IES80428B2 - A method for capturing consumer information - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for capturing consumer information regarding consumers' purchasing preferences includes issuing unique item numbers (UINs) to participating businesses, each UIN being unique to and associated with a given item of product or service. An advertising campaign informs consumers of the availability of discount vouchers, rebate vouchers, entry into a prize draw and/or other rewards in return for the purchase of items of products or services bearing UINs. Participating consumers register by providing personal information to the organisation operating the method, which is entered into a database, and the organisation issues unique buyer numbers (UBNs) to participating consumers, each UBN being unique to and associated with a given consumer. When a consumer buys a product or service, he/she communicates the UIN of the product/service together with his/her UBN to the organisation. The organisation stores each received UIN in the database in association with the profile information corresponding to the respective UBN, and provides the consumer with the appropriate purchase reward(s).

Description

This invention relates to a method for capturing consumer information, in particular a method for capturing personalised purchase information by providing an incentive for consumers to reveal their identity together with details of their purchase.

Manufacturers have for many years attempted to get to know the purchasing preferences of their target markets more closely, with a view to using this information to create more informed communications programmes with a view to satisfying their customers' needs more accurately.

Consumers are interested in receiving commercial information if it is relevant to their purchasing needs. Co-ordinating the communications programmes of manufacturers to match the needs of the consumer has proven to be difficult. This results in poorly targeted communications such as the muchdespised junk mail.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method of capturing consumer information which can lead to coordination of the communications programme and the needs of the target market, resulting in less waste and higher response to advertising and sales promotion efforts.

Accordingly, the invention provides a method for capturing consumer information, comprising issuing unique item identifiers to participating businesses, each unique item identifier being unique to and associated with a given item of product or service, receiving profile information concerning participating consumers and entering such information in a database, issuing unique buyer identifiers to participating consumers, each unique buyer identifier being unique to and associated with a given consumer, receiving unique buyer identifiers from participating consumers who have purchased an item of product or service bearing a. unique item identifier, in each case together with the respective unique item identifier, storing each received unique item identifier or related product or service information in the database in association with the profile information corresponding to the respective unique buyer identifier, and providing the consumers with the purchase rewards .

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing whose single figure illustrates the steps of a method for capturing consumer information according to the invention.

An organisation 1 operating the scheme first recruits businesses to participate in the scheme by a communications campaign, step 4. The participating businesses may be manufacturers and/or retailers and/or service providers.

The organisation 1 then issues Unique Item Numbers (UINs), step 2, which are allocated to and received by participating businesses, step 5. Each UIN is unique to and associated with a given item of product or service, and thus uniquely identifies that item. The UINs are essentially serial numbers, or number/letter combinations, which differ from one single item of product or service to another of the same product or service. The UIN may be printed on the packaging of a retail product, or directly on the product itself, step 6. In this case the UIN will be automatically acquired by a consumer upon purchase of the product. Alternatively, the UIN may be printed on a coupon which is handed to the consumer upon purchase of the item of product or service.

In parallel to the issuing, allocation and printing of UINs to participating businesses, the organisation 1 conducts an advertising campaign, step 7, to recruit participating consumers to the scheme. Such a campaign may be conducted by television, radio and/or poster advertising, by mailshots, by point-of-sale material, etc. Such campaign informs consumers generally of the availability of purchase rewards (as defined below) in return for the purchase of items of products or services bearing UINs.

A participating consumer is recruited to the scheme, step 8, when that consumer returns profile information voluntarily to the organisation 1 in response to the advertising campaign. Profile information means personal details such as (but not necessarily including all of) the name, age, sex, address, marriage status, job, type/ownership of dwelling, number of family members of. the consumer, and so on. Profile information may also include information regarding that consumer's purchasing preferences, although that is not strictly necessary as such information will be built up over time by operation of the scheme, as will be described below. The profile information may be returned to the organisation l by mail on a form provided by the organisation 1, by a freephone telephone number, or by any other suitable method.

Participating consumers may also or alternatively be recruited by deriving their profile information from an existing database of consumer information, for example a database purchased from another organisation. In such a case the consumer may not necessarily know in advance that he/she t is a participant in the scheme, and will only become aware of such when he/she receives a Unique Buyer Number, as described below.

When the organisation 1 receives profile information concerning a particular consumer, whether directly from the consumer or from an existing database, the consumer is issued with a Unique Buyer Number (UBN) 3, step 9, which is a number, or number/letter combination, unique to that consumer. It is like a serial number for that particular consumer, and uniquely identifies the consumer. The UBN may be issued on a plastics card having dimensions similar to those of a conventional credit card, and having a magnetic stripe, bar code or other machine-readable code which contains the actual UBN. The UBN may additionally or alternatively be issued in eye-readable form on the card.

The organisation 1 also establishes a database 14, into which the organisation enters each participating consumer's profile information and also the UBN allocated to that consumer.

In operation of the scheme, products or services carrying UINs are purchased by participating consumers, step 10. ! Having made a purchase, the unique UIN of the particular item of product or service purchased, together with the consumer's unique UBN, is communicated to the organisation 1. This may be done automatically at the point of sale, step 11, or remotely such as by audiotext, step 12. However, any other suitable method by which the consumer may communicate his/her UBN together with the UIN to the organisation 1 can be used.

In respect of each UBN/UIN combination received by the organisation 1, the UIN is entered into the database 14, where it is associated with the previously stored profile information for the particular consumer identified by the UBN. Thus, over time, the database 14 builds up a personal purchase record of each participating consumer, i.e. a detailed picture of the consumers' purchasing habits. Instead of storing the actual UIN in the database, one could alternatively store related product or service information represented by that UIN, at a minimum the type of product or service purchased but also, for example, the geographic location of the purchase where the particiating business is a retailer, or any other information which can be determined from the UIN by the organisation 1.

Each received UIN/UBN combination is also entered into a prize draw, step 13, by the organisation 1. This provides the inducement for consumers to become members of the scheme, which was communicated to the consumers by the advertising campaign, step 7. The inducement could alternatively or additionally be voucher(s) providing a discount on the purchase of product(s) and/or service(s) referred to on the voucher(s), voucher(s) conferring the right to further entry(s) to the prize draw upon the purchase of product(s) and/or service(s) referred to on the voucher(s), a voucher for a rebate on the purchase price of the product or service just purchased, or any other instrument or right conferring an actual or potential financial advantage to the consumer.

All such inducements are collectively referred to herein as purchase rewards.

Finally, from the database 14, the organisation 1 generates 5 and supplies invoices to the participating businesses, and provides the participating consumers with the appropriate vouchers, prize draw entries or other purchase rewards.

Claims (5)

1. A method for capturing consumer information, comprising issuing unique item identifiers to participating businesses, each unique item identifier being unique to and associated with a given item of product or service, receiving profile information concerning participating consumers and entering such information in a database, issuing unique buyer identifiers to participating consumers, each unique buyer identifier being unique to and associated with a given consumer, receiving unique buyer identifiers from participating consumers who have purchased an item of product or service bearing a unique item identifier, in each case together with the respective unique item identifier, storing each received unique item identifier or related product or service information in the database in association with the profile information corresponding to the respective unique buyer identifier, and providing the consumers with the purchase rewards.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, further including informing consumers generally of the availability of purchase rewards in return for the purchase of items of products or services bearing unique item identifiers, the profile information being received voluntarily directly from consumers who wish to participate. .

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the profile information is derived from an existing database of consumer information.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the unique buyer identifier is issued to each participating consumer in machine-readable and/or eye-readable form on a card. # ί

5. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the purchase rewards are discount vouchers, rebate vouchers, entries into a prize draw, or any other instruments or rights conferring an actual or potential financial advantage to the 10 consumer.