Handling: hand and hoist-line implements – Article carrier gripped and carried by hand – Having cord or bail accommodating groove or passage along...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-14
2004-06-15
Kramer, Dean J. (Department: 3652)
Handling: hand and hoist-line implements
Article carrier gripped and carried by hand
Having cord or bail accommodating groove or passage along...
C283S056000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06749240
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to promotional activities, advertising, and purchasing incentives, and more particularly to systems and methods for placing advertisements and coupons on useful structures for distribution to retail customers, including handles for plastic bags.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For years, manufacturers, advertisers, and marketing consultants have invested countless hours in developing various methods for influencing the purchasing decisions made by retail customers. Each advertising initiative is focused on influencing customer decisions, either through apparent or subtle means. Advertisers have advertised products using direct mailings, newspapers, fliers, magazines, radio, television, and banners, just to name a few.
One obstacle to any advertising campaign is that advertising can be expensive. For instance, the gross cost of advertising via radio can be about $23 per thousand impressions, calculated using a combined metro and rural advertising rate. One impression is a single person looking at one advertisement one time. If the same person looks at the advertisement multiple times, for instance, once while driving to work and once while returning home from work, each time the person looks at the advertisement is an impression. The gross cost of advertising via television can be about $30 per thousand impressions, calculated using a combined rate of early morning, daytime, early news, late news, and prime time. The gross cost of advertising using a newspaper is about $52 per thousand impressions, calculated using a blended Sunday and daily rate. The gross cost of advertising using direct mail is about $182 per thousand impressions. As a result, a need exists for a method of advertising products to consumers that is cheaper than any of these conventional advertising methods but equally, if not more, effective.
While advertisers have used these conventional methods to advertise their goods, services and other items for years, each method has realized mixed results at best. One cause of the often poor results is that each of these methods passively engage consumers. For instance, advertisers using conventional advertising methods such as radio, television, magazines, newspapers, flyers, and the like simply place advertisements on medium having some likelihood of being seen or heard by the targeted consumers. While all advertisers desire that each one of their advertisements be placed in front of consumers, conventional advertising mechanisms have not resulted in such an outcome. For instance, not all advertisements placed in a newspaper are seen by consumers because most consumers do not look at every page of a newspaper. Instead, consumers often only glance at the front page of a couple of sections of the newspaper. As a result, advertisements included on inside pages of such newspapers did not result in an impression. Similar problems exist when advertising using radio stations. For example, consumers listening to radio station broadcasts have the option of not listening to advertisements by changing the radio station when advertisements are being broadcast. Thus, conventional methods of passive advertising do not result in an impression being made from each advertisement and often result in very poor percentages of impressions made per advertisement. Thus, a need exists for a method of advertising that increases the number of impressions made per advertisement.
Advertising has not been the only method by which manufacturers and others have attempted to influence the purchasing habits of consumers. Specifically, manufacturers have also attempted to increase sales by offering sales incentives, such as coupons. Coupons can include offers for mail-in rebates, redemptions, and savings at the point of sale. Coupons have historically been distributed to consumers through direct mailings, newspapers, magazines, affixed on grocery bags, printed on the back side of cash register receipts, and dispensed from dispensers located on shelving within an aisle of a store. Coupons have rarely been presented to consumers in a ready to use format. Rather, coupons are usually given to consumers in a form that requires consumers to remove them from larger items, such as newspapers or fliers. In addition, coupons distributed in this manner typically are made of thin paper that is unable to hold its shape and susceptible to being torn, wrinkled or crushed when placed in a woman's handbag or a gentleman's pocket. Such phenomena often causes consumers to disfavor using coupons. As a result, coupons presented to consumers in this fashion suffer from low redemption rates.
It is widely known within the retail industry that consumers purchase products based, in part, on convenience. This is equally true of coupon redemption. It is also true that most coupons are presented in a superfluous manner or at an inopportune time to consumers without inherent value or usefulness. Hence, only about one percent of all coupons issued are redeemed. If using a coupon is unduly burdensome, the consumer will be less likely to redeem the coupon. If the principal reason the consumer was going to purchase the product was because of the incentive offered on the coupon, the store and manufacturer are in danger of losing the sale. Therefore, a need exists for a device for supplying a purchasing incentive that is convenient to redeem and requires less effort than methods currently used.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is a system and method for advertising and providing sales incentives for goods and services in a manner that stimulates sales while generating a profit for the entity employing this method. The invention includes placing marketing materials such as advertisements or sales incentives, or both, on a useful device such as a carrying strap containment device that is useful to a shopper at a store. Specifically, the device is capable of containing straps attached to shopping bags, such as those straps commonly found on a plastic shopping bag used at grocery stores.
The device is advantageous and welcomed by customers for numerous reasons. For instance, the device is welcomed by customers because it is provided to them free of charge. In addition, the device distributes the load from the carrying straps across a larger portion of a customer's hand than carrying straps used without the device, making it significantly more comfortable to carry the filled shopping bag. Additionally, the carrying strap containment device is welcomed by customers because it is a useful device that does not need to be cut out or otherwise modified before the customer can redeem it. The device also keeps the handles of bags separated for easy gripping when multiple bags are collected together, such as in the trunk of a customer's car. Further, the device prevents handles of a bag from separating, thus, keeping the goods within the bag. Finally, the carrying strap containment device is welcomed by stores and other entities because it is capable of traveling through the existing coupon redemption systems in place today within the United States.
The device preferably includes at least one surface capable of receiving an advertisement or sales incentive, or both. The advertisement or sales incentive can be located either on an inside or an outside surface of the device, or both. Advertisements can be directed to various items, including products, services, organizations, philanthropies, special events, sporting events, fund raising drives, sweepstakes, internet addresses for web sites and the like. Sales incentives can include coupons, rebates, “buy one, get one free” offers, and other purchasing incentives. In one embodiment, the carrying strap containment device can include an advertisement on the outside surface of each wall and on a base of the device and can include at least one coupon and redemption rules on the inside surface of the walls. Additionally, the walls can include a bar code that can be scanned at a cash register to redeem the coupon.
This method of generatin
Bozlee Martin R.
Burr Brian M.
Truly Carl Wesley
Grabb-It Inc.
Kilpatrick & Stockton LLP
Kramer Dean J.
LandOfFree
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