and unavailability of new products when the coupon is issued.

FSI coupon distribution results in high costs per coupon because of the shear complexity of and volume of materials involved in coupon distribution and redemption.

Regional direct mail coupons are more common, and are usually limited to marketing the products and / or services of local vendors.

However, this also means that all items are sold at the coupon discount, lowering a manufacturer's overall revenues per product more so than other types of coupons.

The coupon industry expends a great deal of resources in market research, printing, issuing, distributing and redeeming coupons, yet produces an extremely low redemption rate.

This is attributed to the haphazard systems used by most consumers of manually clipping, filing, sorting through, and ultimately using the coupons, and to the high cost associated with targeting coupons to each consumer.

While these aforementioned prior art attempts at providing couponing systems are useful in their own right, they fail to provide for a secure and interactive coupon generation system in which the user can request, select, store, manipulate and print coupons as desired, in which user specific information such as demographic data and data representative of those coupons so requested, selected, printed and actually used may be provided back to the coupon issuer and distributor for more efficient coupon targeting in subsequent coupon issuance and distribution.

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