WO2005031624A1

WO2005031624A1 - System and method for rebate marketing

Info

Publication number: WO2005031624A1
Application number: PCT/KR2004/002515
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hong-Kyu Lee
Original assignee: Hong-Kyu Lee
Priority date: 2003-10-01
Filing date: 2004-10-01
Publication date: 2005-04-07
Also published as: KR20050032303A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a rebate marketing method and system for providing an early adapter of new product with a reward, comprising: (a) receiving buyer registration request corresponding to a new product purchase from one of a seller terminal and a buyer terminal, wherein the buyer registration request comprises buyer personnel data and product data; (b) registering the buyer registration request; repeating said (a) and said (b) until a sale quantity of the new product reaches a predetermined reward point; extracting data of plural early adapters in a predetermined purchase order if reaching to the reward point; and providing each early adapter corresponding to early adapter data with reward. The present invention provide the early adapters with reward at the predetermined point of time(e.g., the break-even point, etc,.) so that can increase the quantity of sales at the early stage.

Description

Invention-title

System and method for rebate marketing

Technical field

The present invention relates to a system and method for rebate marketing,

particularly, for promoting a new product.

Background art

Growth of economy and technology reduces the time required for developing

and releasing a new product.

But, the quantity of sale of new products in the early stage(e.g., a high end

electronic device) is much less than that of existing products of which technology and

stability were certified. It is because that people do not have a confidence for the new

product and the price is going down as time goes by. There are people who buy the new product without hesitation regardless of

price and quantity of sale; this kind of people is called 'early adapter'. Early adapter is a

compound word of 'early' and 'adapter', and indicates the people who are not interested

in the existing product and want to buy the new product earlier than any other people do.

In Japan, a report shows that 15% of whole consumers are early adapters. For

example, SONY estimated 5000 sales at the first launching of Walkman, it got tremendous popularity by the early adapters. Namely, an excellent consumer makes an

excellent enterprise, and there is a partnership between consumer and enterprise. The

early adapter's postscript or notes after use is very useful to improve the new product or

to develop another product. As described above, the early adapter plays very important role in industry

development so that a lot of ways for enlarging the number of early adapters are needed. But, the role of early adapters has been never considered in the conventional

ways for promoting the new product, and most enterprises have promoted their new

product sales with commercials that emphasize new functions or famous models appear. Also, because there is no reward for early adapters in the conventional sales

methods, the sales of new product is dull at early stage so that the period for revulsion

of R&D expenditure becomes longer and as a result it may make the enterprises worse.

Disclosure

Technical problem

The present invention is for solving aforementioned problems, the primary

object of the present invention is to provide a rebate marketing system and method for

making a reward to the early adapters at the predetermined point of time(e.g., the break¬

even point, etc,.) so that can increase the quantity of sales at the early stage. Another object of the present invention is to provide a rebate marketing system and method for making a reward to the early adapters at the predetermined point of time

so that the users voluntarily advertise the new products between them.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a rebate marketing

system and method for maximizing the sales quantity at the early stage to help the

enteφrise developing new products and collect R&D expenditure as quickly as possible.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a rebate marketing

system and method for rewarding sellers as well as early adapters at the predetermined

point of time so that the sellers can make an effort to sell the new products.

Technical solution

To achieve aforementioned objects, according to the preferred embodiment of

the present invention, there are provided a method, system and computer-readable

medium for providing an early adapter of new product with a reward, comprising: (a)

receiving buyer registration request corresponding to a new product purchase from one

of a seller terminal and a buyer terminal, wherein the buyer registration request

comprises buyer personnel data and product data; (b) registering the .buyer registration

request; repeating said (a) and said (b) until a sale quantity of the new product reaches a

predetermined reward point; extracting data of plural early adapters in a predetermined

purchase order if reaching to the reward point; and providing each early adapter

corresponding to early adapter data with reward. If the buyer registration request further comprises product recommender data,

the method according to the present invention further comprises the step of extracting

product recommender data corresponding to early adapter data and the step of providing

the product recommender corresponding to product recommender data with reward. If the buyer registration request further comprises seller data, the method

according to the present invention further comprises the step of extracting seller data

corresponding to early adapter data and the step of providing the seller corresponding to

seller data with reward.

The step (b) comprises the step of verifying the buyer registration request and

the step of registering the buyer registration request if valid

In the present invention, among the early adapters in a predetermined purchase

order, the more reward is provided to the earlier adapter.

Also, the step of providing each early adapter corresponding to the early

adapter data with reward comprises the step of dividing the early adapter data into

plural predetermined purchase order groups and the step of providing early adapters in

each purchase order group with reward, wherein more reward is provided to the earlier

purchase order group.

Also, the predetermined reward point is one selected from a group consisting of

points of time when a sale quantity reaches a predetermined number and a break-even

point. Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the rebate marketing system according to the

preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG 2 is a flowchart of the rebate marketing method according to the preferred

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG 3 is an example of the buyer registration form according to the preferred

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the method for rewarding the product recommender

according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the method for rewarding the seller according to the

preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the rebate marketing method according to another

embodiment of the present invention.

<A list of the numbers identifying major parts shown in the drawings> 120 : rebate marketing system 125 : communication module 130 : buyer registration module 135 : storage 140 : reward data management module 143 : sales management module 145 : reward point decision module 150 : reward module 155 : controller

Mode for invention

Hereinafter, the preferred embodiment of the present invention will be

described with accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the rebate marketing system according to the

preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the rebate marketing system 120 comprises communication

module 125, buyer registration module 130, storage 135, reward data management

module 140, sales management module 143, reward point decision module 145, reward

module 150, and controller 155.

The communication module 120 receives buyer registration data(and/or seller

registration data) from a seller terminal 110 or a buyer terminal 160 via network, and

transmits reward process data to the seller terminal 110 or the buyer terminal 160 via

network. Although one seller terminal 110 and one buyer terminal are shown in FIG. 1,

these are only for example and plural seller terminals 110 and plural buyer terminals 160 can be connected to the rebate marketing system 120 through network. Also, if the

seller terminal 110 and the buyer terminal 160 is a communicating device such as PC,

PDA, mobile terminal(e.g., cellular phone), they can be applied to the present invention

without any limit. The buyer registration module 130 stores buyer registration data(e.g., name,

phone number, account number, seller, product serial number, product recommender,

etc.,) and/or seller registration data(e.g., seller name, phone number, account number,

etc.,) in the predetermined form in the storage 135, which the communication module

125 receives from the seller terminal 110 or the buyer terminal 160. The storage 135 stores an executable program of rebate marketing system 120,

buyer registration data, seller registration data, reward point data(e.g., point of time

when 1000 new products are sold, break-even point, etc.,), reward beneficiary data,

reward benefit data(e.g., cash reward, coupon reward, etc.,), and so on. According to the

kinds of stored data, the storage 135 can be divided into program storage, buyer

registration data storage, reward point storage, reward data storage, early adapter data

storage, and so on.

The reward data management module 140, working together with the sales

management module 143, manages data(i.e., reward criterion) relating to what reward

will be provided to a certain buyer who purchased the new product. For example, if the

first to 200^th buyers are grouped as early adapter, 10% of price can be reward to the first to 100^th buyers and 5% to the 101^th to 200^th buyers at the point of selling 1000 new

products.

The sales management module 143 counts how many new products are sold by

analyzing buyer data that the buyer registration module 130 stores in the storage 135

and/or sale quantity data that administrator of rebate marketing system 120 enters.

The reward point decision module 145 determines whether or not the current

quantity of sale that the sales management module 143 is counting corresponds to the

reward criterion that the reward data management module 140 manages.

If the reward point decision module 145 determines that current sale quantity

corresponds to the reward point, the reward module 150 determines the reward to be

provided to the buyers(e.g., 10,000 won to HONG GIL DONG) who are the early

adapters by use of reward criterion that the reward data management module 140

manages and buyer registration data stored in the storage 135.

The controller 155 controls the operations of communication module 125,

buyer registration module 130, storage 135, reward data management module 140, sales

management module 143, reward point decision module 145 and reward module 150 to

provide the reward to the early adapters(and/or sellers) at the predetermined point of

time.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the rebate marketing method according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an example of buyer registration

form according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, at step 210, the rebate marketing system 120 receives buyer

registration data from the seller terminal 110 or the buyer terminal 160, and stores

received data in the storage. Of course, the rebate marketing system 120 further

performs an additional step of verifying received buyer registration data by use of

certain data(e.g., serial number of the product). Buyer registration data is inputted by the

seller or buyer at the point of or right after purchase and the exemplary buyer

registration form for entering buyer registration data is shown in FIG 3. Referring to FIG. 3, the buyer registration form comprises plural data input

fields and plural function buttons. The buyer registration form can be provided when the

seller terminal 110 or the buyer terminal 160 accesses to the rebate marketing system

120.

The data input field comprises a name article, a resident registration number

article, a phone number article, a address article, an E-mail address article, an account

number article, a product serial number article, a purchase place article, purchase date

article, product recommender article, and so on.

The name article, resident registration number article, phone number article,

address article and E-mail address article are for entering data indicating who is buyer. The account number article is for entering an account number to receive a cash reward if the buyer is an early adapter who can receive the reward. If 'input later' button

is clicked, the account number can be input later when the buyer receives an E-mail

notifying that he is selected as an early adapter who can receive the reward.

The product serial number article is for entering a serial number of the product

and the rebate marketing system 120 can verify the validity of the registration request

by use of it.

The purchase place article is for entering data about where the buyer purchased

the product, and reward to the seller when the buyer is selected as early adapter can

induce the seller to make an effort to sell the new product and also to enter buyer

registration data precisely and quickly. As this, quickly and precisely inputted buyer

registration data can be used as marketing data in future and can be applied to the

commercials.

The purchase date article is for entering data when the buyer purchased the

product, and it is possible to decide the purchase order of each buyer and who are early

adapters based on the purchase order. Of course, if the seller is allowed to freely enter

data in the purchase date article, the purchase order may become inaccurate. Therefore,

the purchase date article can be replaced with a registration date article in where the

date is automatically entered on registering buyer data.

The product recommender article is for entering personnel data(e.g., name,

phone number, resident registration number, etc.,) of another early adapter who introduces the functions or effects of the new product to the buyer before purchasing the

product. It is for rewarding the recommender who is registered in the product

recommender article when the buyer is selected as an early adapter to be rewarded.

Then, on clicking 'registration' button right after entering whole(or essential)

data in the data input article, entered data is stored in the rebate marketing system 120.

Also, if the buyer clicks 'subscription' button to be a member of the website that the

rebate marketing system 120 provides in addition to the registration of buyer data,

additional subscription page for entering subscription data will be displayed on the

seller terminal 110 or the buyer terminal 160 right after storing entered buyer data. Of

course, data already entered into the buyer registration article can be automatically

transferred into the corresponding articles in the subscription page so that the buyer can

enter data into the blank articles.

The buyer registration form shown in FIG. 3 is an example only for rewarding

the buyer at the predetermined point of time and there is no need to be limited to the

form.

Referring to FIG. 2 again, at step 220, the rebate marketing system 120

determines whether or not the current point corresponds to the predetermined reward

point based on sale quantity data of the new product. The predetermined reward point

can be arbitrarily determined. For example, the point of time when a certain quantity of

new products are sold, the point of time reaching the break-even point, and so on can be reward point.

If it is not the predetermined reward point, the rebate marketing system 120

continues receiving and registering buyer registration data at step 210 until reaching the

predetermined reward point. But, if it is the predetermined reward point, the rebate

marketing system 120 extracts the stored reward criterion at step 230.

The reward criterion can be arbitrarily selected, and two criteria are shown in

Table 1. Hereinafter, the first criterion will be described in detail as example.

Table 1. reward criterion

At step 240, the rebate marketing system 120 provides the determined reward to

the corresponding beneficiaries(e.g., buyer, seller, product recommender) in

consideration of how many new products are sold. For example, as shown in Table 1, if

the sale quantity reaches 30,000, first to 1,000 th buyers are considered as early adapters

And, the first to 100th buyers will be rewarded with 15% of purchase price, 101 to 300 th

buyers with 10%, and 301 to 1,000* buyers with 5%, respectively. The reward will be

paid to each adapter's account(FIG 3). Of course, in this case, the early adapter(FIG 3)

who recommended the product to another early adapter will receive an additional

reward, namely, 5% of purchase price, and the seller(FIG. 3) who sold the product will

receive reward, namely, 3% of purchase price. The method for providing additional

reward to the recommender will be described in FIG. 4, and the method for providing reward to the seller will be described in FIG. 5.

As described above, after the first reward(e.g., reward at the point of selling

30,000 products) is provided, the rebate marketing system 120 provides the

predetermined reward again to the beneficiaries(e.g., buyer, seller, product

recommender) included within the reward range when reaching the following reward

point(e.g., the sale quantity reaches 100,000). This reward process will be performed

repeatedly until all rewards at each reward points are provided to each beneficiary. Of

course, it is apparent that the reward processes can be applied independently to plural

new products of one enteφrise.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of method for rewarding the product recommender

according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, at step 310, the rebate marketing system 120 receives buyer

registration data from the seller terminal 110 or buyer terminal 160. At step 320, the

rebate marketing system 120 verifies received buyer registration data received at the

step 310.

At step 320, the rebate marketing system 120 determines whether or not the

resident registration number of buyer, the product serial number, the purchase place, etc.,

are valid. If the buyer registration data is invalid, then the rebate marketing system 120

sends an error message to the seller terminal 110 or the buyer terminal 160 for the seller or the buyer to correct data.

If buyer registration data is valid, at step 330, the rebate marketing system 120

stores buyer registration data of step 310. At step 340, the rebate marketing system 120

point based on sale quantity data of the new product.

If the current point corresponds to the predetermined reward point, at step 350,

the rebate marketing system 120 extracts the stored reward criterion(e.g., the range of

early adapter, reward for each early adapter, etc.,).

At step 360, the rebate marketing system 120 provides the early adapters in the

range with the predetermined amount or ratio of money, and at step 370, provides the

product recommenders(namely, the one who bought the product earlier than the buyer

and recommended the buyer to buy the product) with the corresponding reward.

Then, at step 380, the rebate marketing system 120 confirms the amount of

money to be rewarded to each early adapter. For example, assume that HONG GIL DONG who bought a certain product due

to the recommendation of SUNG CHUN HYANG who bought the same product

fourthly is 120* early adapter. In this case, according to the first criterion in Table 1,

HONG GIL DONG will be provided 10% of purchase price as a reward at the point of

selling 30,000 products. In addition, SUNG CHUN HYANG will receive 15% of

purchase price as early adapter and 5% of purchase price as recommender, so total reward to be provided to SUNG is 20% of purchase price.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of method for rewarding the seller according to the

preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, at step 410, the rebate marketing system 120 receives buyer

registration data from the seller terminal 110 or buyer terminal 160. At step 420, the

step 410. If buyer registration data is valid, at step 430, the rebate marketing system 120

stores buyer registration data of step 410. At step 440, the rebate marketing system 120 determines whether or not the

current point corresponds to the predetermined reward point based on sale quantity data

of the new product. If the current point corresponds to the predetermined reward point,

at step 450, the rebate marketing system 120 extracts the stored reward criterion(e.g.,

the range of early adapter, reward for each early adapter, etc.,). At step 460, the rebate marketing system 120 provides the early adapters in the

range with the predetermined amount or ratio of money, and at step 470, provides the

sellers with the corresponding reward.

Then, at step 480, the rebate marketing system 120 confirms the amount of

money to be rewarded to each seller. For example, assume that HONG GIL DONG and SUNG CHUN HYANG are fourth and 120* early adapters respectively, and both bought the product due to the

recommendation of a seller at 'YOKSAM store'. In this case, according to the first

criterion in Table 1, at the point of selling 30,000 products, HONG GIL DONG and

SUNG CHUN HYANG will be provided 15% and 10% of purchase price as a reward

respectively. In addition, YI MONG RYONG, the seller at YOKSAM store, will receive

10% of purchase price as recommender of HONG and SUNG(5% each) and 6% of

purchase price as seller(3% each), so total reward to be provided to YI is 16% of

purchase price.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of rebate marketing method according to another

embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG 6, at step 510, the rebate marketing system 120 receives buyer

registration data from the seller terminal 110 or buyer terminal 160. buyer registration

data further comprises product name data(e.g., MP3 player) of what the buyer bought. At step 520, the rebate marketing system 120 verifies received buyer

registration data received at the step 510. At step 520, the rebate marketing system 120

determines whether or not the resident registration number of buyer, the product serial

number, the purchase place, etc., are valid. If the buyer registration data is invalid, then

the rebate marketing system 120 sends an error message to the seller terminal 110 or the

buyer terminal 160 for the seller or the buyer to correct data. If buyer registration data is valid, at step 530, the rebate marketing system 120

stores buyer registration data of step 510. At step 540, the rebate marketing system 120

point based on sale quantity data of the new product. If the current point corresponds to the predetermined reward point, at step 550,

early adapter, reward for each early adapter, etc.).

At step 360, the rebate marketing system 120 provides the early adapters in the

and recommended the buyer to buy the product) with the corresponding reward:

At step 560, the rebate marketing system 120 provides the early adapters in the

range with the predetermined amount or ratio of money based on a sale record(i.e.,

buyer registration data), and at step 570, provides the product recommenders with the

corresponding reward. Then, at step 580, the rebate marketing system 120 confirms the

amount of money to be rewarded to each early adapter in step 560 and each product

recommenders in step 570.

At step 590, the rebate marketing system 120 checks there is any reserved

reward details corresponding to an early adapter. Here, the reserved reward details

comprises a reward details for another new product(e.g., computer), a reward details according to previous reward process, and so on. If the reserved reward details exists,

the rebate marketing system 120 updates the reserved reward details at step 595 and

returns to step 510 to perform a new reward process. But, if there is no reserved reward

details, then the rebate marketing system 120 returns to step 510 and performs a new

reward process.

Since the method of processing plural rewards corresponding to each new

product in FIG. 6 can be applied to the reward method for the seller, product

recommender, etc., the same description will be omitted here.

It is apparent that the reward in the rebate marketing method according to the

present invention can be one of lotto, free coupon, discount coupon, cyber money, etc.,

as well as money.

The drawings and the detailed description are an example of the present

invention, and these are only for describing the present invention, not for limiting the

spirits and scope of the present invention, as claim. Therefore, those who skilled in the

art can appreciate that various changes and equivalent embodiments may arise from the

aforementioned drawings and detailed description. Thus, the true scope of the present

invention must be determined by the accompanying claims.

Industrial applicability As described above, the rebate marketing system and method of the present invention provide the early adapters with reward at the predetermined point of time(e.g.,

the break-even point, etc,.) so that can increase the quantity of sales at the early stage.

And, the rebate marketing system and method provide the early adapters with

reward at the predetermined point of time so that the users voluntarily advertise the new

products between them.

Also, the rebate marketing system and method can maximize the sales quantity

at the early stage to help the enteφrise developing new products and collect R&D

expenditure as quickly as possible.

Also, the present invention can reward sellers as well as early adapters at the

predetermined point of time so that the sellers can make an effort to sell the new

products.

Claims

1. A method for providing an early adapter of new product with a reward,

comprising:

(a) receiving a buyer registration request corresponding to a new product

purchase from one of a seller terminal and a buyer terminal, wherein the buyer

registration request comprises a buyer personnel data and a product data;

(b) registering the buyer registration request; repeating said (a) and said (b) until a sale quantity of the new product reaches a

predetermined reward point; extracting data of plural early adapters in a predetermined purchase order if

reaching to the reward point; and providing each early adapter corresponding to the early adapter data with

reward.

2. The method in claim 1 further comprising: if the buyer registration request

further comprises a product recommender data, extracting the product recommender data corresponding to the early adapter

data; and providing the product recommender corresponding to the product recommender

data with reward.

3. The method in claim 1 further comprising: if the buyer registration request

further comprises a seller data, extracting the seller data corresponding to the early adapter data; and providing the seller corresponding to the seller data with reward.

4. The method in claim 1 , wherein said (b) comprises: verifying the buyer registration request; and registering the buyer registration request if valid

5. The method in claim 1, wherein among the early adapters in a predetermined

purchase order, the more reward is provided to the earlier adapter.

6. The method in claim 1, wherein providing each early adapter corresponding

to the early adapter data with reward comprises: dividing the early adapter data into plural predetermined purchase order groups; providing early adapters in each purchase order group with reward, wherein more reward is provided to the earlier purchase order group.

7. The method in claim 1, wherein the predetermined reward point is one selected from a group consisting of points of time when a sale quantity reaches a

predetermined number and a break-even point.

8. A system for providing an early adapter with reward, comprising: means for receiving a buyer registration request corresponding to a new product

purchase from one of a seller terminal and a buyer terminal, wherein the buyer

registration request comprises a buyer personnel data and a product data; means for registering the buyer registration request; means for determining whether or not a sale quantity of the new product

reaches a predetermined reward point; means for extracting data of plural early adapters in a predetermined purchase

order if reaching to the reward point; and means for providing each early adapter corresponding to the early adapter data

with reward.

9. The system in claim 8 further comprising: if the buyer registration request

further comprises an additional reward data, wherein the additional reward data is one

of a product recommender data and a seller data, means for extracting t the additional reward data corresponding to the early

adapter data; and providing one of the product recommender and the seller corresponding to the

additional reward data with reward.

10. A computer-readable medium including a program containing computer-

executable instructions for performing the method for providing an early adapter of new

product with a reward, wherein the program performs the steps of:

(a) receiving a buyer registration request corresponding to a new product

purchase from one of a seller terminal and a buyer terminal, wherein the buyer

registration request comprises a buyer personnel data and a product data; (b) registering the buyer registration request; repeating said (a) and said (b) until a sale quantity of the new product reaches a

reward.