RU2458400C2 - Issuing and returning bonus points using wireless communication protocols of encoded product - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: information technology.

SUBSTANCE: in the method, a wireless device use accumulates bonus points by sending a bonus code message to wireless communication gateway connected to multiple independent subjects of the product or remote services. A billing server accumulates bonus points earned by a consumer from bonus servers and credits the accumulated points to a separate account for returning the bonus associated with the user. The consumer can then chose the purchase item from the object of issuing bonus points or return credits for accessing multiple services using the accumulated bonus points.

EFFECT: high reliability when initiating a consumer loyalty program using wireless communication owing to verification of the consumer ID and the product ID, the service in each message received by the bonus central processing unit.

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Description

State of the art

The present invention generally relates to consumer reward programs.

Reward or consumer loyalty programs are widely used by firms to gain new customers and also to retain existing customers. Rewards or points are accumulated for each purchase of a particular product or service from the company. Airline bonus miles are an example of the most popular loyalty programs.

In many of the existing consumer reward programs, the product or service of the purchase transaction is electronic, and it is initiated when the consumer uses a loyalty card, credit card, debit card or, in the case of telephone (cellular) loyalty programs, makes a call using his phone.

However, in many cases, the consumer buys a product or service through a non-electronic operation. Such operations are usually not covered by existing reward or customer loyalty programs.

Mobile wireless communications using cell phones, PDAs, portable laptops, etc., are becoming the most widespread form of electronic data transfer in the world. Email and text messaging through the Short Message Service (SMS) are widely used to send and receive electronic messages in a mobile environment.

It would be desirable to take advantage of the increasing availability of wireless communications to initiate the operation of a customer loyalty or reward program.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and apparatus for controlling a program for wirelessly issuing, accumulating and returning reward points, at least a portion of which uses the wireless transmission of input product ID and service codes by a program consumer.

In one aspect, a method for managing a wireless reward issuance program is disclosed, which includes the steps of establishing a central reward processor that controls the input, authentication, and administration of reward codes associated with products and services, in accordance with the increasing accumulation of pre-set reward points on behalf of, at least one entity issuing reward points, transferring at least a portion of the input reward codes to the wireless gateway water communication, including wireless transmission from the consumer’s source device, and checking the consumer ID and product / service ID in each message received by the processor and storing reward points associated with the product ID or service ID, in accordance with predefined rules reward programs in the consumer account for one subject of reward points.

In another aspect, the reward program device includes a discrete product ID and a service ID applied to each individual product and service covered by the reward point program, a central reward server adapted to receive a consumer ID, a product ID and a service ID via a communication gateway from the consumer device moreover, at least part of the communication gateway includes wireless communication, a company loyalty accounting server, provided for at least one company entity participating in the reward program awards, a separate reward point consumer account set up in at least one of the servers: a central reward server and a company’s loyalty account server, the central reward server accumulating reward points for an individual consumer, and at least one of the servers: a central server rewards and the company’s loyalty accounting server compares the accumulated points of an individual consumer with the reward threshold and allows the return of at least some of the reward points when and the accumulated points will exceed the threshold of individual consumer reward points.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Various features, advantages, and other uses of the present invention will become more apparent by reference to the following detailed description and drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a device for issuing, administering the accumulation and return of reward points,

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the device of FIG. 1 and

FIG. 3 is a more detailed block diagram of the device of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In one aspect of FIG. 1 of FIG. 3, the central control system manages the communication line to mobile stations in the computer network and transmits packets to the payloads of SMS, MMS or Internet messages containing specific content created by a mobile user located far from the central reward server 24, implemented as a sign of a communication line, such as a wireless network of a telecommunications company, which can be implemented as a short message service center (SMSC) and a mobile multimedia service environment (MMSE) or the Internet network 12, manages the same Yemen transmissions originating in mobile stations, representing the input data of mobile and / or wireless users.

At least part of the telecommunications company network 22 may include wireless communications. The central reward server 24 addresses the main network server, for example, via HTTP, which supports the main set of consumer data, product and service ID codes, etc. Server 24 receives mobile input from network 22 of a telecommunications company or Internet 12.

The specific actions initiated by the mobile user 16, 18, 20, including the product and service ID, or wireless PC 21, are received at the central server 24. Server 24, interacting with the telecommunications company network or Internet 12 and one or more loyalty accounting servers 10, runs in the scheduled peer-to-peer interval to authenticate users, determine event content, and process input confirmation.

In accordance with one aspect of FIG. 3, a mobile communication device or user interface, typically a mobile wireless communication device, such as a cell phone 16, PDA 18 or computer 20, 21, only by way of non-limiting examples, interacts with the communication network 22. The communication line or network 22 can be any type of communication provider, either wireless or not, such as WiFi, Internet, direct cable connection, Ethernet, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, EDGE, Token ring, etc., but not limited to . Such a network 22 may comprise a short message service center (SMSC) adapted for short text messaging, an Internet protocol having displayed drop-down menus allowing the user to select input, or a multimedia service (MMS) providing audio and graphic data.

Although the following example of a wireless content request relates to a short message service using a subset of the SMSC of a telecommunications company’s wireless network 22, it will be understood that similar data entry protocols or media choices, for example via drop-down menus, can also be used.

Before continuing with the description of the communication network, it will be understood that the loyalty program requires that each event of an individual product or service be provided with a unique ID or identifier. Thus, in the case of a plurality of products sold in a package, such as six beverage packages, each individual beverage container in six packages will carry a unique product identifier. Any suitable authentication protocol may be used, such as a 128-bit alphanumeric character. The product identifier can be printed directly on the container or attached to the container using other suitable means such as barcode label, etc. Each event of an individual product or service may also include an SMS address for a consumer to enter a product or service ID. Alternatively, the SMS address for entering the product or service ID can be provided to the consumer using a separate tool, such as in a separate SMS message, advertising, etc.

It will also be understood that an SMS address, which would typically include a large number of alphanumeric characters, can be provided in short form, such as a short form of four or five digits, similar to using short Internet domain names for a complete Internet address.

The corresponding SMS address, such as, for example, “1414”, is entered by the user through the communication device 16, 18, 20 or 22 to identify the service of the loyalty program. Then, messages formed from UNICODE or ASCII characters are entered using the user through the user interface 16, 18 or 20 to identify the product or service ID. For example, the text message “AB123” may be entered by the user through the communication device 16, 18, 20 or 21.

ID AB123 can identify a specific beverage product and container. In addition, the product or service ID can also be used to distinguish between geographical areas, individual stores, etc.

These signals are transmitted to the SMSC, where they verify the validity of the consumer ID. The location of the consumer is transmitted from the SMSC to the server 24 via wired and / or wireless. Server 24 receives data from SMSC and interacts with servers 10 of the company’s loyalty accounting network.

The individual consumer ID, the amount of reward points can be checked, accumulated and stored in the server 24 or, alternatively, in each of the servers 10 accounting for the loyalty of the company. Each server 10 may, when the amount of remuneration for an individual consumer exceeds a predetermined threshold entitling the consumer to remuneration, transmit information about the remuneration through the server 24 to the consumer via SMS text message, Internet e-mail, etc. The consumer can choose to return his or her reward points by selecting a specific reward, as suggested by the reward point issue object in the response message, or after viewing an interactive catalog of various rewards that the consumer can choose based on the size of the reward amount and other factors.

Server 24 can also set an independent reward point account for each of the multiple servers 10. Each independent reward point account for a consumer, and it is obvious that one particular consumer can have many accounts, one for each different reward point issuer, is stored as a special server register fees in the server 24.

The return of reward points can also be based on a specific subject of issuance of remuneration points, and the number of points accumulated by a consumer for this particular subject of issuance of remuneration allows the consumer to receive remuneration only from this one subject. Alternatively, server 24 may implement a reward point sharing program, wherein reward points accumulated for a particular consumer in one issue of the reward point subject can be transferred, according to the rules of the reward program, to another reward point object.

Server 24 can also send a message via SMSC to the consumer, thanking the consumer for entering data. It will confirm that the input is completed. At the same time, the message to the consumer 16 may include other messages, such as an offer to buy additional products or services.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 depict block diagrams of the main components of the device. Server 24 includes the so-called m-Venue server 61, which interacts with the servers 10 of the company network.

FIG. 3 also depicts the transmission or forwarding of digital data signals from consumer interfaces or devices 16, 18, 20, and 21 through a signaling network 22 of a telecommunications company, as described above in connection with FIG. 1, or via Internet 12. Server 24, as described above, can receive input from any source. Then, the server 24 checks the signal for validity, processes it, stores it in the database, and transmits the data to the network server 10 in the aspect shown in FIG. one.

Claims (7)

1. A method of communication with a program for issuing, accumulating and returning data of reward points having a central reward processor that controls the input, authentication and administration of codes associated with one of the individual products and individual services requested by the consumer, and with the increasing accumulation of pre-set reward points from the name of at least one entity issuing reward points, the method comprising the steps of:
the consumer receives a unique ID code in accordance with one product or one service after the consumer receives the product or service;
transmitting the ID code by the consumer in accordance with one of the product or service requested by the consumer via wireless communication from the consumer’s source device to a remotely located server and
check the consumer ID and product / service ID in each message received by the server from the consumer, the server transfers the consumer ID and product / service ID to the central reward processor to save the reward points associated with the product ID or service ID, in accordance with predefined rules reward programs in the consumer account for one subject of reward points. 2. The method according to claim 1, in which the transfer step further comprises:
establishing a short message service protocol for transmitting product and service identifiers from each consumer to the central reward processor. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a discrete product ID and a discrete service ID to each individual discrete product and service. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: allowing the return of at least some of the accumulated reward points when the accumulated reward points of the consumer exceed the threshold reward points. 5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising providing a short message service protocol address in at least one product ID and service ID. 6. A communication device for communication with a program for issuing, accumulating and returning reward points, comprising:
Discrete product ID and discrete service ID applied to each discrete product and service covered by the reward point program,
a central reward server adapted to receive a consumer ID, product ID and service ID via a communication gateway from a consumer device, wherein at least a portion of the communication gateway includes a customer’s wireless communication product ID and / or service ID associated with one of the products and services accepted by the consumer. 7. A communication device for communication with a program for issuing, accumulating and returning reward points, comprising:
a company loyalty accounting server provided for at least one company entity participating in the remuneration program,
a separate consumer account of accumulated reward points created in the company’s loyalty accounting server, wherein the company’s loyalty accounting server compares the accumulated points of an individual consumer with the reward threshold and allows the return of at least some of the reward points when the accumulated reward points of an individual consumer exceed the reward point threshold ;
Discrete product ID and discrete service ID applied to each discrete product and service covered by the reward point program,
a central server adapted to receive a consumer ID, a product ID and a service ID through a communication gateway from a consumer device, wherein at least a portion of the communication gateway includes a customer’s wireless communication product ID and / or service ID for products or services requested by a consumer , the server transmits reward data to the company’s loyalty accounting server.

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