SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING SELLERS' OFFERINGS
Apparatus' and methods are disclosed for distributing sellers' offerings within an advertising system in which a seller generates a profile containing a list of offerings for mobile buyers and wherein mobile buyer's devices display the seller's offerings based on the buyer's preferred purchases or vendors. At least some of the buyer's preferred profile entries are associated with a geographic area. A mobile network is used to connect the mobile buyers and the sellers. The network further includes a brand sponsor that offers branded content through the network and the seller's offering processes. Branded content may be displayed based on a bidding process. Buyers mobile devices may include a bypass function to allow the display of the branded content on the buyer's mobile device even of that branded content does not meet the criteria of the buyer' preferred offerings.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 13/999,673 filed on Mar. 17, 2014 titled “System and Method for Providing Relevant User Notifications” the entire contents of which is incorporated by reference herein in its their entirety. That application, it turn, claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/852,078 filed on Mar. 15, 2014 titled “Systems and method for enabling privacy of mobile device users and enabling relevant mobile advertising . . . ” the entire contents of which is also incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTNot applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the InventionPrivacy concerns regarding mobile device data have recent emerged in national discussions regarding individuals' always-on, internet-connected world. Mobile device users increasingly desire more control over their own user information; information which may be personal in nature, such as location-based information captured by mobile applications and shared with third-parties. Many mobile device users do not know exactly what information is being collected, what information is being shared, and how the information is being used. Location information of mobile devices is conventionally captured directly from the device, for example, from the GPS tracking applications the mobile device's managed connections to cellular towers, GPS satellite tracking sites, or reverse internet protocol (IP) address look-up services. In each of these inadvertent connections, personal information is being accessed on the users' mobile devices including possibly phone contact information, mobile web browsing history, IP addresses visited, and mobile device identifying numbers, to name just a few. Several recent high-profile examples of a mobile application mishandling a mobile device user's personal data have had a negative impact on consumer trust as advertisers and promoters are utilizing and exploiting ever increasing collections of mobile device user data in an attempt to create location-based advertising for mobile customers.
Apart from the mobile data collection problem, the actual display of mobile advertising has itself become a nuisance to mobile device users. Various mobile device display methodologies are now used to attract the mobile users' attention in this regard, such as banner display advertising and push notification windows, similar to pop up windows on a desktop computing device. In most instances, mobile advertisements are neither relevant to the mobile device user nor are they desired or solicited by the user. As a further complication, the smaller mobile device displays easily become crowded when random asynchronous information is constantly presented to and displayed on the mobile device. Consequently, conventional advertising networks used for mobile ad delivery suffer from at least three shortcomings: 1) they carry a high nuisance factor in delivering useful ads; 2) they compromise the privacy of the mobile device user in exchange for the display of those advertisements; and 3) they potentially create negative user impressions based on these problems.
2. Description of the Prior Art.Many advertising systems presently rely on tracking a user and collecting the user's mobile device information on a centralized ad server. This information is then sorted and analyzed to deliver targeted advertisements to the user. U.S. Patent Appln. Pub. No. US 2010/0138294 A1, to Bussmann, et al. and published on Jun. 3, 2010 (hereinafter Bussmann, et al.), discloses one such system. In Bussmann, et al., a location-based advertising server is used to collect ad content from advertising publishers associated with a particular geographic region. (Abstract) The system of Bussmann, et al. then collects bids for placing that content along with requests from mobile devices within the specified geographic area for delivering advertising content. The advertising system of Bussmann, et al. matches device request for ad content associated with the geographic area and delivers ad content based on bid prices offered by the advertisers.
The system of Bussmann, et al. provides the mobile device user with no direct control over the ad content received except as to its geographic proximity to the user. A better functioning system would permit a mobile device user's advertising needs to be directly presented to an ad server which then requests, specific, tailored ads from the advertisers. What is desired, on the part of both the buyer and seller, is a push dynamic in creating a type of “specific channel relationship” between them. This “channel relationship” is solidified when the above-mentioned privacy concerns are addressed. Just as in the purely physical shopping world, the best buying experiences are obtained when highly relevant delivery of ad content and offerings are presented to the user at precisely the moment in time in which the user is most engaged with the shopping, planning and decision-making processes.
U.S. Pat. Appln. Pub. No. US 2011/0295687 A1, to Bilenko, et al. and published on Dec. 1, 2011 (hereinafter Bilenko, et al.) discloses a system in which user profiles are introduced for tailoring delivered ad content. (Abstract.) In Bilenko, et al., the user profile is used as a factor in selecting ads to be forwarded to the user. (Abstract.) However, the system disclosed in Bilenko, et al. allows user profiles and past purchase histories unique to the users to be shared with the ad content providers, thereby violating the privacy concerns that are the subject of the present invention. (Bilenko, et al., p. 4, para. [0023].)
U.S. Pat. Appln. Pub. No. US 2007/0130005 A1, to Jaschke and published on Jun. 7, 2007 (hereinafter Jaschke), is similarly deficient in collecting and using the personal information of the user in the advertising bidding process. Specifically, highly personal data is collected by the advertising server including age, gender, ethnic group, income, etc. (See
Other inventions have managed some aspects of an anonymous profile, but without consideration of mobile users' specific requested content. U.S. Pat. Appln. Pub. No. US 2009/0247193 A1, to Kalavade and published on Oct. 1, 2009, is one such invention. (See Abstract.) The patent application of Kalavade discloses a detailed process for the real-time creation of an anonymous user profile. (Kalavade, FIG. 1 and p. 3, paras. [0067]-[0076].) However, only when the users opt out of personal information sharing is the profile kept confidential. (Kalavade, p. 3, para. [0072]). The data processing of Kalvade, however, all this takes place with respect to user data collected in real-time but without any consideration of the specific ads that the mobile user is interested in receiving, and particularly without any connection to user-specified geographic areas of advertising interest.
Thus, it is an object of this invention, and a failure of the prior art to-date, to deliver user-specified advertising content to the mobile device of those users such that the ad content 1) satisfies a user request or specification for the ad; 2) is provided within a geographical area in which the user is interested in shopping, and 3) is provide in a manner that adequately preserves the privacy of the user's mobile device data
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn one particularly preferred embodiment, a computer-based notification system is provided for distributing sellers' offerings within the notification system to buyers within the notification system, the computer-based notification system including a computer-based mobile network, the computer-based notification system including: at least one computer-based sales promotion device employed by a seller within the notification system, the sales promotion device coupled to the computer-based mobile network, the sales promotion device including a processor and an associated memory for storing instructions executed by the processor, the sales promotion device having an ad panel operating under software application control, the sales promotion device including a local database accessible by the ad panel software, the seller activating a user interface on the sales promotion device to store seller profile data elements in the local database, the seller profile data elements including ads displayed by the ad panel software and to be displayed within the notification system, the seller profile data elements also including a geographic area serviced by the seller; at least one brand seller, the brand seller having a sales promotion device employed by the brand seller within the notification system, the brand seller sales promotion device coupled to the computer-based mobile network, the brand seller sales promotion device including a processor and an associated memory for storing instructions executed by the processor, the brand seller sales promotion device having an ad panel operating under software application control, the brand seller sales promotion device including a local database accessible by the ad panel software, the brand seller activating a user interface on the sales promotion device to store brand seller profile data elements in the local database, the brand seller profile data elements including a brand offering and a brand seller geographic area; at least one computer-based mobile device employed by a buyer within the notification system, the buyer mobile device coupled to the computer-based mobile network, the mobile device having an ad server including a processor and an associated memory for storing instructions executed by the processor, the mobile device including a local database accessible by the ad server, the buyer activating a user interface on the buyer mobile device to store buyer profile data elements in the local database, the buyer profile data elements including buyer-specified advertising content and a buyer-specified geographic area; and wherein the computer-based mobile network includes a location determining network coupled to the mobile network, the location determining network providing the buyer mobile device with a physical geographic location, the brand seller transmitting the brand offering and the brand seller geographic area to the at least one sales promotion device over the computer-based mobile network, the at least one sales promotion device matching the brand seller geographic area with the geographic area serviced by the seller, the at least one sales promotion device storing the brand offering as an ad in the sellers local database using the ad panel software, the ad server on the buyer mobile device transmitting a request for seller's offerings to the mobile network based on the determined physical geographic location and the buyer-specified geographic area, the mobile network returning a list of seller's offerings including ads and the brand offering based on the transmitted request, the ad server matching the returned seller's offerings to the buyer-specified advertising content and displaying the matched returned list seller's offerings on the user interface on the mobile device.
In particularly preferred aspects of the invention, the brand offering is one of a company's goods or services; or including a plurality of the brand sellers and associated brand seller promotion devices, the brand offering being transmitted to the at least one sales promotion device and the matching being made after a bidding process among the plurality of brand sellers is conducted by the notification system; or wherein the buyer-specified advertising content includes at least one of a seller, a product or a service, the buyer profile data elements including offerings preferred by the buyer, the ad server of the computer-based mobile device filtering the seller offerings so as to display only those that match the buyer preferred offerings; or wherein the ad server including a bypass feature that is capable of being activated so that the seller's offerings omitted from display by the filter are also displayed on user device, the brand offering matched based on the bidding process and transmitted to the buyer mobile device being displayed within a visible area of the user interface on the buyer mobile device along with the filtered preferred offerings; or wherein the at least one computer-based sales promotion device is a mobile device, the location determining network providing the at least one computer-based sales promotion device with a physical geographic location, the sales promotion device employed by the seller updating the geographic area being serviced by the seller the specific seller profile data elements vendor notification is one of an advertisement, a circular, a promotion, an event, a destination place or a brand.
In other particularly preferred aspects of the invention, the sales promotion device is a mobile device, including but not limited to: a handheld electronic device, a tablet, a smartphone, a mobile phone, a phablet, a laptop, or a notebook computer; or the geographic area serviced by the seller is determined by a geocode data element within the local database accessible by the sales promotion device, the geocode being one of: a GPS coordinate, a street address, a country, a city, a state, a district, a zip code, a parcel id, a public location, or a transportation location; or the system further included a plurality of the sales promotion devices and buyer mobile devices and the computer-based mobile network includes peer-to-peer network connections such that the plurality of the sales promotion devices and buyer mobile devices communicate directly with one another; or the brand offering includes an expiration period data element, the returned seller's offering including the expiration period data element, the brand offering expiring on the buyer mobile device based on the expiration period data element.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:
To facilitate a clear understanding of the present invention, illustrative examples are provided herein which describe certain aspects of the invention. However, it is to be appreciated that these illustrations are not meant to limit the scope of the invention, and are provided herein to illustrate certain concepts associated with the invention.
It is also to be understood that certain aspects of the present invention may be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purpose processors, or a combination thereof. Preferably, certain aspects of the present invention may be implemented in software as a program tangibly embodied on a program storage device. The program may be uploaded to, and executed by, an electronic machine comprising any suitable architecture.
Preferably, certain aspects of the invention are implemented on a computer platform having hardware such as one or more central processing units (CPU), a random-access memory (RAM), and input/output (I/O) interface(s). The computer platform may also include an operating system and microinstruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may either be part of the microinstruction code or part of the program (or combination thereof) which is executed via the operating system. In addition, various other peripheral devices may be connected to the computer platform such as an additional data storage device and a printing device.
It is to be understood that, because some of the constituent system components and method steps depicted in the accompanying figures are preferably implemented in software, the actual connections between the system components (or the process steps) may differ depending upon the manner in which the present invention is programmed. Specifically, any of the computers or devices may be interconnected using any existing or later-discovered networking technology and may also all be connected through a lager network system, such as a corporate network, metropolitan network or a global network, such as the internet.
It should be noted that while the specific examples provided herein are primarily directed to mobile devices operating within a mobile network, the general concepts of the system disclosed in this invention may be equally applied to any non-mobile devices connected to an associated network and where the associated network possesses similar system architectures and functional capabilities. Further, the actual mobile connections illustrated herein may be any one of, or combination of, known or later-developed mobile access technologies, including by not limited to: cellular mobile, Wi-Fi, PAN, RFID, Bluetooth, NFC, radio, IR, and satellite. Finally, as used herein, the term “mobile network” 50 is used to denote the sum of the wireless access devices and the entire network to which they provide wireless access. That means that the “mobile network” is the entire network found behind and including the sum of wireless access points and to which a mobile device may connect using any of the supported communications protocols. In this regard, the wireless network includes wireless and wired devices behind the wireless access cloud. The “mobile network” may be proprietary, a public cloud network or it may be considered to include the entire web or internet. In sum, the mobile network is the totality of all networked devices for which wireless access is permitted such that any mobile device may be provided access to public portions or user specific portions of the interconnected devices comprising both the wired and mobile portions of the network.
Mobile device 22 is employed by a user or buyer 20 (used interchangeably) to perform any of the numerous and varied functions that mobile devices are capable of performing. By way of example and not limitation, mobile device 22 may be a smart phone, a tablet, wireless access device, fob, a portable or non-portable personal computer, or a smart television. Mobile device 22 is connected to the mobile network 50 in one of two ways. It may be connected directly, by cellular or satellite connection offered by a telecommunications or broadband information provider, for example, typically through the use of large and powerful network antenna structures53. Alternatively, mobile device 12 may be connected indirectly to the mobile network through a wireless access gateways or wireless broadband modems 51 that, in turn connect to the internet through other wired and wireless connections. User 20 is capable of employing its mobile device 22 in any manner desirable and typical, for example, to use the mobile network to conduct telecommunications (e.g. making telephone calls), consume information content (e.g. streaming video, reading news articles) or conduct commerce (e.g. view advertisements, place orders).
The prototypical mobile device 22 is a “smart phone,” a small handheld mobile computer that is capable of performing telecommunications functions. The mobile computer typically includes at least one processor and associated memory in which stored programs reside and from which the processor executes the program steps for those programs to effect the operations performed by the mobile device. The software on the mobile device may take the form of either stand-alone software that executes solely on the mobile device or in the form of small program software application components (apps or applets). In either case, data on which the standalone programs or apps operate may be provided by any of a number of sources, such as being input by the user 20, generated from within the mobile device (e.g. via numerical computations) or provided to the mobile device 22 over the wireless connection to that device by devices within the mobile network. Most relevant to the present invention, mobile device 22 contains a stored program, preferably an app, to create and manage consumer purchase decisions according to the preferred embodiments of the invention. In either stand-alone or app software configurations, the stored program for managing these consumer purchases is programmable, configurable, and otherwise capable of being controlled by the user.
To accomplish the consumer management function, mobile device 22 includes a user interface (UI) 30, an ad server 24 and a local database 40. As described in more detail below user 20 accesses mobile device 22 through the UI 30. The consumer's purchase data itself is stored on the local database 40 and is provided by any of a number of sources including user 20, the mobile device 22 itself and sources from with the mobile network. Ad server 24 exercises programmed control over the local database 40 under the direction of the user interface 30. Further, the ad server coordinates and executes most all of the user data management functions in relation to the display and management of the advertisements received by the user as described in more detail below.
In relevant aspects, mobile network 50 may include information or internet service providers (ISPs) 55 that operate a cloud 57 in the form of cloud servers 62, external cloud storage 59 and other associated apparatus. Specifically, database manager 64 may be part of the hardware and software operating on cloud server 62 to control the internal cloud storage on one or more databases 65. Application program interfaces 68 are provided for various external software developers to plug into the cloud software and access the cloud data. A local database generator 69 is coupled to the cloud servers and to the mobile devices and their local databases outside the mobile network. The local database generator serves to provide independent access to and management of the data on the user devices and interacts directly with the user devices' local databases so to update the information therein. As a complementary component to the plurality of users and their mobile devices 22, the mobile system 10 includes a plurality of sales promotion devices 72, each associated with a seller 70. Like the mobile devices 22, the sales promotion devices 72 include a computer that may, optionally, be capable of performing telecommunications functions. The computer within the sales promotion device typically includes at least one processor and associated memory in which stored programs reside and from which the processor executes the program steps of those programs to effect the operations performed by the sales promotion device. The software on the seller dashboard device may take the form of either stand-alone software that executes solely on the sales promotion device or in the form of small program software application components (apps or applets). In either case, data on which the standalone programs or apps operate may be provided by any of a number of sources, such as being input by the seller 70, generated from within the sales promotion device (e.g. via numerical computations) or provided to the sale promotion device 72 over the wired connection 73 or wireless connection 71 that provides network connectivity to the sales promotion devices 72. Most relevant to the present invention, sales promotion device 72 contains a seller dashboard 80 consisting essentially of a computer display coded in software on the sales promotion device. The display provides certain user interfaces, such as a seller profile panel 82, and ad panel 86 a bidding panel 88 and a communications panel 90. Each of these panels or displays is coded in software as a stored program operating on the sales promotion devices, and in sum, they act to create and manage the sales end of the distributed advertising according to the preferred embodiments of the invention. In either stand-alone or app software configurations, the stored program for managing these consumer purchases is programmable, configurable and otherwise capable of being controlled by the seller.
Before describing other portions of the invention, it is first useful to understand the business environment in which the present invention is intended to operate. The system of the present invention is designed and intended to match buyers that have indicated certain product or service preferences with sellers of the same. This matching function has several critical and unique aspects. First, the buyer's purchase preference data, and particularly the buyer's unique identification resides only on the buyer's mobile devices. To the extent that any buyer data is shared with the seller, it is done so without unique reference to the individual buyers. Second, the sellers are located in a particular geographical area; an area identified by the buyer as being one that is often frequented by the buyer and therefore, an area that is ideal for the identification of appropriate purchase opportunities based on the buyer's preferences. Third, the mobile network is integral to matching buyer and seller data. Each of the buyer and seller are somewhat agnostic as to the means by which they are matched, as long at the confidentiality of the buyer's uniquely identifying information is preserved and the seller has an opportunity to potentially increase sales by targeting buyers that have identified them as a preferred vendor, or by various other means as further discussed below.
On the sellers' side, the system of the present invention is particularly useful to small and medium businesses (“SMBs”). These are typically businesses that have one or more physical locations, both permanent and temporary, where a buyer may view, order, and purchase goods and services. The SMBs are distinguished from the large, nation-wide, retail chains or franchised businesses in that they depend on local traffic for the majority of their sales opportunities. A cobbler or corner grocery stores within a major metropolitan area are prime examples of an SMB that would benefit from the system of the present invention. In either seller's case, the goods and services offered may exist and be offered for sale in both physical form (i.e. in store) and digital form (i.e. online). This is not to say that large retailers, which have greater marketing presence and typically extend their sales opportunities by simply attracting buyers to their large-box location, would not also find the system of the present invention useful. Since large retail chains also have physical locations, both permanent and temporary, a buyer may also add large retails chains for later purchase opportunities, most likely within preferred geographic areas set by the buyer. In this manner, destination places or destinations are thought of as physical locations, both permanent and temporary, where a user visits to order, shop, or purchase goods and services. Some examples of a permanent physical location include stores, malls, offices and amusement parks. Some examples of a temporary physical location include “pop-up” stores, concerts, trade shows, art fairs and mobile vending operations. Some examples of more permanent destination places are a large shopping mall, a city street or location, a strip mall, or any other specific point of commercial sale.
Since the present invention is essentially an advertising platform, the term brand is used as a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that distinctly identifies one company's goods or services from those of other companies. A brand might be a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name. Examples of brands include, but are not limited to, national food service chains, hospitality chains, national and regional banks, automobile brands, household products and food products. As far as the advertising of the brand, each brand is competing for a buyer's time and attention in order to build relationships with their target audience(s) or buyers. A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a buyer's decision to choose one product or service over another. Seller and advertiser are used herein interchangeably and may be thought of as any of a SMB, large retailer, destination place, brand or any combination thereof
In one envisioned embodiment, the user controls all product selection criteria and will pick a preferred list of SMBs, destination places and brands from a master list. The master list is presented in menu fashion on the user interface which is necessarily associated with a physical location. These selections will constitute the user inputs and act as an alternative to the specifically selected values that are input by the user. As mentioned, the physical user location may be derived from any information the user inputs directly, examples of which include, but are not limited to, a parcel identifier, a geographic coordinate code (“Geocode”), a global positioning system (“GPS”) coordinate, a country, a state, a county, a district, a zip code, a street address, a street corner, a public location, and/or a public transportation location. This physical location information as input by the user is considered the geo-reference point of the user by the internet service provider. With respect to mobile users, the geo-reference point necessarily moves with the user.
It should be noted that a geocode is a deterministic value that uniquely indentifies a seller regardless of other location-based data. For example, GPS coordinates can be inexact as can street addresses. The geocode of the present invention uniquely identifies a particular seller in the context of this invention, and once determined, is input on the seller's profile panel at 264 of
In another envisioned embodiment, the default list of vendors is conditioned by the mobile network and the ISPs which manage the information transmission to the potential buyers. In this model, the user may pick from a default list of SMBs, destination places, and brands associated with any geo-reference point input by the user. These entities are then screened and/or selected by the internet service provider 55 of
The flexibility of the user interface 130 enables the buyer 20 to add or delete SMBs, destination places and brands through navigation of the user interface. Further, various parsing and search modes may also be engaged within the interface, possibly with managed help provided by the ISP. The user can edit their user preferred list by adding, deleting, and storing individual SMBs, destination places and brands through the interface 30 utilizing these different methodologies at any time. Therefore, the user's repetitive interaction with his or her preferred content in combination with the constant updating and storing of relevant geo-centric lists, optionally as conditioned by the ISP, provides a rich buying experience and sales engagement potential for the user.
The ad server data found in database section 124 and managed by the ad server typically involves sponsored background advertisements and ranking of the same as described in more detail below. This portion of the user's local data base 140 is discussed in connection with
Geocoding as used in this invention, is a unique geographic tag used as part of the overall process of identifying a seller. It is the process of finding associated geographic coordinates (expressed as a singular site location or latitude and longitude) that uniquely identifies a seller. Geocodes may be derived from other geographic data, such as GPS coordinates, street addresses, or ZIP codes (postal codes). Geocodes are described in more detail below with respect to the operation of the present invention. Geocodes are unique as pertaining to a particular seller and within the overall geographic coordinates of the sales and advertisement system of the present invention.
In additional sections of the seller profile panel, information specific to the seller may be provide within data section 268. Included within this data section may be various internal seller data, a seller's contact name, telephone number, and email address. The seller may also wish to include various login data used to access the seller dashboard, such as the user name, password, verification codes and other verification information. Finally, the seller's profile panel may include other miscellaneous seller information 270 such as payment information, payment amount owed, retail square footage, unique physical location identifier, peer-to-peer registered devices, other device connection registration information, seller category, parcel listing, geo-reference radius within which the seller wishes to advertise the goods and services for sale, and the seller's geo-reference point X,Y with is the unique physical location corresponding to the sellers geocode.
The seller's dashboard 280 consists of programmable application functioning as a self-serve platform with primary functions that enable a seller to access, upload and transmit its corporate information, inventory information, and ad content associated with the seller including ongoing and upcoming sales and promotion cycles and the associated physical location for the same. The seller's dashboard 280 is envisioned to be accessed primarily through a mobile device such as a smart phone, tablet, wireless gadget, portable gadget, or portable personal computer, desktop computer, computer server, or smart television. The seller will use the dashboard to access all associated computer equipment, devices and display screens. In the brick-and-mortar world of actual store frontage, the seller traditionally places notices, specials, and advertisements on in front of their physical store location(s) to capture attention and draw foot traffic into their store from the existing, external pedestrian and vehicular traffic outside their physical store. In one particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention, sellers are able to create and access a seller account within data section 286 to input their specific ad content. This is provided for in the ad panel 286 in which the seller is capable of inputting and updating of seller ad content. Within ad panel 286, there are several associated columns of information. For each product to be listed in a mobile advertisement 291-293, the following relevant data is included: content of the ad data 296, and a time code 297 indicating when the ad should be displayed (e.g. W for the week of the year in which the ad should be run). The seller may also associate each item of the seller ad content with a pay code 298 input by the seller. These pay codes would be used by the information provider to determine how that ad content would be positioned within the mobile device display depending on the user preference and setting. These pay codes may include but are not limited to nonpayment (F=free), subscription (S=recurring payment), and bidding (B=bid for ad priority within user interface). Actual prices quoted to the mobile network from the ad panel may be static or they may vary considerably based on any of a number of factors. In one highly dynamic pricing structure, the amount quoted for an item is derived by the ad panel as based on a combination of time code, ad code, and pay code attributed to each item. Finally, the ad code 299 is provided for each advertised good to identify the formatted nature of the advertisement, e.g. data object (DO), text (T), image (I), audio (A), and video (V). These formats may be tied to the to various payment options for each element of the ad content within the dashboard given the precious nature of the bandwidth restrictions on the overall mobile advertising system.
Two other data areas are included as part of the seller dashboard 280. First, the bidding panel 288 is provided and serves to enables the ranking and inclusion of a seller's ad content for distribution throughout the system 10 and display within the ad sponsored background on the user interface and ad server of the plurality of system mobile devices. This is described in more detail later in connection with
A series of USB ports 395 are also included on physical location device 360. These ports are to accommodate various circuit board input/output (“I/O”) functions. Removable, wireless or radio frequency USB dongles 397 may be inserted into USB ports 395 to complete the communications architecture. Each dongle typically also includes its own microprocessor as well as, a wireless radio transmitter and an antenna. In operation, the computers on the dongles, in connection with the programs within the system on a chip 362, run programmable application software application that operate to wirelessly transmit a seller's unique physical location identifier. This wireless signal is used to communicate with other nearby devices, remote hub devices, wireless routers, smart TVs and user mobile devices using Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”) and the Internet Protocol (“IP”) via wireless Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other unlicensed spectrum such as within the 900 MHz spectrum band. Much like the vendor advertisement chalkboards found on street sidewalks, the physical location device is located at the seller physical location and may be attached to a front window, front door, or point of sale counter utilizing screws, tape or Velcro fasteners.
As with all other programming described herein, the programmable software application running on the wireless dongles 397 and the system on a chip 362 will typically be developed with a suitable programmable language, such as, but not limited to, object-oriented languages, C, C++ and/or Java. Through this software, the seller's physical location device serves as a two-way transmitter using low data bandwidths in both licensed and/or unlicensed spectrum space. The programmable software application's primary function is to enable communication with a user device at the seller physical location thus enabling the physical location device to transmit an identifying code to uniquely identify and correlate the seller to the user preference list. Further, the physical location device 360 and its wireless connections provide user devices 12 to access more of the data within the seller dashboard 80—certainly more data than that provided through the wireless ad content distributed by the overall advertisement system 10. For example, full weekly circulars, the entire store inventory, and price list of the seller may be made available to the user's mobile devices 12 through this interface when the buyer is near the seller's geo-reference.
In combination with other proximate physical location devices, the programmable software application operating on the dongles 397 and circuit board 361 may specify higher level network and communication protocols to communicate with other seller's physical location devices within the wireless transmission capabilities of the wireless transmitters and antennae. In this manner, a wireless, ad-based antennae array may be created, particularly within crowded commercial areas such as major metropolitan streets or large indoor commercial establishments such as a mall. Although the physical location device is envisioned to be relatively low-powered in its transmission capability, any one antenna may transmit data over long distances by passing data through other connected physical location devices to reach more remote physical location devices without wireless or wired broadband service provider access to the internet. The data transmission requirements of these physical location devices are expected to provide a transmission range from 10 feet to 100 meters in a line-of-sight fashion, depending on one or more of the antenna power outputs, wireless frequency band used, local geography and environmental characteristics. The data transmission rates may vary from 1 megabit per second (“Mb/s”) in the 900 MHz frequency band to 150 Mb/s in the 2.4 GHz frequency band.
As shown in
With respect to the operation of user devices, user device D1 is communicating from outside of the seller's physical location which has physical location device P3 displayed on the seller's storefront window. In this example, the user interface on D1 allows the user to add the seller represented by the unique physical location identifier from P3 to the user's targeted list of sellers on the user device and as specified by the seller's geo-reference point. The D1 user interface determines the quality of the data transmission from P3 and decides whether to request ad content from P3 or determine a better quality of data transmission when available, to request the ad content from the information provider.
Before the operation of the invention is described with reference to a specific geographical context, it is instructive to discuss the buyer and seller inputs and data flows provided by system 10. As stated, a primary object of the invention is to maintain a buyer's privacy while somehow matching buying preferences to sellers' offerings. Likewise, the relevant sales information and ad specific content of the seller is to be provided to the appropriate buyers. All of this is done with reference to the geographic proximity of the buyer and seller and possibly in the context of temporally conditioned advertising. Therefore, the end goal is to establish a simple, geo-centric, and possibly time-based, association between a buyer's geo-reference point and seller geo-reference point in which the buyer's preferences are matched with the seller's offerings at a mutually convenient time so as to effectuate the ad distribution and complete a resultant sale.
One of the novel aspects of the present invention is the function and location of the buyer's ad server 24. Unlike many of the presently operating business models for commercial advertisement distribution, and the inventions pertaining to the same, the buyer's ad server is on the actual user device 22. It is not part of the seller's ad distribution system, nor are any of the management elements on the mobile network 50 or housed within the ISP's cloud structure 57 and associated hardware and software. The ad server manages all of the specific buyer's preferences, geographic areas of interest and displayed content. The entire management process is user-driven and programmatically selectable by the user. Descriptions regarding the actual mobile device displays are provided infra with respect to the discussion of
The mobile network's role in this process is to maintain the anonymity of the buyer, match geographic information of the respective buyer-seller pairs, match preference and advertising information of the respective buyer-seller pairs and push the sellers' advertising content to the buyer's mobile device 22 to be displayed on its UI 30. What the buyer does with it from there is up to the ad server 24 on the buyer's device as conditioned by the buyer's preferences as executed through user interface 30 on mobile device 22.
As discussed in part above, the buyer's preferences as entered into user interface 30 and mobile device 22 drive the overall purchase decisions and shipping process. Geographic locations 132 of interest are identified and added by the user. These may simply be input by the buyer, added while walking about, or selected from a map. These geographic locations may be transcribed to geocodes as required by the implementation of the system 10. The buyer then inputs sellers of interest, user-targeted lists of SMBs, destination places and brands 134 of interest. These may be individually entered or made available from a prefabricated menu structure or drop-down boxes presented to the user. Deletion of a seller, product or destination place likewise results in the disassociation of a particular buyer's geocode GR(n) from the user's mobile device. In this manner, and as shown in
Again, the user device becomes a useful reservoir of purchasing opportunities when the buyer is physically present within a selected geographic area of interest. As a user configurable option, advertising material may be continuously pushed by the network to the mobile device on a real-time basis at all times or only when a user is within the particular geographic area of interested and is open to purchasing opportunities or temporal intervals matching seller interval cycles. The former might be useful to plan a travel itinerary for a day out of shopping. The latter may be useful during a working day in which only possible locations for good deals on bread, milk and toiletries are desired. As mentioned, an ad server on the buyer's device, under the control of the buyer, is the ultimate arbitrator of the information conveyed to the buyer.
From a seller's perspective, the following information flow occurs. The physical location of seller is derived from information the seller 70 inputs to the seller profile panel 82. This can be derived from one or more of the following data elements input into that panel including: parcel listing, geographic coordinate code (“Geocode”), global positioning system (“GPS”) coordinate, country, state, county, district, zip code, or street address. A parcel listing is associated with real estate tax systems and can also include national, state, and county managed real estate property. The physical location information input by the seller is provided to the information provider 55 within the mobile network 50 and is verified by the information provider through on-site verification and/or third-party verification services. A seller geo-reference point pertains to a seller's single physical location. A seller account can register and maintain a plurality of seller physical locations 261 within the seller profile panel 282, each with a seller physical location associated with a unique geo-reference point. A seller account can further specify a physical geographic boundary or radius from its geo-reference point (shown within 270 of
In operation, the seller transmits its ad content to the ISP 55 directly from the ad panel. Such information would conceivably include product sales details, associated time-based sales offers and ads, and any specialized price computations made by the ad panel based on the information therein. The internet service provider then performs the above-described matching functions for buyers and pushes the advertising content appropriately.
On a more local level, it should be appreciated that the above-described peer-to-peer network may also be used without the assistance of the internet service provider to disseminate the same information. When using the peer-to-peer network, the data transmission and availability may be broader than that provided through the ISP, particularly when the network detects that an interested buyer is geo-located within a range of the seller's location. Nevertheless, the identity of any particular buyer is privately maintained since the information flow is nothing more than site location of the buyer, interested seller identification and data transfer to the buyer's mobile device.
As shown in its most fundamental depiction,
In
Again, with respect to the seller-specified ad distribution radius, this parameter may be input by the seller as a static value, or it may have dynamic components based on various criteria selected by the seller. In one dynamic-based embodiment, the radius is determined by the internet service provider utilizing algorithms based on the seller category 273 and possibly the total number of users identified as having a geo-centric association with the seller within the circles. The seller may in fact be interested in expanding the radius if the number of sellers is over a certain threshold since the probability of creating larger numbers of geo-centric associations is greater. This ad to be disclosed and the buyers to whom they are distributed is determined by the internet service provider since that entity would have all the buyer's profile information, as it pertains to sellers of interest, at its disposal. A seller may additionally specify additional radii having different circumferences so as to accommodate weather, topography, a seller category 273 and the total number of interested buyers within either of the two radii. A seller may start with one radius of interest 971, and depending on the above criteria and the response of the buyers to the ad distribution, the seller may increase that radius to the second level 972 to attract more customers. Additionally, these radii may have time-based components that affect the display of the seller's ads on the buyer's mobile devices. Depending on the locations of the respective buyers within those radii and their respective distance parameters, the buyers will receive the sales and ad notifications from the seller.
Certain other methods of conditioning the distribution of ad content may be considered, however, particularly when the buyer's preferences indicate a particular brand or product. Since brands and products do not have a geo-centric presence apart from their sellers, numerous alternative methods of notifying buyers of the availability of these preferences may be employed. One such system and method is through the use of the seller's bidding panel 88 on the seller dashboard 80.
An examination of the population data within chart 1090 shows the following: CR2 contains the greatest number of system subscribers (1500) that have a geo-association with seller SMB3. This is not surprising given that CR2 is the “home” geo-position of the seller. CR3 is also shown as having the largest population (100,000) as well as the largest number of ad system users (18,000). Therefore, SMB3 must make a trade off in making its marketing decisions: advertise to a smaller group of system users where the advertising penetration is greater as a percentage of system users, or bid for advertising placement in areas (e.g. CR3) in which the sellers advertising penetration is smaller on a population percentage basis. All sellers would benefit greatly from such information, and the system of the present invention may be configured to make this readily available to participating sellers.
It should be appreciated that other indicia may be included in connection with the data provided within chart 1090, even if the accompanying data is not subject to easy collection by the ISPs within the system of the present invention. Foot traffic or vehicular traffic may be additional criteria that influences the marketing decision-making of SMB3. If the majority of the population of CR3 is pedestrian and their geo-associations are geographically tight as between the buyers' geo-locations and the sellers' geo-locations, then SMB3 may find that advertising within CR3 provides little cross-border shopping migration. These overall statistics would be easily determined by the ISPs and made available to the sellers to assist with their marketing (most likely provided at additional cost as well). Geographic maps such as those provided in
Current bids being conducted by the seller are shown as rows and identified by their appropriate bid label. There are two running bids shown in bidding panel 1288: a bid for listing SMB3 and product 1C on the default list 1281 and a bid for listing SMB3 and product 1C in a user parsing (search) list 1285. As mentioned above, the mobile device user may select default criteria for his or her user preferences absent specific identification of sellers, destinations, products, and brands. The bid for the search pertains to the displayed results when a mobile device user conducts a mobile search, for example, for a product that is in their preferred list. The winner of the bid gets the ad placement at the top of the respective bid lists.
Provided within the bidding panel fields, shown at the across the top of the bidding panel 1288 are the maximum number of ads being taken for the bid and display 1282, the bidders rank with respect to the running bid 1283, and the bid time remaining 1284. In addition, the number of geocentric associations with the bid product is provided 1286, the bid price (per thousand advertisements) 1287, the number of users without geo-centric associations 1284 and the total targetable population 1289 (assuming everyone had a mobile device and is present on the system). The bidding seller places his bid in the bid field 1287—shown as $12.00 per thousand for the default list. SMB3 is shown in column 1283 ad the first ranked bidder with this bid and is likely to get the top of the four open spots 1282 if bidding closes without a higher bid placed by another seller. If SMB3 wins the bid for the default list for product 1C then he will pay $36 dollars ($12×28(000)) active users. Note that the bid is per thousand potential users, even though not every buyer has product 1C as a preference. The winning bidder pays to have the ad placed with all system users even though a much likely smaller percentage of those users (1900) shown at 1286 have the higher probability of reacting to the ad placement since they are actively looking to purchase the product. In the end, the winner is bidding for all the devices within the georadius (1900+28,000) as determined by the database manager. Ad codes 1274 pertaining to the type of ad placement to be made (A-audio, V-visual, T-textual) are also shown in the bidding panel 1288 along with a time code 1273 indicating a duration of the ad placement. These factors are also necessarily considered by sellers when placing their bids in 1287.
In the example of
It is precisely the situation in which the user has direct control to input a plurality of targeted sellers, specify parsing commands and geographic areas of interest, that enables the ad server on the user mobile device to deliver ads and offerings relevant to the user at precisely the moment in time the user is most engaged with shopping planning and decisions, the most efficient time to plant a seed for a brand or product. The present invention provides the user direct control over this data push function and the filtering of the returned results enabled by the pull dynamic and enables an innovative ad connectivity system to help build channel relationships between the user and seller. Intuitively the system and method embodies and enables user loyalty with seller and ongoing engagement at a high level of interest for user. The user best knows the user intentions, motives and schedule. It only takes a mobile minute for a user to get a highly relevant view of specials, notices and promotions from their targeted sellers whether it is a shoe repair shop next door or a national food service chain 10 minutes away. The user's push-pull dynamic of the present invention enables the user to get the ads the user wants, when they want it, without sacrificing privacy. Further, significant time savings are afforded the user by optimizing the user's time to plan his or her shopping and taking the time, when scheduled, to compare price and value from various sellers. The user interface of the present invention would efficiently be integrated within the user process for shopping during the day, week, month, or holiday because it is primarily user driven.
The tracking and centralized methodologies of mobile advertising networks which have adapted the tracking cookie methodology from the online internet do not effectively deliver relevant ads and information to the user and in an efficient manner for user data consumption, user data costs, and mobile device battery life. Further the tracking and centralized methodologies of mobile advertising networks have an extremely high privacy cost to the mobile device user in exchange for advertisements and user service value that deliver low quality benefits acutely with local advertising to both mobile device users and for businesses seeking relevant advertising and relationships with mobile device users.
For many small and medium businesses (SMBs) seeking access to mobile advertising, building a mobile-optimized website is a starting point, but they often lack a viable search engine mobile strategy on a cost-efficient basis. Search is recognized as the primary method that a user finds a seller on mobile. Further many SMBs need an on-going, non-obtrusive channel with the user to present offers, reminders, and coupons and maintain user loyalty. Many large brands and large retailers have financial and human resources to access current media advertising networks and techniques. However, the value of localization to the user requires that all sellers be able to access the channel with user. Local sellers deliver convenience to the user with the seller being nearby and the attribute of having purchases come home or delivered. Local sellers are an integral part of the community or neighborhood where the seller can leverage face-to-face interaction and provide assistance. The seller traditionally places notices, specials, and advertisements on the frontage of their physical store location(s) to capture attention and draw foot traffic into their physical location from the existing and daily foot and vehicle traffic outside and nearby their physical store location(s). Therefore, for local advertising to have a meaningful value to a user, all sellers small and big need to access mobile advertising and access the channel with the user.
This invention is adaptable by all SMBs, large retailers, nationwide brand names, and mobile destination places to place ads and run mobile ad campaigns within any budget and on any scale. The system and methodology is adaptable to geo-centric campaigns as small as one urban block, neighborhood and scalable to entire urban city, state and regional geography, nationwide, and globally. The invention provides a comprehensive solution to provide local advertising and larger scale advertising campaigns.
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
Claims
1. A computer-based notification system for distributing sellers' offerings within said notification system to buyers within said notification system, said computer-based notification system including a computer-based mobile network, said computer-based notification system comprising:
- at least one computer-based sales promotion device employed by a seller within said notification system, said sales promotion device coupled to said computer-based mobile network, said sales promotion device including a processor and an associated memory for storing instructions executed by said processor, said sales promotion device having an ad panel operating under software application control, said sales promotion device including a local database accessible by said ad panel software, said seller activating a user interface on said sales promotion device to store seller profile data elements in said local database, said seller profile data elements including ads displayed by said ad panel software and to be displayed within said notification system, said seller profile data elements also including a geographic area serviced by said seller;
- at least one brand seller, said brand seller having a sales promotion device employed by said brand seller within said notification system, said brand seller sales promotion device coupled to said computer-based mobile network, said brand seller sales promotion device including a processor and an associated memory for storing instructions executed by said processor, said brand seller sales promotion device having an ad panel operating under software application control, said brand seller sales promotion device including a local database accessible by said ad panel software, said brand seller activating a user interface on said sales promotion device to store brand seller profile data elements in said local database, said brand seller profile data elements including a brand offering and a brand seller geographic area;
- at least one computer-based mobile device employed by a buyer within said notification system, said buyer mobile device coupled to said computer-based mobile network, said mobile device having an ad server including a processor and an associated memory for storing instructions executed by said processor, said mobile device including a local database accessible by said ad server, said buyer activating a user interface on said buyer mobile device to store buyer profile data elements in said local database, said buyer profile data elements including buyer-specified advertising content and a buyer-specified geographic area; and
- wherein said computer-based mobile network includes a location determining network coupled to said mobile network, said location determining network providing said buyer mobile device with a physical geographic location, said brand seller transmitting said brand offering and said brand seller geographic area to said at least one sales promotion device over said computer-based mobile network, said at least one sales promotion device matching said brand seller geographic area with said geographic area serviced by said seller, said at least one sales promotion device storing said brand offering as an ad in said sellers local database using said ad panel software, said ad server on said buyer mobile device transmitting a request for seller's offerings to said mobile network based on said determined physical geographic location and said buyer-specified geographic area, said mobile network returning a list of seller's offerings including ads and said brand offering based on said transmitted request, said ad server matching said returned seller's offerings to said buyer-specified advertising content and displaying said matched returned list seller's offerings on said user interface on said mobile device.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein said brand offering is one of a company's goods or services.
3. The system of claim 1 including a plurality of said brand sellers and associated brand seller promotion devices, said brand offering being transmitted to said at least one sales promotion device and said matching being made after a bidding process among said plurality of brand sellers is conducted by said notification system.
4. The system of claim 3 wherein said buyer-specified advertising content includes at least one of a seller, a product, or a service, said buyer profile data elements comprising offerings preferred by said buyer, said ad server of said computer-based mobile device filtering said seller offerings so as to display only those that match said buyer preferred offerings.
5. The system of claim 4 wherein said ad server including a bypass feature that is capable of being activated so that said seller's offerings omitted from display by said filter are also displayed on user device, said brand offering matched based on said bidding process and transmitted to said buyer mobile device being displayed within a visible area of said user interface on said buyer mobile device along with said filtered preferred offerings.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein said at least one computer-based sales promotion device is a mobile device, said location determining network providing said at least one computer-based sales promotion device with a physical geographic location, said sales promotion device employed by said seller updating said geographic area being serviced by said seller said specific seller profile data elements vendor notification is one of an advertisement, a circular, a promotion, an event, a destination place or a brand.
7. The system of claim 6 wherein said sales promotion device is a mobile device, including but not limited to: a handheld electronic device, a tablet, a smartphone, a mobile phone, a phablet, a laptop, or a notebook computer.
8. The system of claim 1 said geographic area serviced by said seller is determined by a geocode data element within said local database accessible by said sales promotion device, said geocode being one of: a GPS coordinate, a street address, a country, a city, a state, a district, a zip code, a parcel id, a public location, or a transportation location.
9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of said sales promotion devices and buyer mobile devices and said computer-based mobile network includes peer-to-peer network connections such that said plurality of said sales promotion devices and buyer mobile devices communicate directly with one another.
10. The system of claim 1 wherein said brand offering includes an expiration period data element, said returned seller's offering including said expiration period data element, said brand offering expiring on said buyer mobile device based on said expiration period data element.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 19, 2017
Publication Date: Jan 4, 2018
Inventor: Leonard Z. SOTOMAYOR (New York, NY)
Application Number: 15/709,445
