WO2004055706A1

WO2004055706A1 - Flexible subscription method

Info

Publication number: WO2004055706A1
Application number: PCT/IB2003/005952
Authority: WO
Inventors: Christophe Bunn
Original assignee: Christophe Bunn
Priority date: 2002-12-18
Filing date: 2003-12-15
Publication date: 2004-07-01
Also published as: FR2849237A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a data processing method. The inventive method involves the following steps, namely: a supply step (102, 104, 106) in which a remote information server is provided with information from a user terminal, said information comprising at least one electronic address; a collection step (108) in which data relating to at least one remote third-party server are collected by a server remote from the user terminal; a content transmission step (110, 112) which is performed on a pre-determined date, whereby information comprising content which is representative of the collected information is transmitted by the remote server; an article selection step (114) in which the addressee of the electronic message can select articles; and, in the event of at least one article being selected, a transmission step involving the transmission of information that is representative of the aforementioned selection (118), as a function of each selection.

Description

FLEXIBLE SUBSCRIPTION PROCESS

The present invention relates to a flexible subscription method. It applies, in particular, to electronic commerce and to subscriptions to weekly, bimonthly, monthly, bimonthly magazines and other periodical magazines.

There are divergences of interests which exist today between the editors of monthly magazines and their readers Indeed, an editor would have any interest in that the

1 If all of its customers are subscribers, this would allow it to know each month the exact number of units to be produced.Moreover, advertising-related revenues represent a significant share of publishers' revenues and the number of subscriptions is the basis of income from both readers and advertisers To encourage readers to subscribe, they are prepared to give them a large discount In number sales, the proportion of unsold products

20 is very important

The reader, on the other hand, would prefer to have the flexibility to choose his magazines each month according to his interests and the subjects treated. But today the only flexible solution is to buy them from distributors, at a high price. Let us illustrate his frustration with the following example

25 "Each month, I have time to read about four monthly and my interests can relate to a dozen distinct titles On the one hand, the subscription does not interest me, because I do not have the means of subscribing to all the subscriptions and the topics approached by all these titles will not necessarily interest me each month On the other hand, I do not want to pay each magazine at a high price, by buying it at retail

30 Therefore, I read far less than I would like "

This problem illustrates a potential shortfall for publishers The present invention intends to respond to this problem

To this end, the present invention relates, according to a first aspect, to an information processing method comprising

-. a step of supplying, from a user terminal intended for a remote information server, information comprising at least one electronic address, a step of collecting, by a server remote from the user terminal, data relating to at least one article,

- on a predetermined date, a content transmission step, during which the remote server transmits to said user, information having a content representative of the information collected,

a step for selecting articles, during which the recipient of said content can select articles,

- in the case of selection of at least one article, a step of transmitting information representative of said selection Thanks to these provisions, the advantages of subscribing to several periodical publications and the free purchase of magazines on newsstands are cumulated (low price and home delivery for the first, flexibility of choice for the second) and their drawbacks are reduced The present invention can be implemented on any telecommunications network, for example, Internet, fixed or mobile telephone network, Minitel (registered trademark) and network of personal assistants

In the field of publishing, the implementation of the invention thus makes it possible to sell magazines to individuals, repeatedly and regularly, and constitutes a new sales channel for publishers. Thus, the subscriber can be Deliver magazines to their homes that they can choose each month, while benefiting from a price reduction Publishers will also gain by increasing their sales and reducing unsold newsstands

In other fields, including the sale of products, services or information, the present invention makes it possible to offer the user, information collected, possibly according to criteria which he defines beforehand in order to offer him these products, services or information The user can thus reduce the number of spam e-mails (in English "spam") that he receives when, for each site that may interest him, he is obliged, to stay informed, to accept to receive all the e-mails electronics offered by merchant sites

We observe that the predetermined date may depend on various factors such as the completion of the collection stage, the availability of items

According to particular features, during the content transmission step, the information server transmits an electronic message to said electronic address, Message elect ^r onιque having a link to an information site with content accessible to user is representative of the information collected Thanks to these provisions, the user accesses the offer very easily by clicking on the link According to particular characteristics, the process as succinctly explained above also includes a payment step on a payment site.

Thanks to these provisions, the payment of the ordered articles can be carried out independently from the third party remote servers. According to particular characteristics, the stage of transmission of content is repeated on predetermined periodic dates Thanks to these provisions, periodic offers can be made to the 'user

According to particular characteristics, the collection operation involves the transmission of information, by remote third-party servers. Thanks to these provisions, the information site receives information from the remote third-party servers.

According to particular characteristics, during the supply step, the user selects centers of interest and / or suppliers and, during the item selection step, the content accessible to the user of said site. information is representative of each interest and / or supplier selected by the user during the supply stage Thanks to these provisions, the offer is personalized

According to particular characteristics, the process as succinctly explained above comprises a step of determining the price to be paid by the user, a price which depends on the number of articles selected by the user. Thanks to these provisions, the user is encouraged to acquire items through the flexible subscription system

According to particular characteristics, during the content transmission step the server of ιnforrr> atιo ⁿ transmits an electronic message to said electronic address, electronic message comprising a content representative of the information collected. Thanks to these provisions, the user does not need to go to a site to have content that is likely to interest him

Other advantages, aims and characteristics of the present invention will emerge from the description which follows, given with regard to the accompanying drawings in which

- Figure 1 shows a network of computer systems adapted to implement the method object of the present invention and - Figure 2 shows a flowchart of implementation of an embodiment of the method object of the present invention

Throughout the description called "system! All functions have ^r the implementation of the present invention and" article "which may be provided by third parties such as magazines, information, material objects or services can be observed in Figure 1 , a computer user terminal 10 a telephone user terminal 11, a computer network 15 a telephone network 16 an information server 20 hosting an information site 21 and having a synthesis system voice and modulated signal recognition (known as DTMF for Dual Tone Modulation Frequency) and / or voice recognition 22, remote third-party servers 25 and 30 and a payment server 35

The computer user terminal 10 is, for example, a personal computer of known type, or a personal assistant The telephone user terminal 11 is, for example, a fixed or mobile telephone, possibly provided with computer functions The computer network 15 is, for example , the Internet network The telephone network 16 connects the fixed or mobile telephone sets The information server 20 and the information site 21 are suitable for implementing the method which is the subject of the present invention, in interaction with the remote third-party servers 25 and 30 The payment server 35 is, for example, a banking site. As a variant, at least two of the servers 20, 25 and 30 are combined.

It is observed, in FIG. 2, that, during a step 102, the user accesses an information site hosted by an information server. The user subscribes to the flexible subscription service and provides at least an electronic address, for example a telephone number or, preferably, an electronic mail address

It is observed that the name, first name and address of the user are preferably provided by him with the means of payment, during step 102

Optionally, during a step 104, the user chooses centers of interest or subjects which interest him, suppliers of articles which he prefers, a number of articles which he thinks or undertakes. acquire on a regular due date, and provide payment data (for example bank card number and expiry date)

Optionally, during a step 106, the user defines an order for articles which will be supplied to him by default, that is to say if he does not make any other selection, as indicated below.

During a step 108, the information server collects information on available items According to a first embodiment of step 108, the information server waits to receive said information from servers of suppliers of Articles According to a second embodiment, on a date agreed in advance, the information server interrogates each article supplier server to receive said information.

On a predetermined date, for example at substantially equal time intervals during a step 110, the information server sends the user an electronic message to inform him of the availability of the information presenting the articles. e-mail address is an e-mail address, the electronic message is an e-mail, which preferably includes a hypertext link to an information site hosted by the information server If the electronic address is a number mobile phone, the electronic message is preferably an alphanumeric message, for example a short message (known as SMS acronym of the English words "short message System" for short message system) or an audible message, for example generated by a text-to-speech device It is observed that the predetermined date may depend on factors such as the date of completion of step 108, or a date, forecast or not, of availability of the items offered

According to a first variant, the electronic message includes information on the articles likely to interest the user. In this case, during step 110, the information server 20 transmits an electronic message to the electronic address of the user, electronic message comprising a content representative of the information collected. In a second variant, the user is invited to receive this information by replying to the electronic message (click on a hypertext link or call back of the telephone number which issued the electronic message), during an optional step 112 For example, the client accesses the information site and sees the magazine summaries and / or summaries of articles from these magazines Preferably, the information accessed by the user is representative of choices he has previously made, interests or subjects or suppliers of articles

During a step 114, the user makes a selection of articles which he wishes to receive Then, during a step 116, the user triggers the payment of the articles which he has selected or the default selection As a variant, it provides information on means of payment during this operation 116 As a variant, if the user does not make any selection before the date of dispatch of the articles or if he chooses his selection by default, the articles which '' he selects by default are invoiced to him (possibly with an automatic debit from his bank account) and are transmitted to him Preferably, during a price determination step 115, the information server determines a price to be paid by the user who depends on the number of articles he selects For example, a percentage reduction applied to the sum of the unit prices of the articles increases according to the number of articles For example, the determin The price takes into account the following variables, coming from a database kept by the information server, the cost price of the number, the subscription sales prices, the number of items purchased, and possibly other variables

During a step 118, the information server addresses to the server of each supplier or distributor of at least one selected item, the contact details of the user and the details of his order. It is observed that the supplier here is not necessarily the same entity as that which provided the information on the article and which produces it indeed, in a variant the information server does not communicate the coordinates of the customers to suppliers, but only to the distributors who send the articles As a variant, the information concerning the selection of each user is transmitted to a distributor who collects the articles ordered by the user before dispatching them, in order to save on shipping costs The system then returns to steps 108 and following or the login of another user and returns to step 102

During an optional step 120, the user interrupts the flexible subscription service, for example by requesting a regular supply of an article (for example each issue of a magazine), or by asking not to receive any more article from the flexible subscription service The system uses a means of payment supplied by the user only once for several deliveries and the user is assigned a service user name and a password (chosen by himself or by the information server) which he can enter each time he is invited to select articles and / or to trigger a payment when he wishes to modify his personal data Alternatively, the user is recognized by the use of dynamic links and / or cookies (identification file stored on the user's terminal)

At any time, the user can modify the data concerning him, in particular his electronic address, his centers of interest and the suppliers who interest him. At any time, the system can analyze and provide the data that he collects during how it works to provide statistics of customer profiles for each item of correlations between selected items

According to alternative embodiments, the information site hosted by the information server includes links with the servers of the suppliers of articles, called "remote third party" servers. According to other alternative embodiments, the information site hosted by the information server includes additional information on the articles (subjects, authors, suppliers, specifications, summaries). Thus, the user can complete his knowledge of the article before ordering it. Preferably, any communication of personal or confidential information is protected by a secure communication mode (for example under SSL protocol for Secure Socket Layer, in the case of Internet communication)

Preferably, the information site includes a means of ^r esearch articles, providers, centers of interest or topic for the user to easily learn about the items may be of interest as Prefect entiellement, the information server automatically sends to users who have accepted it an information letter ("newsletter") which suggests articles according to the interests of each recipient Preferably, when accessing the information site, the user can query it to find out the status of an order being processed (during manufacture, part shipment, arrival shipment, expected delay) The necessary information circulate between the distributor or distributor or router of the articles, if there are any, and the information server

Preferably, the system performs, during a step 122, an estimate of the number of units that the publishers will sell each month by using the method which is the subject of the present invention. In the particular case of the sale of press titles, the calculation will consist in statistically establishing the number of XYZ titles that will be sold each month, from the following variables the number of subscribers who have chosen XYZ in their pool (remember that the word "pool" designates a reserve in which we can draw the resources which interest the user), the number of titles in each pool, the number of magazines sent to each subscriber, if XYZ is a default choice (more likely to be chosen), and finally the historical data which may reinforce the precision of the calculation This will be likely to call upon statistical tools and / or Artificial Intelligence

The approximate number of articles or titles sold is very important because it will allow publishers to establish a compromise between the certainty of the number of prints to be made for the conventional subscription and the uncertainty linked to forecasts of newsstand sales.

An example of the use of a particular embodiment of the method which is the subject of the present invention, applied to the flexible subscription to magazines, is described below.

Ms. X has time to read four magazines per month, but her interests are in ten different titles. Not wanting to subscribe to ten magazines or buy her four magazines at full price in newsstands, she then decides to subscribe to the system. by registering on the system's information site, according to these three stages

1- She chooses the number of magazines she wants to receive each month four

2- She specifically chooses all the magazine titles that are likely to interest her, they are ten magl, mag2, mag3, mag4, magδ, magβ, mag7, mag8, mag9 and mag10 She specifies four, which will constitute her default selection 3- It fills in the fields relating to its contact details, chooses its user name and password, and indicates the monthly payment method (for example direct debit via RIB or payment by bank card)

From now on, Madame X will receive a monthly email containing a link to the information site. Once identified as a subscriber (username and password or automatically, if she wishes), she chooses as follows

1- She reads the summaries of the ten titles 2- She chooses to receive mag2, magδ, mag6 and mag9, because she subscribes to four magazines, but could choose more if she wanted

3- The amount of her monthly invoice is then immediately calculated, based on the actual prices of the various titles, as well as the ratio between the number of magazines she has chosen to always receive (four) and the number of titles among which she always choose (ten) She confirms her choice, her selection will be sent to her shortly

To simplify the process, the default selection - the price of which appears on the monthly message - will be sent to her if Madame X does not have the time or the desire to carry out the process herself. Thus, the system allows a periodic magazine reader to subscribe to a minimum number of magazines, knowing that he can choose the precise numbers before each publication, from a set of titles that he defined at the time of subscribing The subscriber chooses, a each period, the titles which will be sent to it - by post, by portage, or in digital form - from a list of summaries which has been communicated by the information site II undertakes to subscribe to a minimum number of numbers per period, but there is not necessarily a maximum number, we can specify that the minimum number can influence the price the higher it is, the higher the discount compared to the price per unit Conversely, the discount decreases as the pool is randit The interaction between the user and the system is done through various means of communication, according to individual preferences on the Internet

The subscription consists of accepting the general conditions of sale by clicking on a button at the bottom of the page, filling in the fields with your personal details, in particular email address and selecting a user name and password. choice of magazines which will constitute the "pool" of the subscriber, by selecting among all the titles proposed by the service the user searches for the titles which interest him, by theme or words of, and clicks on a button to add each title select the "pool" Then, the user chooses the minimum number of numbers that will be received per period The above two steps can be done in any chronological order At this stage, a price reduction indicator is calculated in in real time and displays on the page, the user sees a reduction grow at the same time as this minimum number II or can also remove titles from his "pool", to obtain the same effect Finally the u user informs, in a secunsee way, the fields relating to the payment by bank card or RIB, valid and thus becomes a new subscriber At each period and after reception of a message containing a link towards the information site, the subscriber connects to service by typing in their username and password The service tells them if the choice has already been made for this period and invites them to do / redo by showing him the list of summaries of his pool, next to each summary is a selection button allowing him to choose the corresponding title Once the minimum number of titles reached, the total price is displayed and is constantly recalculated according to changes and additions, the user then validates his selection which will be sent to him by separate or partially grouped numbers when possible (if several magazines come from the same publisher or their publishers use the same router and if they are published at the same time) The user's account is withdrawn either immediately or when all of its magazines for the period have been dispatched

Optionally, the user can choose fewer magazines than the minimum he had chosen, in exchange for compensation in the following periods If the subscriber does not make these compensations, the system can automatically lower him the minimum, in exchange for an increase in pnx In variants, either the user chooses what he has agreed to buy, or he decreases the number of items he undertakes to buy, in his preferences, in which case the rebate is automatically recalculated downward b Telephone

Similar in its different phases to the Internet mode, this embodiment offers the same service thanks to a “voice robot” system, partially calling on speech recognition. The subscription consists of accepting the general conditions of sale by typing the Acceptance key requested or by saying "I accept", to spell his personal details, as well as a username and secret number Then the choice is made of the magazines which will constitute the subscriber pool, by selecting from all the titles offered by the service the user searches for the titles that interest him, by theme, using the keys on his phone, or by spelling keywords, a voice will ask him to type a key to add each selected title to the pool Then , the user chooses the minimum number of numbers that will be received per period, by tapping it on the keys At this stage a price reduction indicator is calculated in time r el and indicated by a synthetic voice, the user hears the reduction grow at the same time as this minimum number Finally, the user types, in a secure manner, the figures necessary for payment by bank card or by direct debit, or undertakes send a bank account statement ("RIB"), and thus become a new subscriber

At each period, the subscriber receives a call asking him if he is ready to make his choice if he is not or if the system falls on an answering machine or a third party H is asked to call a toll-free number later If he is ready, he spells his username and types his secret number The service tells him if the choice has already been made for this period and invites him to do it / redo it by reading the list of summaries of his pool and allowing it to choose the corresponding title by pressing a key Once the minimum number of titles has been reached, the total price is given by synthetic voice and is constantly recalculated according to changes and additions, the user then validates his selection by following the menu instructions and it will be sent to him as described above (to the Internet)

Optionally, when the system detects that a user is still choosing the same article / title, he offers to subscribe to this article to receive it, at an advantageous price, every period, that is to say within the framework a classic subscription

Claims

1 Information processing method comprising

a supply step (102, 104, 106), from a user terminal (10, 11) to a remote information server (20), of information comprising at least one electronic address,

a step of collecting (108), by a server remote from the user terminal, data relating to at least one article,

- at a predetermined date, a content transmission step (110, 112), during which the remote server transmits to said user, information having a content representative of the information collected,

a step for selecting articles (114), during which the recipient of said content can select articles,

- in the case of selection of at least one article, a step of transmitting information representative of said selection (118)

2 Method according to claim 1, characterized in that, during the content transmission step (110, 1 12), the remote information server (20) transmits an electronic message to said electronic address, electronic message comprising a link leading to an information site whose content accessible to the user is representative of the information collected

3 A method according to any one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that it further comprises a payment step (1 16) on a payment site (35)

4 Method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the content transmission step (110, 112) is repeated on predetermined periodic dates

5 Method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the collection operation (108) comprises the transmission of information, by remote third-party servers (25, 30)

6 Proceeds according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, during the supply step (102), the user selects centers of interest and / or suppliers and, during the item selection step (114), the content accessible to the user of said information site is representative of each centie of interest and / or supplier selected by the user during the supply step

7 A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it comprises a step of determining the price to be paid by the user (115), a price which depends on the number of articles selected by the user. 8 Method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, during the content transmission step (110, 112), the remote information server (20) transmits an electronic message to said address electronic, electronic message containing content representative of the information collected