Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Peer-to-Peer System to Enable Viral Marketing and Associated Method
Field
The invention relates generally to Internet marketing, and more particularly
to a peer-to-
peer system to enable viral marketing and an associated method therefore.
Background
The Internet and more particularly, e-commerce has presented unique
opportunities and
challenges to businesses. Marketing methods continue to evolve in an attempt
to
generate business.
In general, Internet marketing is a remote, unsocial, intruding, untrusted
digital
interaction. While traditional marketing focuses on branding versus product
supremacy,
most marketing models ignore the factors that influence a buyer. These
campaigns may
take a long time to deploy, are static, difficult to scale and cannot be
monitored or
modified in real time. The strategy is based on market testing, surveys,
demo/psychographics and past buying behaviour profiling. For these reasons,
mass
marketing models are very inefficient (2% yield) and expensive, ranging from
$100 -$150
/ customer acquisition.
Therefore, there exists a need for a peer-to-peer system to enable viral
marketing and an
associated method therefore.
Summary
A system and method for viral marketing is disclosed.
According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method of
viral
marketing including a genealogy of influencers providing referrals comprising
the steps
of providing at least one referral of a product or service; providing a reward
to each
influencer in the genealogy upon purchase of the product or service; and
providing an
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incentive to one, many or all influencees to purchase the product or service.
According to another embodiment of the invention, there is provided a system
of viral
marketing comprising: a genealogy of influencers providing referrals for a
particular
product or service; means to reward each influencer when a particular product
or service
is purchase based on a referral; and means to provide incentive to each
potential
purchase.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and
operation of
various embodiments of the invention, will become apparent to those ordinarily
skilled
in the art upon review of the following description of the invention in
conjunction with
the accompanying drawings.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the
accompanying
drawings, wherein:
Fig. 1 illustrates an overview of the disclosed system;
Fig. 2 illustrates an influence network in detail;
Fig. 3 illustrates the genealogy of the influence network of Fig. 2;
Fig. 4 illustrates a viral marketing model;
Fig. 5 illustrates the four technologies of the system;
Figs 6 and 7 illustrate airoffers;
Figs. 8 and 9 illustrate airpower; and
Fig. 10 illustrates airplay.
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Similar references are used in different figures to denote similar components.
Detailed Description
A glossary of terms is provided first:
Offer - an offer is defined as any object which contains perceived value to
the receiver
such as a coupon, a voucher, a discount, product information, a service, a
programmable
object containing intelligence or an incentive to take a predetermined action.
Referrer - a person initiating a referral
Referree - a person receiving the referral from the Referrer. Typically this
is a friend,
family member, neighbour, co-worker, business associate or acquaintance.
Influencer - a referrer who is recognized and trusted by a given referee
Reward - The word reward as used in this document may be defined as being
monetary,
material, humanitarian, emotional or recognition oriented in nature.
The disclosed system and method of viral marketing relies on informal referral
(person-
to person, word of mouth) social interaction based on a person sharing his or
her
experience relating to product or service since people are much more
influenced to buy
based on advice from a trusted party than from branding, or mass marketing.
The
disclosed system and method also rewards products supremacy and penalizes
products
with deficiencies. This system is referred to as viral marketing.
In addition, the model markets the Influencers (sometimes referred to as hubs)
and is
permission based (i.e., pull versus push).
Referring to Figure 1, a word of mouth electronic referral system is
illustrated. An
Influencer recommends, suggests or refers a particular product to a Referree.
The
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Influencer may receive a referral reward and upon the closure of a transaction
(i.e. the
purchase of the product), may receive a purchase reward. In situations where
the
business rules dictate, those offering these references are rewarded by an
accumulation
for them in an on-line data warehousing system or on a hand-held device, of an
immediately accessible account of non-specific credits, bonuses, prizes,
charitable
donations or other rewards. Those accepting such referrals are provided an
incentive
through a systematic accounting allocation to them of non-specific purchase
discounts
or other benefits. Estimations, recordings and accountings of the value of
these credits,
discounts and other benefits are facilitated through an Internet-enabled
server system
using a set of configurable business rules which define the attributes (i.e.
expiration,
value, dependencies, restrictions, limitations, transferability, etc.) of the
incentive. As
incentives are collected, they become accessible though secure online access
and the use
of Internet enable wireless hand-held computers, laptops, personal computers,
mobile
telephones, land-line phones, and other networkable devices with video display
capabilities The reward system supports various renumeration models. At one
extreme,
the reward system may be pyramidal in nature, in that it rewards not only the
direct
Influencer of the buyer, but also to the Influencer or the Influencer up to
the top of the
influence ladder, as seen in Figures 2 and 3. At the other extreme, product or
service
information may be transferred between parties with no reward or renumeration
beyond
loyalty or common interest. The referral pattern operates across an influence
network to
market the product. A detailed illustration of an influence network is seen in
Figure 2.
In this example, an influence network is depicted demonstrating the various
categories
of hubs, spokes and transfer points in a given network. This realization
suggests the
possibility of an assortment of rewards to correspond with a given hub
characteristic.
The genealogy of the influence network is seen in Figure 3. This figure
extends the
concept defined in Figure 2 by defining sample information which may be
attached to the
transferred object (i.e. coupon, product data, etc.) enabling traceability or
a genealogy
effect to occur.) Each offer includes a complete influence genealogy
identifying all the
persons involved in the influence ladder leading to a given purchase from the
top
influencer to the bottom buyer. This genealogy capture data, combined with the
information about goods promoted by a given influence network may be provided
to
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various retailers, manufacturers and market research firms. This data is
obtained on a
consensual basis by identifying each Influencer by some means, such as name,
email
address, phone number or postal codes.
Referring to Figure 4, a viral wireless model is illustrated. This figure
illustrates the four
elements of a viral wireless campaign, which are Promote, Purchase, Analytics
and
Campaign. The Promote element suggests a viral campaign initiates the transfer
of an
offer from a targeted group of trusted product experts through an influence
network to
a larger target market. The Purchase element demonstrates that a genealogy
data is
collected as the offer passes through an influence network and the genealogy
data set
achieves closure when an offer (in this case a coupon) is redeemed through a
purchase
transaction. . The Analytics element represents a source of computer
intelligence and
resources who can decipher the genealogy data into clear patterns which
identify various
"hubs" within the influence network. This information is then exposed to other
resources
and systems in the Campaign element. It is used re-start the cycle and target
the
appropriate hubs for the next promotion.
Therefore what is disclosed is a word of mouth electronic referral system that
uses
wireless technologies and Internet enabled systems t promote immediate and
spontaneous
information exchange among referrals of products and services concerning
characteristics
such as price, quality ratings, warranty specifications, or generalized
attributes pertaining
to form, fit or functions.
Various types of offers or other digital incentive programs offered by
manufacturers or
marketing services organizations can be easily adapted to the disclosed system
after being
appropriately transformed to wireless suitability or other distribution means.
The rewards
for influencers are awarded by manufactures, distributors and various sources
of interest
and redeemed directly at the retailers, through on line facilities or other
sources of
redemption.
The wireless model uses three technologies referred to as airoffer, airpower
and airplay,
as seen in Figure 5 to comlect the four elements of a viral wireless marketing
model.
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Using these three technologies, the disclosed method and system enhances and
integrates
multiple incentive distribution formats whereby the consumer may digitally
exchange
offers through file transfer, e-mail, wireless hand-held computers, laptops,
personal
computers, modular phones, television sets and other networkable devices with
video
display capability.
Airoffer is illustrated in Figures 6 and 7. Airoffer operates wirelessly or
via email and
may include a media enhancement, offer rules, and genealogy collection. The
security
and privacy of offers is ensured by an appropriate encryption with offers
being de-
encrypted for authentication at the point of sale level.
These enhanced offers may make use of avatars, multimedia advertising and
interactive
video triggers implanted in the viral reward offer, thereby adding value
through a richer
user experience.
Wireless technology enables viral marketing because of convenience. In terms
of
distribution technology, including the Internet, wireless Internet and
Personal Area
Networks (PANS), the Internet is the least effective and PANs the most
effective.
Combining PANs with wireless technology such as Bluetooth and 802.11 in
handheld
devices is an effective system for viral marketing.
Airpower is illustrated in Figures 8 and 9. Airpower takes input from
accumulated
airoffers and examines the genealogy of viral referrals, incentives and
similar offers
allowing it to assemble, warehouse and analyse consumer behaviour data for
internal and
third party uses. Therefore, as a by-product of various exchanges, the system
is able to
collect consumer behaviour data including the genealogy of a given offer for
the purpose
of viral marketing.
The airpower model is to enable manufactures, distributors or market research
firms to
collect and analyse the genealogy data independently. In one embodiment, a
transaction
fee may be applied for each genealogy.
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Airplay is illustrated in Figure 10. Airplay provides and interface for eCRM
and ERP
systems enabling them to take airpower output and link it to their customer
relationship
data to improve service levels. Airplay also offers a detailed reporting
capability on both
static consumer data and trend analysis. Airplay is marketed as an eCRM
product add-
on . A royalty agreement per eCRM customer may be applied.
The disclosed system and method enables wireless peer-to-peer viral marketing
that
improves the scope, timeliness and interactivity of online and wireless
promotions. The
system combines viral marketing, wireless technologies and advanced user
interfaces
deployed over Internet, personal area and cellular networks and operates on a
variety of
handheld and desktop devices.
While the invention has been described according to what are presently
considered to be
the most practical and preferred embodiments, it must be understood that the
invention
is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Those ordinarily skilled in the
art will
understand that various modifications and equivalent structures and functions
may be
made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined
in the
claims. Therefore, the invention as defined in the claims must be accorded the
broadest
possible interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and
equivalent
structures and functions.
