KR20010095998A - apparatus having matching agent and method for implementing marketing policy - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for executing an electronic commercial marketing policy loaded with a matching agent are provided to evaluate more correctly the effect of an executed marketing policy by tracking a web page executed of the marketing policy. CONSTITUTION: An electronic commercial server(1) in order to operate an electronic commercial site is connected to an Internet(5) and at least one client exists in order to connect to the electronic commercial server(1) through an Internet connecting unit such as a PC, web phone, and Internet TV. The electronic commercial server(1) includes a client database(8) in order to store client information and a commodity database(9) in order to store commodity information. An electronic commercial marketing policy executing apparatus includes a marketing policy database(10) stored with at least one marketing policy, at least one matching interface(11) installed to the electronic server, a matching agent(12) in order to return marketing information which is an executed result of the marketing policy corresponding to the matching interface according to a request of the matching interface(11), and a general-purpose connecting adaptor(13). The marketing policy has a text field in order to define an object client, object commodity, promotion applied to the object client and object commodity, and executing time.

Description

Apparatus having matching agent and method for implementing marketing policy}

The present invention relates to a method for executing an e-commerce marketing policy, and more particularly, an e-commerce marketing policy execution device and an e-commerce marketing policy equipped with a matching agent for the e-commerce manager to provide a more flexible marketing policy for a customer. It is about how to implement.

Internet-based e-commerce does not require physical display of goods or physical space to entertain customers, and is accessible regardless of time and place, which has the advantage of forming a huge market for the whole world. It has its own disadvantages that are difficult to distinguish. That is, since all customers are accessed through the same navigation path, it is difficult to directly grasp the customer's propensity. Therefore, the e-commerce manager can establish and implement a marketing policy to enhance customer loyalty according to the characteristics of the customer. Is not easy.

In other words, the conventional e-commerce server based on the Internet has been added to the role of the e-commerce platform (e-commerce platform) as a basic function necessary for e-commerce, payment function, shopping cart function, etc., but e-commerce is in earnest As it is activated, the ability to develop effective marketing as well as basic commerce is required.

Accordingly, an e-commerce server equipped with an e-commerce agent has been developed and used. E-Commerce Agent is a software for carrying out more specialized marketing policy activities not only to attract existing customers but also to continue trading with existing customers. The e-commerce agent interacts with customers by acting like a customer's assistant between the e-commerce server and customers. It is responsible for providing the necessary information.

The most widely used e-commerce agent is a so-called rule-based agent.

9 is a diagram for explaining the logic structure of a conventional rule-based agent.

9, it can be seen that the rule-based agent has a logical structure of "if ..., then ....". The rule is determined by the e-commerce manager, and follows an algorithm for selecting a target customer and recommending a product (or information). Through this, it is possible to provide personalized content suitable for customer characteristics.

However, when the marketing policy life cycle is divided into three stages of establishing, implementing, and evaluating, the rule-based agent consists of only two stages, namely, target selection and product recommendation. It is difficult to implement various marketing policies such as "price discount policy" and "bundling related products". In addition, it is vulnerable to the establishment of marketing policy and evaluation of marketing policy. Therefore, in order to evaluate the contribution of the applied rule to sales promotion, there is a problem of using a separate evaluation tool called web mining.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an e-commerce marketing policy execution device and an e-commerce marketing policy execution method equipped with a matching agent for executing various marketing policies.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an e-commerce marketing policy execution apparatus equipped with a matching agent and an e-commerce marketing policy execution method for easily evaluating the effect of the implemented marketing policy.

1 is an application of the e-commerce marketing policy providing apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,

2A and 2B are schematic views of a screen defining a marketing policy in a policy management tool;

3 is a diagram specifically illustrating each marketing policy stored in a marketing policy database;

4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating a relationship between a template of an e-commerce server of a matching interface and a corresponding web page;

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of installing a marketing policy database and a matching interface;

6 is a flowchart for explaining a process of executing a marketing policy,

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a web page displayed on a customer by executing the marketing policy a of FIG. 3.

8A and 8B are exemplary views of a web page displayed on a customer by executing the marketing policy b of FIG. 4;

9 is a diagram for explaining the logic structure of a conventional rule-based agent.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

1: e-commerce server 3: customer

5: Internet 8: Customer Database

9: Product Database 10: Marketing Policy Database

11: matching interface 12: matching agent

13: Universal connection adapter

The object is, according to the present invention, a marketing policy database for storing at least one marketing policy comprising a target customer, a target product, and promotion applied to the target customer and the target product; At least one matching interface assigned to the marketing policy and mounted on a predetermined e-commerce server to output information about a customer accessing the e-commerce server and an identification ID thereof; And a target policy defined in the readout marketing policy from the accessible data, from the marketing policy database, based on the identification information and the information about the customer provided from the matching interface. E-commerce marketing policy, comprising: a matching agent for extracting information about a target product, and applying the promotion defined in the read marketing policy to the extracted information to deliver the marketing information to the matching interface; Achieved by the execution device.

Here, it is preferable that the marketing policy further includes a timing of execution so that the marketing policy can be more flexibly executed.

In addition, the matching interface may be installed in a template of the electronic commerce server, and thus, may find an execution space (eg, a web page corresponding to the template) in which a marketing policy is executed.

In addition, it is preferable that the matching agent has a universal connection adapter that can access all connectable data so that the matching agent can effectively access data having various formats.

On the other hand, according to another field of the present invention, the object includes: defining at least one marketing policy including a target customer, a target product, and promotion applied to the target customer and the target product; Assigning at least one matching interface to the marketing policy; Installing the assigned matching interface in a predetermined e-commerce server; Receiving from the matching interface information about the customer of the e-commerce server and an identification ID of the matching interface; Selecting a corresponding marketing policy based on the received information; Extracting information about the selected marketing policy from accessible data; Generating marketing information by applying the selected marketing policy to the extracted information; And it is also achieved by the method for executing an e-commerce marketing policy comprising the step of delivering the marketing information to the matching interface.

Here, it is preferable that the marketing policy further includes a timing of execution so that the marketing policy can be more flexibly executed.

In addition, the matching interface may be installed in a template of the electronic commerce server, and thus, may find an execution space (eg, a web page corresponding to the template) in which a marketing policy is executed.

In addition, it is preferable that the matching agent has a universal connection adapter that can access all connectable data so that the matching agent can effectively access data having various formats.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an application diagram of an e-commerce marketing policy execution apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an e-commerce server 1 for operating an e-commerce site for selling tangible and intangible goods is connected to the Internet 5, and e-commerce through Internet access means such as a PC, a web phone, an Internet TV, and the like. There is at least one customer 3 that can connect to the server 1.

The e-commerce server 1 is software that collectively refers to a web server for operating on the Internet and a commerce server for supporting e-commerce. The e-commerce server 1 is mounted on a host, which is a hardware system, is executed and executed as a reference database. Customer database (8) for storing customer information such as member ID, password, e-mail address, purchase history, etc. in the customer of the site, price information, specification information, image information, And a commodity database 9 for storing commodity information.

The e-commerce marketing policy execution apparatus according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a marketing policy database 10 having at least one marketing policy stored therein, a matching interface 11 installed in the e-commerce server 1, and a matching interface. The matching agent 12 and the matching agent 12 for returning the marketing information, which is the result of the execution of the marketing policy corresponding to the matching interface 11, back to the matching interface 11 in response to a request from the 11. And a universal connection adapter 13 capable of accessing all connectable data.

The marketing policy has a text field for defining the target customer, the target product, and the promotion and execution time applied to the target customer and the target product. Here, the target customer defines the scope of customers for whom the marketing policy is enforced, the target product defines the scope of the product for which the marketing policy is enforced, and the promotion defines the specific sales promotion contents applied to the target customer and the target product. For example, the timing of implementation defines the time constraints on which the marketing policy is enforced.

Marketing policy is created through the policy management tool installed on the terminal PC of the e-commerce manager. The policy management tool is a Java client program. It is implemented in Java and has the advantage that it can be easily changed to an applet running on a web page for each module if necessary.

2A and 2B are schematic diagrams of a screen defining a marketing policy in a policy management tool.

2A and 2B, the e-commerce manager can describe marketing policies in a simple Korean script using a policy management tool with a built-in script engine so that marketing policies can be more easily defined.

3 is a diagram specifically illustrating each marketing policy stored in the marketing policy database 10.

Referring to FIG. 3, the new generation excellent customer promotion policy is 16 years old, and all the clothes sold on the e-commerce site for customers whose total purchase amount so far exceeds 100,000 won or the bonus score exceeds 2000 points according to predetermined criteria It can be seen that it provides 20% off the regular price and sells women's underwear and bonus products. It can be seen that the regular customer promotion policy expresses that air conditioners are provided to customers for one or more purchases at a price 40% off the normal price from March 1, 2000 to April 30, 2000. As such, in the e-commerce marketing policy execution apparatus according to the present invention, since the marketing policy is defined using four fields of target customer, target product, promotion, and execution time, marketing policy can be very flexibly established and implemented. In other words, marketing policy exists as an "object" from an object-oriented programming language.

The matching interface 11 is a software module installed in the electronic commerce server 1 and has an identification ID and is assigned a marketing policy stored in the marketing policy database 10. In this case, the same marketing policy may be assigned to one or a plurality of matching interfaces 11. In more detail, the matching interface 11 is installed in a predetermined area of a template for generating a web page displayed to the customer 3 in the electronic commerce server 1.

Referring to FIG. 4A, a matching interface 11 having identification IDs of # 1 and # 2 is installed in template 1 and template 2, and marketing policy a is provided in both matching interface 11 of # 1 and # 2. If assigned, it can be seen that marketing policy a can be implemented in both web page 1 and web page 2 by template 1 and template 2. Referring to FIG. 4B, two matching interfaces 11 having identification IDs of # 1 and # 3 are installed in template 1, and the matching interface 11 of # 1 has a matching interface of # 3 (eg, marketing policy a). In 11), if the marketing policy b is assigned, it can be seen that different marketing policies a and marketing policy b may be implemented on the web page 1 by the template 1.

The matching agent 12, as a software module, reads and extracts the target customer, the target product, and the promotion, which are the policy definition text of the marketing policy, from the marketing policy database 10 based on the information provided from the matching interface 11. It is responsible for providing the matching interface 11 with marketing information generated by matching the promotion with the information about the product.

The universal connection adapter 13 is a CORBA server capable of processing various types of data data through a standard application program interface (API) required by the matching agent 12. CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) is an object request broker (ORB) standard defined in 1991 that allows Web applications to be accessible to each other regardless of how they are designed and located. The matching agent 12 follows a standard query method that applies a URL (Universal Resoures Locator) in requesting data from the universal connection adapter 13. E.g

"MSSQL: user: pwd@host.com/pub/table? Attribute = 'j'"

In this case, the matching agent 12 finds the universal connection adapter 13 to process the corresponding data through a protocol called MSSQL, and the universal connection adapter 13 logs in to the host with an ID of user, pwd and a database called pub. The desired data is extracted from the stored file called table in the attribute = 'j' and returned to the matching agent 12.

With the above configuration, the method for executing an e-commerce marketing policy according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described.

First, a process of installing a marketing policy database and a matching interface will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

The e-commerce manager defines a marketing policy to be enforced using a policy management tool (step 501).

Next, the matching interface 11 is allocated to the defined marketing policy (step 502). In this case, a plurality of matching interfaces 11 may be allocated. When a plurality of matching interfaces 11 are assigned, the same marketing policy is executed in a plurality of web pages corresponding to a template in which the matching interface 11 is installed.

The marketing policy database 10 is generated based on the defined marketing policy and the identification ID of the assigned matching interface (step 503), and the matching interface 11 is installed on a predetermined template of the e-commerce server 1 (step 504). ).

Next, a process of implementing a marketing policy will be described with reference to FIG. 6.

When the customer connects to the e-commerce server 1 via the Internet 5, the e-commerce server 1 inputs the customer ID, which is customer information, into the matching interface 11. The matching interface 11 provides the customer ID and its identification ID inputted from the e-commerce server 1 to the matching agent 12 and requests execution of the marketing policy assigned to the matching agent 12 (step 601).

The matching agent 12 extracts the marketing policy assigned to the matching interface 11 from the marketing policy database 10 based on the provided identification ID (602).

Next, the text of the extracted marketing policy is analyzed to determine whether the customer having the provided customer ID belongs to the target customer (603).

Reference information about the customer having the customer ID necessary for the confirmation of the target customer can be obtained from the customer database 8. Of course, if necessary, the matching interface 11 may be configured to receive all reference information about the customer, but the former is more preferable in terms of traffic.

Subsequently, if the customer having the customer ID corresponds to the target customer defined in the extracted marketing policy, the matching agent 12 extracts information about the target product from the product database 9 (step 604), and extracts the target product. The promotion defined in the extracted marketing policy is applied to the information on the step S605. Next, the matching agent 12 provides the marketing information, which is the result of the marketing policy generated by applying the promotion, to the matching interface 11 that initially requested the execution of the marketing policy (step 606). "Marketing information obtained by applying promotion" means, for example, if the defined target product is "clothing" and the defined promotion is "10% discount", obtained by applying a 10% discount to the normal price of clothing. Information to be displayed to the customer including the discounted price "means, referring to the drawings in more detail as follows.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary diagram of a web page displayed on the customer 3 by executing the marketing policy a of FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 7, the promotions defined for items A and B of the apparel, which is the target product, are matched to display a discount price for the list price, and a bonus product is provided for purchase with women's undergarments. On the other hand, an image icon linked to the image file of the target product is arranged.

8A and 8B are exemplary views of a web page displayed on the customer 3 by executing the marketing policy b of FIG.

Referring to FIGS. 8A and 8B, an icon displaying promotion of a 40% discount on an Acorn, which is a target product defined in the marketing policy b, is placed, and detailed information is displayed when the customer 3 clicks on the icon. Since the web page may be variously designed by a web designer or the like, various arrangements or configurations other than the illustrated web page are possible.

On the other hand, in the above-described embodiment, the data that can be referred to by the matching agent 12 has been described with only the customer database 8 and the product database 9 provided in the electronic commerce server 1, but the universal connection adapter 13 As described above, it allows access to data having different formats, thereby allowing access to the hard disk, memory, and storage files provided in the e-commerce server 1, as well as other connections available via the Internet 5, if necessary. The data provided in the server can be accessed, and reference information about the target customer and the target product can be obtained therefrom.

In the above-described embodiment, the e-commerce marketing policy execution apparatus according to the present invention has been configured to be mounted on the e-commerce server based on the Internet. However, an intranet, a wireless network, a telephone network, etc. may be customized through customization of a matching interface. Of course, it can be mounted on the service providing system based on.

As described above, according to the present invention, an e-commerce marketing policy execution apparatus capable of variously defining a target customer, a target product, promotion, and timing according to the needs of an e-commerce manager, and implementing more flexible and various marketing policies, and A method for implementing an e-commerce marketing policy is provided.

In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to know where the matching interface is installed so that it is possible to track the web page where the marketing policy is implemented, and thus it is possible to more accurately evaluate the effect of the implemented marketing policy, and it is very easy to compare and analyze it. Will be. That is, the e-commerce manager can introduce, modify, or discard the marketing policy more appropriately in accordance with the commerce situation, so that the customer's requirements and interactions can be more efficiently executed.

Claims (8)

A marketing policy database for storing at least one marketing policy comprising a target customer, a target product, and a promotion applied to the target customer and the target product; At least one matching interface assigned to the marketing policy and mounted on a predetermined e-commerce server to output information about a customer accessing the e-commerce server and an identification ID thereof; And Read the marketing policy assigned the matching interface from the marketing policy database based on the identification information and the identification information of the customer provided from the matching interface, and the target customer and the target defined in the marketing policy read from the accessible data. E-commerce marketing policy execution, comprising: a matching agent for extracting information about a product, and applying the promotion defined in the read marketing policy to the extracted information to deliver the marketing information to the matching interface. Device. The method of claim 1, The marketing policy, the electronic commerce marketing policy execution apparatus further comprising the execution time. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The matching interface, the electronic commerce marketing policy execution apparatus, characterized in that installed in the template of the e-commerce server. The method of claim 3, The matching agent, E-commerce marketing policy execution apparatus characterized in that it comprises a universal connection adapter that can access all connectable data. Defining at least one marketing policy comprising a target customer, a target product, and a promotion applied to the target customer and the target product; Assigning at least one matching interface to the marketing policy; Installing the assigned matching interface in a predetermined e-commerce server; Receiving from the matching interface information about the customer of the e-commerce server and an identification ID of the matching interface; Selecting a corresponding marketing policy based on the received information; Extracting information about the selected marketing policy from accessible data; Generating marketing information by applying the selected marketing policy to the extracted information; And E-commerce marketing policy execution method comprising the step of delivering the marketing information to the matching interface. The method of claim 5, The marketing policy, the e-commerce marketing policy execution method characterized in that it further comprises an execution time. The method according to claim 5 or 6, The matching interface, the e-commerce marketing policy execution method, characterized in that installed in the template of the e-commerce server. The method of claim 7, wherein And the matching agent comprises a universal connection adapter capable of accessing all connectable data.