Claims:We Claim:
1. A system for managing sales on the internet based platform comprising of:
a. a user profiler for determination of the user characteristics of a set of targeted users;
b. a rules editor for providing a set of rules as an input governing the requirements and goals of a marketing campaign;
c. a rules engine that uses the user characteristics of a set of targeted users, and the set of rules, to match or associate individual user members within said set of targeted users with a marketing campaign; and
d. a campaign marketing processor that uses the output of said rules engine to distribute personalized marketing content to members of said set of targeted users by any of web, email, wireless or other communication.
wherein, the system is used for sales management and delivering the product related information to consumers based on web information server.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the system has a rules repository for storing said rules which are stored as XML documents.
3. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the rules may be updated and applied to the rules engine in real-time to effect real-time changes to the marketing campaign.
4. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the rules may be updated in real-time to effect changes to the personalization server.
5. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, said rules can be grouped together, which can determine the user characteristics of a set of targeted users
6. The method of managing sales on an internet based platform comprising:
a. determining the user characteristics of a set of targeted users;
b. accepting the user characteristics of the set of targeted users, and a set of rules; and
c. using the output of said rules engine to distribute marketing content to members of set of targeted users by any of web, email, wireless, or other communication.
, Description:Technical field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a system and method for sales management based on web information server. The present invention more particularly relates to a system and method for managing sales and delivering product related information to consumers based on web information server.
Background of the Invention:
There is various information subsystems developed for managing sales of a company based on internet based platform. The systems like sales, analysis and forecasting subsystems for producing and providing retailers with information about what products consumers are buying; collaborative replenishment subsystems for determining what products retailers can buy in order to satisfy consumer demand at any given point of time; and transportation and logistics information subsystems for producing and providing retailers with information about when products purchased by them (at wholesale) will be delivered to their stores. Typically, such type of information subsystems are connected to various value added information networks in order to efficiently offer such information services to retailers on a global basis. These systems collectively cooperate to optimize the process of moving raw materials into finished products and ultimately to consumers. These systems do not address the prior product related information and the information needed after purchasing of the product. Thus needs of the consumers of retail products are not satisfied.
The prior arts systems were operated in such a way that there was a “break” in information flow cycle, disabling the manufacturers from communicating with the consumers that they were unable to satisfy consumer needs.
Various types of media for decades have been used by companies for advertising and sale of their products and services. Currently, an enormous amount of time, money and efforts are carried out by companies for advertising and sale of their products and services and to provide product related information, the importance of its quality, its warranty service. Traditional systems used for personalizing web content are mostly analytic in nature, and rely on using previously collected data in a manner that allows an administrator to modify a web site or e-commerce application based on an understanding of that data.
In recent times, there have been a number of significant developments in connection with the global information network called the “Internet”, which has greatly influenced many companies to create multi-media Internet Web-sites in order to advertise, sell and maintain their products and services. Examples of such developments include, for example: the World Wide Web (WWW) based on the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and the Hypertext Transmission Protocol (HTTP) by Tim Berners-Lee, et al. (See “World-Wide Web: The Information Universe” by Tim Berners-Lee, et al; easy to use Java GUI-based Internet navigation tools, such as the Netscape® browser from Netscape Communications, Inc., the Internet Explorer™ browser from MicroSoft Corporation.
Presently, a person desiring to acquire information about any particular product has a number of available search options. In particular, he or she may attempt to directly contact the manufacturer, wholesaler or reseller by telephone, US mail, e-mail, or through the company's World Wide Web (WWW) site. A user determines the location of the site and then acquires product information which he/she wants from the seller’s website, but this process is time consuming and expensive and this search will not always give the desired information of the product of interest. Product brochures also attract the customers to a particular website where more detailed product information can be found. This approach provides a direct way of finding product related information on the Internet.
Particularly, when a company improves changes or modifies an existing Web-site which publishes product and/or service advertisements and related information, it is difficult (if not impossible) not to change the internet locations (e.g. Web addresses) at which such product and/or service advertisements and related information appear. Whenever a company decides or is forced to change any of its advertising, marketing and/or public relations firms, there is a substantial likelihood that new web-sites will be created and launched for particular products and services, and that the web addresses of such new web-sites will no longer correspond with the web addresses on preprinted product brochures currently in circulation at the time. This can result in pointing a consumer to erroneous or vacant web-sites that present either old or otherwise outdated product and/or service information, possibly adversely influencing the consumer's purchasing decision.
At the time of launch of new website, for a new advertising and marketing campaigning of a particular product, any preprinted advertising or marketing material relating to such products will not reflect the new web-site addresses which the campaign is promoting. Preprinted advertising media renders it difficult to unify new and old advertising media currently in circulation into an advertising and marketing campaign having a coherent theme. So it is incapable of adjusting to the dynamic needs of advertising, marketing and public relations firms alike.
Recently, different methods have been proposed for providing product information to consumers over the Internet.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,773 presents a system and method for using an ordinary article of commerce to access a remote computer and must be first solved in order to deliver a technically feasible, globally-extensive, UPC-driven consumer product information system for the benefit of consumers worldwide.
As today's e-commerce demands grow to requiring real-time update of personalized user content, and/or available products and services, there is an ever increasing demand for systems that allow an administrator to quickly customize the content that is presented to a user during application run-time, and even when the user is actively operating within a session. Furthermore, systems that allow this change to be effected automatically, i.e. by using rules or some other mechanism to alter the content presented to a user during their session, are especially useful. As end users become more sophisticated, and demand better quality of service from their content providers, and as back-end commerce applications become more complex, and flexible enough to offer such a detailed variation in content, there is an ever increasing demand for systems that allow or support the ability to provide real-time personalized data content to the user. Systems that can do this, while at the same time allowing great ease of use in setting up data content and marketing campaigns, are especially useful, since they allow an administrator to quickly administer the actual content and the rules by which that content will be sent to the user.
Thus, it is clear that there is great need in the art for an improved Internet-based method and system and method for delivering product related information to the consumers along the entire retail supply and demand chain in order to enhance their sales.
Objects of the Invention:
An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for managing sales and to deliver product related information to consumers based on web based information server.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an easy to use system and method for setting data content and thus allowing an administrator to administer the content to be sent to users.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a simple, profitable system and method for managing sales based on web based information server.
Other objects and benefits of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description, which is not intended to bind the scope of the present invention.
Summary of the invention:
Accordingly, the present invention provides a system and method for web-based marketing and sales management, that allows for personalizing the content or distribution of a marketing campaign to reflect the characteristics of a set of targeted users, the system comprising: a user profiler, for determining the characteristics of a set of targeted users; a rules editor for inputting a set of rules governing the requirements and goals of a marketing campaign; a rules engine, that accepts input from rules editor, and user characteristics of said set of targeted users, and uses set of rules to match individual members of set of targeted users with marketing campaign; and, a marketing processor that uses the output of rules engine to distribute marketing content to each individual member of set of targeted users by any of web, email, or wireless communication.
Detailed description of the invention:
The present invention is a system and method for managing sales and delivering product related information to consumers based on web information server.
In one embodiment, the system for managing sales and delivering product related information to consumers comprising of; a user profiler, for determining the user characteristics of a set of targeted users; a rules editor for inputting a set of rules governing the requirements and goals of a marketing campaign; a rules engine, that uses the user characteristics of a set of targeted users, and the set of rules, to match or associate individual user members within said set of targeted users with a marketing campaign; and a campaign marketing processor that uses the output of said rules engine to distribute personalized marketing content to members of said set of targeted users by any of web, email, wireless or other communication.
The system comprising: a user profiler, for determining the user characteristics of a set of targeted users and a rules editor for inputting a set of rules governing the requirements and goals of a marketing campaign. The system further comprises of a rules repository for storing said rules. The rules are stored as XML documents within the rules repository. The rules may be updated and applied to the rules engine in real-time to effect real-time changes to the marketing campaign. The subset of said rules can be used to define a scenario of events to be understood by the rules engine. The campaign marketing processor is hosted on or at a campaign manager server. The rules may be updated in real-time to effect changes to the campaign manager server. A set of rules can be grouped together and used to determine a scenario of events to be undertaken by the campaign marketing processor.
In another embodiment, a method for web-based marketing and campaign management, that allows for personalizing the content or distribution of a marketing campaign to reflect the characteristics of a set of targeted users, comprising the steps of: determining the user characteristics of a set of targeted users; accepting the user characteristics of the set of targeted users, and a set of rules; and using the output of said rules engine to distribute marketing content to members of set of targeted users by any of web, email, wireless, or other communication.
In the environment of the Internet and/or a website, an embodiment of the invention can be used to display personalized content to a Web user based on their session information. In these embodiments, the Web application used by the user may be, for example, a commerce Web site application such as an on-line booking system, e.g. flight reservations, or product catalog ordering. When the user logs into such an application a session is created and events occur that correspond to that session. These events are used to drive the rules-based engine, which in turn in used to drive the providing of content. Inferences about the user's profile can be made based on the user profile, and rules can be then run against that profile, all of which occur in real-time, and without need the to refer to a secondary personalization source such as a repository of statistical or marketing information
In today's business environment, knowing a customer better than the competition does is a company's best competitive advantage. By interacting with their customers, understanding their needs and preferences, and tailoring information, products, and services for them, a company can effectively win new customers as well as keep and grow their current customers. The system provided by the invention helps companies enhance their knowledge of their customers by providing an integrated view of each customer; and use this knowledge to deliver consistent, relevant and personalized marketing campaigns via the Web, email, and wireless devices.
Benefits provided by the invention include:
a. Competitive advantage, by leveraging customer relationships through a unified view of the customer.
b. The ability to Increase customer lifetime value and customer loyalty by meeting the needs of customers through personalized interactions and delivery of targeted marketing campaigns.
c. Maximize customer profitability through increased customer conversion rates, lower cost of sales, and a better understanding of buying patterns.
d. Improve marketing effectiveness by developing and implementing highly targeted initiatives delivered through the most effective channels, measuring their success, and making real-time adjustments.
e. Faster time to market with a comprehensive suite of components and templates that can be quickly and easily customized.
f. The ability to deploy with confidence using an industry-leading E-Business Platform that helps the organization get to market faster, integrate with legacy and future sales, service and marketing systems, and use agility as a competitive advantage.