Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Mechanized store
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-12
2002-10-22
Lee, Michael G. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Mechanized store
C235S375000, C235S462010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06467686
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a coupon management system. In particular, the invention relates to a method of crediting coupons to a consumer, utilizing an electronic reader for reading scannable data and comparing the scannable data with a database of purchased products for crediting the coupons against the total price of the purchased products.
2 Description of the Related Art
The world of product marketing is highly intense and competitive, with the understood intent to increase the gross sales of a given product. Among the many calculated strategies manufacturers utilize to this end is the dissemination of “cents-off” coupons. In the marketplace, the coupon has become a popular means of advertising a product. The coupon is used to stimulate consumers to purchase products by providing the consumer with a financial benefit, creating product awareness, prompting product trials, and rewarding repeat product purchases. This technique benefits all parties concerned, the manufacturer, the retailer, and the consumer. The manufacturer gains as his product is publicized and the coupon, upon redemption, provides a means for tracking customer tastes and reactions. Information can be correlated with other marketing data to develop a customer profile for intelligent analysis of product promotions. The retailer is happy as consumers comb his store in search of the item being discounted. And, of course, the thrifty consumer is the most eager of all as he saves some money at the check out. The coupon itself has many inherent benefits.
The most common form of a coupon is the retail, paper product coupon. Each coupon has printed thereon an alphanumeric identification. The alphanumeric identification, or coupon code, has no inherent information. A database must be utilized to get any desired information from the code. The information available is the manufacture and family of a particular item, a description and an amount by which to decrease the retail price of the item, an expiration date, and other useful codes that identifies the coupon. On January 1997 the coupon code was extended by the Uniform Code Council, Inc.(UCC). The extension enables manufacturers to put more information into coupon codes such as special offer codes and household or area ID codes. Currently, there are three coupon code databases one can access for a small fee.
While many customers are inclined to utilize coupons, the process of clipping and saving these coupons tends to be time-consuming and cumbersome. The process begins when the manufacturer decides to print and distribute coupons for one of its products. Consumers receive these coupons through a variety of means, with the most prevalent being the Free Standing Insert (FSIs). The use of the paper coupon requires the consumer to sit down each week, examine coupon FSIs, and cut out the coupons they want to use. Even when not required to cut coupons, some consumers consider coupons too much trouble to constantly organize and carry about. While many companies sell coupon organizers, coupon categorizers and coupon alphabetizers, these methods still require coupon clipping, constant coupon organization, and maintenance (removing expired coupons). It should be no surprise that the vast majority of coupons in FSIs each week go unredeemed.
Even after the consumer reaches the supermarket with his coupons, there are further problems with the present paper-based system. The most common system of redeeming coupons requires a paper coupon to be presented to a cashier when the consumer is checking out. The check-out clerk, to whom a coupon is presented, manually looks over the coupon. This not only wastes precious check-out line time as the clerk must carefully look over the coupon, but also reduces accuracy of the operation. Examples of potential error may include overlooking an expiration date, or overlooking the exact product specification for which the coupon is valid, i.e. only a certain size package may be stipulated on the coupon. Then, the cashier scans the coupon bar code with a scanner associated with the cash register and the cash register software identifies whether the coupon corresponds to an item just purchased. Also, when the consumer has numerous coupons, the individual examination and scanning of each coupon can be very time consuming, delaying all other consumers waiting in line.
This delay is greatly exacerbated when the cash register indicates that no corresponding product has been purchased for one or more of the coupons, stopping the transaction. To discover why a coupon is not appropriate, the cashier must examine the coupon and then review the cash register receipt to determine what aspect of the purchased product does not meet the coupon redemption requirements. In the case where the cashier desires to accept the inappropriate coupon as a customer service gesture, the cashier must “override” the cash register's rejection of the coupon. Typically this requires the pressing of several additional keys on the cash register. When this entire process must be repeated for multiple coupons not accepted by the cash register, which is common in the majority of transactions in which coupons are used, the delay disrupts the entire checkout process and negatively affects transaction speed, customer service, and front-end productivity.
Further problems and inefficiencies in the coupon redemption process arise after the retailer has accepted the coupons from consumers. In order for the retailer to be reimbursed by the manufacturer, the retailer must determine the total value of each manufacturer's coupons the retailer has redeemed. Due to the large volume and diversification of coupons handled by most merchants and the large number of manufacturers, it is often more efficient to employ a third-party coupon processing service or clearinghouse.
At the clearinghouse, the coupons are received from many retailers, pertaining to a multitude of manufacturers. An operator at the coupon processing service will manually handle each coupon, scan or manually enter the U.P.C. code, and sort the coupons by manufacturer. Typically, the sorting and counting work is done out of the country, where it may be done more economically. Then, the results are returned to the U.S. for billing the manufacturer and crediting the retailers. Sometimes the manufacturer may again sort the coupons using its own employees or another clearinghouse to insure all the coupons are the manufacturer's and check for signs of fraud. This process is fairly labor and time intensive.
The process is completed for every one of the billions of coupons redeemed annually. By the time the coupons have been collected by the retailer, passed through one and possibly two clearinghouses, and the manufacture reimburses the retailer, several weeks or months may have passed. The result is a considerable disadvantage to the retailer since the time between when the retailer gives the consumer the coupon discount and when the manufacturer reimburses the retailer is, in effect, an interest-free loan to the manufacturer. As would be expected, this very loose loop inevitably results in the retailers claiming they are under-credited, and the manufacturers claiming over-billing.
The manufacturer also suffers from the slow redemption process. The manufacturer cannot determine the effect of a coupon promotion until the manufacturer receives information on the number of coupons redeemed. Therefore, due to the current time intensive process, it is impossible for a manufacturer to quickly react to product performance, coupon redemption rates, or market changes.
In addition to the legitimate redeeming process being cumbersome, the conventional system is subject to abuse. Unfortunately, because redemption coupons frequently have a cash redemption, there exists wide spread problems with fraudulent misredemption and malredemption. Misredemption occurs where a retailer accepts a coupon for a product that has not been purchased. The situation may arise where retailer personnel may ac
Guthrie Andrè
Silva Mark
Swofford Allen
Bracewell & Patterson L.L.P.
Lee Michael G.
St.Cyr Daniel
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