METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE ANONYMOUS TARGETED DELIVERY, APPLICATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ELECTRONIC COUPONS AND PROMOTIONS

摘要

A sponsor-agnostic and scalable platform is disclosed that enables websites and point-of-sale terminals to apply targeted offers to anonymous consumers' purchases. Reimbursements to retailers for sponsors' offers are expedited by installing an API (Application Program Interface) at points-of-sale in the retailer's offer network. The API transmits reports and sales data to the platform for respective offer protocols submitted to the platform. The API also sends anonymous registration authentication data entered by a consumer at the point-of-sale to the platform and sends registered consumers' anonymous personae to the retailer's offer network which then supplies eligible offers to the point-of-sale. Alternatively, when sponsors' offer protocols specify which anonymous personae are eligible, the platform may send offers for which a persona of the registered consumer is eligible to the point-of-sale. The fully-implemented platform provides integrity alerts, sales demographics and consumer registration.

主权项

1. A consumer-access platform network securely and economically providing diverse promotional offers to targeted consumers, said network comprising:
a registration authentication engine for a registration database, said authentication engine providing anonymous registration authentication data for each registered consumer, a respective anonymous registration ID for each registered consumer, and an anonymous persona for each registered consumer to the database, said registration authentication engine being adapted to authenticate the registration of a registered consumer by determining that the registration authentication data supplied to the network from a network location having a respective location ID is registration authentication data that is in the registration database; an offer protocol engine for a promotional offer database, said protocol engine providing respective offer numbers with the offer data provided by sponsors for their respective promotional offers to the database, said promotional offer data including at least one anonymous persona that is eligible to receive each offer, data identifying at least one item offered by said promotional offer, and the value of said promotional offer for each item offered; and a promotional offer enabling engine, said enabling engine being adapted to provide a respective promotional offer for which an anonymous persona of the authenticated registered consumer is eligible to the location having the location ID where the registration authentication data was entered.