Approaches described in this Background section may include approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Targeted marketing techniques assist a variety of entities, such as product manufacturers, service providers, and retailers, in efficiently persuading consumers to purchase certain products and service. A marketing entity may include, without limitation, product manufacturers, service providers, retailers, third-party marketing firms acting on behalf of another entity, non-profit organizations, and so forth. The marketing entity may identify characteristics of people to which the entity wishes to “market” a product or service. For example, an entity that sells product X may determine that it wants to market to persons that have purchased a complimentary product Y within a timeframe of Z. Of course, one problem with targeted marketing is that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain exactly what characteristics to target.
Once targeted characteristics have been identified, the entity may then attempt to “market” to persons who have those characteristics. Unfortunately, it is also generally difficult to ascertain whether a given person actually has the targeted characteristics and/or how to actually reach specific persons that have those specific characteristics. For example, a particular retailer may have no idea that a potential consumer recently purchased product Y from another store, and thus be unable to specifically target marketing for Product X to that potential consumer. Large-scale targeted marketing is therefore typically difficult to achieve with a high degree of efficiency. Rather, a marketing entity is typically limited to less efficient targeting techniques, such as targeting specific zip codes or web sites, thus resulting in the marketing entity wasting marketing resources on many persons who do not have the targeted characteristics.
One common marketing technique involves incentivizing costumer behavior through targeted promotional offers. An “offer” may be construed to be a promise by an offer provider, which may be any entity engaged in targeted marketing, to provide a consumer with a benefit under a certain set of implicit or explicit conditions known as terms. Example benefits include, without limitation, a monetary gift, a discount applied to the purchase of one or more products or services, free products and/or services, access to additional offers, and so forth. Example terms may include any one or more of, without limitation, actions that the consumer must perform, a specific set of item(s) that must be purchased by the consumer, a specific amount of money that must be spent by the consumer, a timeframe during which the offer is valid, and so forth. A customer benefit of an offer is realized during a process sometimes called “redemption,” which typically takes place during a transaction between the consumer and a retailer. When the consumer wishes to engage in a transaction the retailer determines whether the conditions of the offer have been met. If so, the retailer, which may be any merchant or other entity that sells products or services, provides the benefit to the consumer on behalf of the offer provider.
In some embodiments, the retailer is in fact the offer provider. In other embodiments, the retailer may then seek compensation for providing the benefit from the offer provider by means of a process known as clearing. During the clearing process, the retailer provides evidence to a third-party clearinghouse, or directly to the offer provider, that the retailer provided the benefit. Assuming the evidence is sufficient, the third-party clearinghouse, or offer provider, provides compensation to the retailer. In embodiments involving a third-party clearinghouse, the offer provider may provide the third-party clearinghouse with funds in advance. The offer provider also sends to the third-party clearinghouse funds from which the compensation is provided, or reimburses the third-party clearinghouse for providing the compensation.
A frequent implicit or explicit term of an offer is that the retailer must be presented with a specific coupon during a transaction. In general, a coupon is a certificate, document, or other physical or electronic construct that entitles a consumer to accept an offer described or referenced by the coupon, thereby realizing the benefit of the offer. A coupon sometimes takes a “hard copy” form, such as a paper certificate, with printed images and/or text describing terms of the offer. The process of the consumer accepting an offer by presenting, referencing, or otherwise providing a coupon while purchasing, contracting, or otherwise transacting with another party involves “redeeming” the coupon. For example, a consumer may redeem a hard copy of a coupon by handing the copy to a clerk during a purchase at a retail store. The clerk may then provide the consumer with the subject of the offer, such as a discounted price, item, service or gift.
One technique for distributing coupons is to include printed coupons with newspapers, magazines, or other items that are distributed to consumers. One example of an item with which coupons are distributed is a printed receipt. For example, some retailers print receipts at a point of sale on register paper on which coupons have been pre-printed. As another example, some retailers print coupon(s) on a receipt at the time of the transaction for which the receipt is printed, thereby allowing the retailers to dynamically select which coupon(s) appear on the receipt based on the product(s) that were purchased during the transaction.
Recent distribution techniques now provide consumers with opportunities to print their own coupons. For example, a number of websites provide search engines or catalogs with which consumers may locate offers and then print coupons for the offers they find. The printed coupons may be used in the same manner as any other coupon.
Other recent distribution techniques involve creating digital coupons. One such technique involves creating unique digital coupons that are saved to an account associated with the consumer, such as a store loyalty account. The consumer may redeem such digital coupons during online or physical transactions by presenting an account identifier, such as a store loyalty card or an oral identification of the consumer's telephone number, for the associated account. Since many consumer accounts are tied to card-based identifiers, such as store loyalty cards or credit cards, the process of storing a digital coupon identifier to an account may also be referred to as saving a coupon to a card. Some examples of such techniques are described in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/878,231, filed Sep. 9, 2010, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
Another digital coupon-based technique involves creating unique digital coupons that may be stored on a computing device. The digital coupons may be transmitted from the computing device to a point-of-sale during a transaction using any of a variety of mechanisms. For example, information about the digital coupon may be uploaded to the point-of-sale during an online transaction involving the computing device. As another example, information about the digital coupon may be transmitted wirelessly from a smartphone to a receiving component coupled to a checkout register during a transaction at a brick-and-mortar store.
Considering the current state of the industry and market for digital offers (including digital coupons and other digital promotional discount vehicles), there is a need for improved systems, methods and technology platforms for generating, processing, storing, managing and delivering digital offers, for enhancing and customizing the digital offer experience of consumers in general, for increasing the value and benefits derived by consumers from digital offers, for improving the ability of offer providers, offer distributors and retailers to customize digital offer selection, delivery, utilization, management, monetization and redemption analysis, and for otherwise increasing the efficiency and financial return of the digital offer industry and market.