Claims:We Claim:
1. A method, comprising:
a. linking, by a computer-based system, a transaction account of a user with a first third party broadcast platform and a second third party broadcast platform,
b. receiving, by a broadcast monitoring module of the computer-based system residing with a broadcast channel, a first set of broadcasts from the first third party broadcast platform;
c. identifying, by the broadcast monitoring module of the computer-based system and based on the offer indicator, a first subset of broadcasts from the first set of broadcasts;
d. receiving, by the broadcast monitoring module of the computer-based system, a second set of broadcasts from the second third party broadcast platform;
e. identifying, by the broadcast monitoring module of the computer-based system and based on the offer indicator, a second subset of broadcasts from the second set of broadcasts;
f. associating, by the computer-based system, the offer defined by the offer indicator to the transaction account of the user in response to the correlating;
g. generating, by the computer-based system, notification instructions,
h. receiving, by the computer-based system, transaction information associated with the transaction account of the user;
i. comparing, by the computer-based system, the offer to the transaction information; and
j. crediting, by the computer-based system, an amount associated with the offer to the transaction account of the user based on the broadcast
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast is transmitted via a push based short message service.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast is published through at least one of You Tube, Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer indicator comprises a# and a keyword.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the keyword comprises an indicator associated with a merchant.
, Description:Technical Field of the Invention:
The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for providing marketing partners an automated platform for managing promotions, and more particularly, to systems and methods for establishing and maintaining loyalty incentive programs and other promotions that permit consumers to receive discounts and notices of discounts, without requiring a coupon to be redeemed.
Background of the Invention
Loyalty, incentive or reward programs are typically used as a form of highly customizable and targeted marketing. A loyalty program provider often attracts customers who sign-up for a loyalty program. Shopping benefits such as discounts are offered to the customers by the provider. The provider then markets to merchants that the provider can bring customers to the merchant. For example, a loyalty program provider may approach a merchant (e.g., the clothing retailer GAP® Inc.) with an over to bring customers to the GAP® in exchange for a fee. The provider would then send a solicitation (via email or regular mail) to its customers offering, for example, a 10% discount coupon that may be redeemed at the GAP® on a day. The success of the solicitation can be assessed based on the number of coupons redeemed.
In such a loyalty solicitation, the merchant would usually pay the loyalty program provider a percentage of the sales (e.g., 10%) that result from the solicitation. The merchant benefits from the increased sales. The loyalty program provider benefits from the commission that it receives, and the customers benefit from the received discount.
There are several areas that could be improved in such traditional loyalty programs. For example, such traditional programs suffer from leakage. Leakage occurs when the merchant does not fully report sales resulting from the solicitation. Leakage results in loss revenues for the loyalty program provider. Further, administrative marketing programs such as coupon redemption are costly. For example, setting up and maintaining offers, eligibility criteria, redemption criteria, reporting criteria and other functions of a promotion system traditionally require business analysts of the reward program platform provider to manually configure the platform. What is needed is a marketing and promotions platform that enables intelligent, automated (e.g., via application programming interfaces) interfaces with a reward platform.
Object of the Invention
The object of the present invention is to providing location-based coupon-less offers, based upon a location of a participant (e.g., card member (CM)).
Summary of the Invention
In various embodiments, a computing platform includes application programming interfaces that enable third parties to create, configure, manage, modify, update, delete report on, and enhance reward offers and marketing programs. For example, a program provider may wish to create a custom application (“partner application”) that serves as a front-end or interface with the computing platform. The partner application accesses the computing platform via various application programming interfaces (APIs). In various embodiments, a marketing program is set up and merchants are associated with the marketing program. Offers are created and associated with the program and/or the merchant and customers are offered and signed up for the offers.
In various embodiments, an automated marketing system comprises: a network interface communicating with a memory, the memory communicating with a processor for automated marketing and storing a computer program and a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs) and the processor, when executing a computer program, performs operations. The operations include receiving, by the processor and via an offer setup API, a first offer setup request, wherein the offer setup API is from the plurality of APIs parsing, by the processor, the offer set up request into a plurality of first offer parameters; validating, by the processor, at least one of the offer setup request and the first offer parameters; in response to the validating, notifying, by the processor, a first approver of the offer setup request; receiving, by the processor and from the first approver, an approval of the offer set up request; saving, by the processor and to the memory, a first offer comprising the first offer parameters, wherein the first offer is associated with a first marketing program; and determining, by the processor, a first population comprising a plurality of transaction accounts that comply with first offer criteria, wherein the first offer parameters comprise the first offer criteria.
In various embodiments, the first offer criteria comprise at least one of a customer identifier, a customer demographic, a customer location, spend frequency, a spend threshold, a spend history, an award cap, a tiered reward requirement, a product identifier, a product category, a stock-keeping unit (SKU), a universal product code (UPC), a QR code, a merchant, a merchant type, an industry, a merchant location.
In various embodiments, operations performed by the system include receiving via an enrolment API from the plurality of APIs, a first enrolment setup-request; validating the first enrolment setup-request, wherein the validating comprises determining that the first enrolment setup request is associated with at least one of the first offer and a second offer; receiving an approval of the first enrolment setup-request from at least one of the first approver and the second approver; parsing the first enrolment setup request into first enrolment parameters and saving the first offer enrolment parameters to the memory and receiving a first offer acceptance from a first user associated with a first transaction account from the first population.
In various embodiments, a method for operating a loyalty incentive program includes the following steps a list of participating merchants is received; a list of participating account holders is received; a record of charge corresponding to a purchase by an account holder customer is received from a merchant, and upon receipt, an account of the account holder customer is debited by the amount of the charge, a merchant identification contained in the record of charge is compared with the list of participating merchants, and an account holder identification contained in the record of charge is compared with the list of participating account holders. If the account holder is a participating account holder and the merchant is a participating merchant, then it is determined whether the record of charge qualifies for a rebate credit. If the record of charge qualifies for a rebate credit, then the rebate credit is provided to an account of the account holder customer.
Brief Description of Drawings
FIG. 1 is a detailed high-level flow diagram of the process performed by a system for managing offers based on user broadcasts, in accordance with various embodiments
Detailed Description of Invention:
In various embodiments, and with reference to FIGS.1, system may be configured to associate offers with a CM based on publishing actions by the CM. Many channels (e.g., blog websites, social media website, and/or the like) available through the internet allow a CM to publish content that can be viewed by people or entities associated with the CM. Channels may include, for example, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, foursquare, Linkedin, Pintrest, Google Plus, Feedji, Chatter, Yammer, Cubetree, Socialtext, Jive, Neustar, Weightless, Blogger, and/or the like. These channels are generally able to identify publications by a CM, through components of the system that support the channel. For example, data associated with a user's social media account may be indexed by the social media service. The particular data (e.g., a broadcast, message, or other suitable data) published by the user through the social media site can be particularly identified if the data comprises a predetermined object (e.g., offer identifier, text, picture, symbol, keyword, graphic, sound, etc.).
Initially, the CM may have to associate a transaction account and a broadcast channel with the entity response for administering the rewards program. The CM may navigate through a web browser to a offer program landing page. The CM may select one or more broadcast channels (e.g., social media channels). In response to the receiving the broadcast channel selection, system may request profile data for the CM's broadcast channel account. System may be configured to display a webpage that allows a CM to input the profile information or may allow the CM to sign-in with a selected broadcast channel username and password. For example, system may provide a broadcast channel login button. System may also require the CM to specifically authorize system, RCE , or a third party (e.g., a partner, merchant, service provider, monitoring service, and/or the like) to monitor, collect, evaluate or otherwise process the data broadcasted by the CM through the broadcast channel. In various embodiments, system may be configured with an application provided through an authorization page that installs on a device (e.g., a smart phone, laptop, tablet computer, and/or the like) to facilitate monitoring of the CM broadcasts, CM profile information, transaction accounts associated with a CM and process or manage any other suitable CM data.
The CM may then provide profile information for the channel associated with the CM's broadcast channel account. In response to receiving the profile information, system may be configured to request transaction account information. The transaction account information may be provided through an account registration webpage or be automatically identified by system based on the login information, where the login information sufficiently complies with (e.g., is identical to) login information associated with one or more transaction accounts. System may further request the CM to affirmatively sync the transaction account with the CM's broadcast channel profile (e.g., by selecting a sync button). System may be configured to verify that the transaction account is eligible to sync with the broadcast channel profile and receive offer based on CM broadcasts, based on card type, spending level, payment history, spending history, creditworthiness, enrolment in loyalty programs, or any other suitable factor . For example, CM with standard accounts may be eligible to receive offers, but CM with branded transaction accounts may not be eligible to receive offers based on CM broadcasts.
Based on the sync and the verification that a card is eligible, system may acknowledge to the CM the association between the transaction account and the CM's broadcast channel profile. System may also provide a confirmation webpage, may electronically communicate confirmation that a transaction account has been synced (e.g., via an e-mail, SMS, social media message, and/or the like), or any other suitable confirmation. In various embodiments, system may be configured to provide additional information to the CM during the registration process. For example, system may be configured with an offer database that is searchable by the CM. This allows the CM to evaluate the various offers available, allowing the CM to determine whether she would be interested in receiving the offers. System may also brand various web pages based on the broadcast channel selected by the user. For example, where system allows a CM to associate an American Express transaction account with the social media channel such as Twitter, system may be configured to co-brand one of more web pages during registration with American Express brands and Twitter brands. This may be based on the CIA's selection of Twitter and/or the providing American Express Transaction account information.