Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Discount or incentive
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-16
2001-12-04
Stamber, Eric W. (Department: 2163)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Discount or incentive
C705S014270, C379S900000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327572
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for marketing information services to potential customers. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods for introducing potential customers to information services having a voice-based interface.
2. The Prior State of the Art
In general, marketing is a deliberate process of introducing goods and services to potential consumers. The type of marketing that may be appropriate for any given situation depends largely on the goods and services being offered, the demographics of the potential or target consumers, and the amount of capital allocated to the effort. For example, running late afternoon radio and television advertisements may be ideal for a national fast-food restaurant chain, yet sub-optimal for telephony-based information services.
Nevertheless, most marketing strategies, to one degree or another, have at least one element in common: the need for endorsement. Athletes, musicians, actors, models, physicians, authors, commentators, academicians, educators, politicians, neighbors, friends, family, and in truth, almost anyone, can provide endorsement for a product or service. Naturally, some endorsements are more effective than others, but fame and notoriety may not necessarily be the most significant characteristic, especially when factoring in the expense of securing a celebrity endorsement. In some circumstances, neighbors, friends, family, personal acquaintances, or even a stranger making a similar purchase may all provide endorsement that is highly effective without expense.
Not all endorsements, however, need be explicit. Rather than commenting on the quality or other advantages of a product or service, an endorser's mere use may provide significant value. For example, one common form of implicit endorsement is the placement of products and services in motion pictures. Another common form of implicit endorsement involves athletes wearing shoes, clothing, and accessories, all having a prominently placed manufacturer's logo or other identifier. This type of implicit endorsement allows the endorser to accomplish a primary task, such as making a movie or playing a basketball game, without the endorsement interfering with the task. Of course, implicit endorsements are unlikely to be any less expensive than a corresponding explicit endorsement.
Perhaps the most significant value of implicit endorsement occurs when each consumer of the product or service seeking attention, makes the endorsement. Logos or other identifiers on clothing, automobiles, shoes, watches, sporting equipment, etc., transform consumers into endorsers. Moreover, depending on the current vogue, most consumers are willing if not anxious to participate, at times paying a premium for the opportunity.
A significant portion of implicit endorsement's impact can be attributed to the social nature of people. In other words, implicit endorsement is a viable marketing tool because people interact. To the extent that a product or service is identified, an increased number of interactions yields increased endorsement. Unfortunately, implicit endorsement typically requires in-person interaction because the logos and other identifiers leading to implicit endorsement are visual.
In an Internet context, one example of the marketing potential that is available through implicit endorsement is the e-mail service provided by Hotmail. Hotmail offers e-mail accounts that are free for the asking. In exchange, each e-mail sent by Hotmail includes a short reference to the free e-mail account offer and how one could obtain further information. Each e-mail sent or, in other words, each interaction, is an implicit endorsement that the sender approves of the Hotmail service. Within a relatively short time period, Hotmail has attracted an extremely large number of users, and eventually the business sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. Once again, however, the implicit endorsement successful in promoting Hotmail required a visual message.
The visual contact frequently required for implicit endorsement leaves many interactions between people unexploited as marketing opportunities. Specifically, during the course of any given day, a person may interact with far more people through telephone conversations than in person. Furthermore, as telephones have become increasingly portable, both in terms of reduced size, making them more convenient to carry, and in terms of improved coverage, making them almost universally available, telephone use and interaction have increased as well. During recent years, a large number of secondary or value-added telephone services have been developed. These include voice mail, voice messaging, call waiting, caller ID, answering services, conference calling, unified messaging services. Such secondary telephone services have benefited consumers by increasing the convenience of using the telephone, and have also benefited the companies that provide the services with increased revenue opportunities.
Likewise, as evidenced by the Internet's explosive growth, people are interacting through the Internet in ever increasing numbers. In many cases, the telephone and the Internet may provide the primary social interaction between people who are separated only by relatively insignificant geographical distances. Moreover, providing telephone access may be beneficial to a wide range of information-oriented businesses. In some ways, telephone and Internet technologies have begun to merge, with Internet telephone services, unified messaging services, and the like, all being developed or offered to consumers. However, in order to market these services, telephone and Internet enterprises have traditionally relied on conventional print, broadcast, or digital media. What is lacking in the prior art is an effective method for marketing an information or telephony service with a voice-based interface.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The problems in the prior state of the art have been successfully overcome by the present invention that is directed to methods for introducing potential customers to an information service having a voice-based interface. The methods exploit the social nature of the telephone and the increasing popularity of information services by providing for implicit endorsement of an information service that includes a significant aural component.
For example, the information service may act as an intermediary between a customer of the information service and a non-customer who is attempting to communicate with the customer. For purposes of the following description, the non-customer of the information service is considered to be a potential customer to which the marketing methods of the invention are directed. When the potential customer initiates a communication request, the information service receives the request for the customer. In response, the information service identifies the potential customer and provides the potential customer an opportunity to interact with the information service. While the potential customer interacts with the information service, the information service contacts its customer regarding the communication request. Once contacted, the customer determines how the communication request should be handled and then operates as instructed by the customer.
The communication request initiated by the potential customer may be a telephone call directed to the customer. In this case, one facet of the information service is an answering service that screens incoming telephone calls, routes incoming calls, or otherwise manages telephone communication directed to the customer. When a potential customer places a telephone call to the customer, the information service receives the telephone call and identifies the potential customer using, for example, caller ID information associated with the potential customer. While the potential customer waits for the information service to reach the customer being called, the potential customer is allowed to interact with the infor
Barham Bradley W.
Charlesworth Brian L.
Hays Jeffrey C.
Morton David L.
Norman Marc
Stamber Eric W.
Talk2 Technologies, Inc.
Workman & Nydegger & Seeley
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