BACKGROUND OF INSTORE MARKETING

This invention relates generally to in-store marketing, and in particular, to a comprehensive method and system for creating, distributing, and managing  in-store marketing campaigns, and the interactive communications between consumers, retailers, and manufacturers.

Instore marketing is used every day by consumer goods companies to reach millions of consumers in retail stores. The industry uses conventional print materials and manual distribution, which typically require long lead times to implement marketing campaigns. Examples of in-store marketing are display signs, coupon dispensers, promotion kiosks, printed materials, video displays, electronic displays, and product advertising in various other formats.

Prior-art, instore marketing techniques generally include a number of steps to create, distribute, and monitor the results of a marketing campaign or message. Typically, a manufacturer or retailer creates a marketing offer, and employs the services of an in-store marketing company to act an intermediary. The marketing company then formats the marketing offer to its particular network specifications, and delivers the formatted offer to various stores. If the marketing offer is in print, then individuals at the stores install or display the printed offer at one or more locations in the store. This process is inefficient, and it may take days or weeks to get a marketing message from a conceptual stage to an actual in-store display.

Conventional in-store marketing techniques come in many forms, but at least four common characteristics of prior-art marketing methods exist that cause these methods to be costly and time-consuming.

These characteristics are that:

1)marketing messages from a manufacturer or retailer must be printed or formatted to the specifications of the in-store marketing companies that place the marketing messages into stores;

2)marketing messages are placed in a store for a fixed period of time, and typically are not changed until the next marketing cycle;

3)no convenient way exists for a manufacturer or retailer to measure the effectiveness of a marketing message until themarketing cycle is completed, and the in-store marketing company reports the results to the manufacturer or retailer;

4)no convenient way exists for a consumer at the point-of-sale (e.g., while in a store) to interact with the manufacturer or retailer in real time.

What are needed are a method and system for manufacturers and retailers to rapidly deploy marketing messages to stores where their products are sold. What are further needed are a method and system that enable a manufacturer or retailer to change marketing messages at any time or times during a marketing cycle. What are further needed are a method and system for a manufacturer or retailer to rapidly measure the effectiveness of a marketing message, so that the marketing message can be further deployed or modified to maximize the message’s potential. What are further needed are a method and system that enable a consumer at the point-of-sale to interact, in real time, with a manufacturer or retailer, so that the consumer can order products, ask questions, provide comments, or otherwise communicate with a manufacturer or retailer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

After a developer creates a message for distribution, a system for distributing messages to multiple destinations interacts with the developer to determine one or more destinations to which the message should be distributed. The system then distributes the message to the destinations, and receives feedback information from the destinations which indicates human reactions to the message after the message is displayed.

The system for displaying the messages includes one or more destination servers that receive the message over a network and send the message to at least one interactive display terminal. The interactive display terminal displays the message, receives one or more user inputs responsive to the message, and sends feedback information to the destination server, where the feedback information reflects the one or more user inputs. The destination server sends the feedback information to the originator of the message.

The interactive display terminal includes: a network interface that enables the interactive display terminal to communicate with a destination server; a processor that causes the message to be displayed via a user interface and that interprets user inputs responsive to the message; and the user interface that displays the message and receives the user inputs responsive to the message.