In-vehicle promotions system

ES 2 207 301 T3

DESCRIPTION

Promotions system integrated into the vehicle. Background of the invention

Scope of the invention

The present invention relates to a promotions system integrated into the vehicle and, specifically, to a promotions system integrated into the vehicle for displaying advertising, including information on discount vouchers, and for the optional printing of advertising or vouchers. displayed.

Background exposition

Many manufacturers and commercial establishments distribute discount vouchers or advertisements offering discounted or discount prices on items through marketing means such as direct mailing of advertising brochures or catalogs, printing of advertisements or vouchers in newspapers and magazines, or, recently, over the internet. A customer will collect the voucher and present it at the time of purchase to receive a discount, or carry the advertisement offering the discounted prices. The retail store will either refund the voucher, which typically has a barcode for reading by an optical reader, or the store's computer system will already be programmed with the discounted price of the item.

These customer marketing procedures have the disadvantage that the customer may not actually know about the voucher or the item being offered at a discounted price. Unless the customer is inclined to frequent a business establishment or has a reason to visit the business establishment, marketing is ineffective. Marketing is ineffective from another point of view, since a common goal in a marketing campaign is to increase the number of customers who buy a particular product or to add new customers. People who are inclined to visit the business establishment are not new customers. Also, a customer who collects these vouchers may belong to a small group and may not be new customers either.

With the advent of electronic and digital communication, new ways to reach current and potential customers are being explored. These modes often attempt to employ intelligent systems that automatically perform tasks such as finding information and supplying it to a potential user or customer so that he or she can flip through the information when they have time. An example of such a system is personalized Internet newspapers that automatically search for articles based on a profile prepared by the subscriber. The Internet newspaper then prepares at specified intervals, usually daily, a personalized newspaper accessible during the subscriber's free time.

Another interest of a marketing campaign is to reach people at times when their work or personal obligations do not dominate their attention. These approaches are exemplified by television monitors in airport waiting areas, monitors in commuter train cars, etc. What is needed is a system that can provide information in the form of advertisements, vouchers, etc. at the time that is comfortable for a person in a smart way.

Document DE-A-19639546 describes systems according to the preambles of claims 1, 24 and 2, methods according to the preambles of claims 38, 52.

Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a promotional system integrated into the vehicle in which a person can receive information on promotions, which is information about promotional benefits offered to the customer, such as, for example, the notification of services and / or products of a store, balances, advertising discounts or voucher information, automatically in your vehicle.

Another object of the invention is to provide a promotion system integrated into the vehicle in which the information of promotions is distributed based on the arrival of the vehicle in the vicinity of a commercial establishment or the location of another store with which the information is associated of promotions.

A further object of the invention is to provide an in-vehicle promotions system adaptable for use with current navigation and display instruments.

Yet another object of the invention is to allow a person, while in their vehicle, to optionally print voucher information from a commercial establishment close to the vehicle or selected by the occupants of the vehicle.

Another object of the invention is to provide a promotional system integrated into the vehicle that automatically pays promotional benefits to people who pass in front of a commercial establishment by communicating personally identifiable information to the commercial establishment, which is stored in the system integrated into the vehicle, which identifies the customer to the commercial establishment.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a method for displaying promotion information on the vehicle in which promotion information is displayed after the vehicle enters a defined proximity to a commercial establishment with which it is associated the information of the promotions.

Yet another object of the invention is to enable retailers and manufacturers to reach customers when they could not otherwise be reached, at a time and place where the customer or potential customer is inclined to visit a store. business establishment, or to the retailer or manufacturer, and make a purchase.

These and other objects of the invention are achieved by in-vehicle promotion systems and in vehicle promotion information display procedures as defined in the appended claims.

Brief description of the drawings

A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of its intrinsic advantages will be obtained as it is better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when viewed in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is an overall view of the system and method according to the invention;

Fig. 2A is a block diagram of a store system according to the invention;

Fig. 2B is a simplified block diagram of the

ES 2 207 301 T3 processor shown in the system of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a simplified block diagram showing a first embodiment of a promotional device integrated in the vehicle according to the invention;

Fig. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a main system according to a first embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 5A is a block diagram of a GPS-based in-vehicle system;

Fig. 5B is a block diagram of a Loran-based in-vehicle system;

Fig. 6A-6D are diagrams of data formats used in the invention;

Fig. 7 is a diagram of a display according to the invention;

Fig. 8 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the method and system according to the invention;

Fig. 9 is a block diagram of the main system of the second embodiment of the system according to the invention; Y

Fig. 10 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the vehicle integrated system according to the invention.

Description of preferred embodiments

Reference will now be made to the drawings, and in particular to Fig. 1 which illustrates an overall operation of the system and the method according to the invention. An in-vehicle display system 10 is installed in a vehicle 1. The vehicle travels near a retail store 2. The retail store 2 could be an independent store or a shopping center containing several merchants, such as, for example, a shopping street or area, another retail outlet or commercial establishment. The following description will use the term "store" to refer to any of these or all of these merchants. Around the store 2 a proximity zone 3 is shown in dashed lines, which defines an area assigned to the store (or group of stores in the case of a shopping center). When vehicle 1 enters zone 3, system 10 displays information on balances, advertising, sales or vouchers ("promotion information") of the stores that correspond to zone 3. The proximity zone 3 can be defined by a radial reach centered on the store 2 such as, for example, 100 m, or it could be a defined area such as, for example, a parking lot or area limited by nearby streets. Thus, when the vehicle enters the parking lot of a retail store, any available information relating to that store would be available for viewing and / or printing by the occupant or occupants of the vehicle. The proximity of other stores could also be considered in the size and shape of zone 3.

The store 2 may have a store system 4 that performs various operations in relation to product balances and promotions. The tent system 4 is shown in block form in Fig. 2A. The system 4 has a controller 6, a communications port 5, and a database 7. The communications port 5 may include a wireless communications device such as a radio or mobile phone modem or a paging transceiver. . Database 7 may contain a frequent shopper database that allows promotions to be directed to frequent customers, as described in more detail below, and / or a promotional information database to be disseminated to customers. . System 4 may be part of a point balance system used for the balance of products.

Fig. 3 shows a first embodiment of the information display system 10 according to the invention. Such a system is designed to be installed in a motor vehicle and preferably cooperate with current electronics. The system of Fig. 3 includes a controller 11 which may include a processor to perform data processing, memory access and retrieval, and memory management. Connected to the controller 11 is a wireless remote communication device 12. Device 12 enables wireless communication between the system and the remote host system, which will be described in more detail below.

Wireless remote communication device 12 may be a wireless modem, such as a mobile phone modem or a radio modem. These modems are manufactured by companies such as Motorola. There are now systems, such as the ARDIS (semiconductor) wireless network capable of operating with the Motorola radio modems discussed above, that charge based on usage. Alternatively, a mobile phone modem could dial a toll-free number that connects to the host system 20. The wireless communication system can also be a paging system. In this case the system integrated in the vehicle can alert the main system 20 to send and receive information.

In the preferred embodiment, a printer 13 is also connected to the controller 11. The invention can also be practiced in embodiments without a printer, with only one display. Printer 13 could be a small thermal printer for printing vouchers or other promotional information. Vouchers and other promotional information can also be viewed on screen 14. Screen 14 could be a touch screen with tactile instruction areas that allows the voucher or advertising information to be printed using printer 13. Screen 14 can be of the type currently installed in vehicles and can be used to display operational information vehicle, driving maps, etc. The system 10 may also include an indicator 15 for alerting a driver or passenger of the vehicle of receipt of promotion information, that more promotion information is waiting to be displayed, that the system is activated, or that remote communication is taking place. Some of the functions of the indicator 15 can be performed on the screen 14 in the form of the tactile instruction areas.

An example of promotion information is shown in Fig. 7. Screen 70 contains promotion display area 71 where advertising information, balances, discounts or vouchers are displayed. Area 71 displays the details of the promotion, the effective dates of the promotion, etc. At the bottom of the screen 70 are the touch instruction areas 72-75 for executing functions on the promotion information. An area such as, for example, 72 can be included that both indicates that additional information is to be displayed and allows access to the next screen of information. An3 screen instruction can also be included

ES 2 207 301 T3 terior 73, print instruction 74 and exit 75 (or return to display of vehicle operation or driving directions). The areas may be different for different screens. For example, the display may include an area indicating that system 10 is communicating with host 20 or that memory update is taking place (described below).

In the case of closely placed retail stores, there may be an overlap of scopes 3. In this case, multiple information could be displayed for different stores, preferably on different screens where the user could scroll through the screens using the Instruction areas on the touch screen 13.

Indicator 15 may be a light on the instrument panel near the display used in a similar way advising vehicle occupants of operations such as those described above for display 14.

The system also includes a receiver 16 for producing location information used by the processor to determine the information to be displayed and a data port 17. The system can also receive information that identifies, or can be used to identify, the store. 2 via device 12. Processor 11 then links the identification information with the promotion information, displaying it visually on screen 14. The processor could also notify the occupant (s) of the vehicle, using the indicator 15 or on the screen 14, of the presence of the promotion information, allowing the occupant (s) to view or print the information as desired, and switch between the promotions screen and, for example, the vehicle operation screen. Port 17 allows access to system 10 to store or modify system parameters and for diagnostics and any necessary maintenance. Port 17 may also include an optical or magnetic disc drive to allow input or output of information from system 10 using optical or magnetic discs.

As shown in Fig. 2B, the controller 11 can be configured as a CPU 31 connected to memory 30 and I / O circuitry 32. Memory 30 represents both internal and external memory (to the CPU), with internal memory containing the code that is executed by the CPU and possibly other frequently used information, while external memory is typically larger in capacity and stores other information. such as additional code executed by the CPU and a certain amount of promotion information. The external memory can be implemented as one or more of a semiconductor memory, a magnetic memory, or an optical memory.

In a first example of the system according to the invention shown in Fig. 5A, the receiver 16 is a GPS-based receiver 50 that receives the signals 53 from the GPS satellites 51 and that broadcasts an approximate position 52 of the vehicle. The position information is used by the controller 11 to determine whether the information is to be displayed. For example, the position information from the GPS receiver 16 is used by the controller 11 to represent information based on the proximity of the vehicle to the store 2, that is, when the vehicle 1 enters zone 3.

Alternatively, as shown in Fig. 5B, receiver 16 may be a Loran-based receiver 55 that produces location information 56, produced by, for example, Megapulse, SA Receiver 55 receives signals 57 from the (s ) antenna (s) 58 to produce location information.

The information regarding the position of the vehicle and the store 2 can be stored in the memory 30, as, for example, in a look-up table. The controller 11 that receives the position information produced by the receiver 16 can compare the position information with data stored in the lookup table. The lookup table can be prepared by the system manufacturer and stored in the system prior to installation in the vehicle 2. The lookup table can also be updated with data received through the wireless communication device 12, or periodically through port 17 from an external device or through a disk drive if it is included in port 17. Periodic updates Through the devices connected to port 17 or through port 17 can be carried out by sending a CD-ROM or other data transport devices in large quantities.

The data may have the form shown in FIG. 6A, wherein the memory locations contain a position value or a position range value 60 and store address information 61 indicating a memory address of the promotion information that corresponds to that store (or stores). If any match is found, that is, if the position corresponds to or the received position is in one of the stored position ranges, the processor uses the store address 61 to link to and retrieve the display information 62 (Fig. 6B) stored in memory 31, or use wireless remote communication device 12 to connect to host 20 to retrieve any promotion information stored in host 20 for the particular store that the system is to display. In other words, as a person is driving their vehicle and the vehicle reaches a certain proximity to a store, for example the 100m range, the system would display the current promotion information. This would present someone who actually went to that particular store with promotions information about current sale items, discounts, or vouchers, or it could alert someone who did not intend to go to the particular store of promotions that may be attractive or interesting, causing the person to enter the store. If the information consists of vouchers, the person can instruct the system via screen 14 to print the vouchers using printer 13, or the system could be configured to print vouchers automatically.

As is evident from the above explanation of the first example, the stores 2 do not need to have any equipment to take advantage of the system according to the invention. However, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2A, a store 2 with the store system 4 will provide additional features and functionality compared to those available in the first example. The store system 4 may include a receiver, transmitter or transceiver for receiving and transmitting information, such as, for example, promotional information or customer identification information. The in4

ES 2 207 301 T3 training can be sent to or received from vehicle 1 or main system 20.

An alternative to printing vouchers would be to provide automatic promotional benefits, such as discounts, to persons identified as passengers in vehicle 1. This alternative would communicate the identification of persons who are passengers of or associated with vehicle 1 to the stores and the promotional benefit would be available to the person by showing their identity to the store. This identification could be based on a store's frequent shopper program or other invoices provided to the customer. The invention could also use the home telephone number, the social security number or equivalent data to identify the passengers of the vehicle 1.

The preferred embodiment of the invention allows the person of the vehicle 1 to enter their personal identification information through a touch surface screen 14. Alternative embodiments could pre-program the controller 11 with identification information or allow programming through port 17.

As the vehicle 1 is driven, the controller 11 would notify the main system 20, through the wireless communication device 12, when the vehicle 1, and / or its associated passenger, enters an area 3 near a specific store 2. The notification it can be automatic, using stored identifying information, or it can be in response to user action. The notification can be sent to the main system 20 which is programmed to receive and process the identification information and output the appropriate response to the vehicle. This notification may also identify the promotion 70 displayed on screen 14 to provide the correct promotional benefit. The displayed promotion 70 will not have to be identified if a particular store is using only one promotion. The main system 20 may notify the vehicle of the frequent shopper promotion to advise the passenger (s) of the need to provide their frequent shopper identification at the partner store. It would not be necessary to print a voucher in this case.

In a modification of the system just described, when a store has a store system 4, the main system 20 can relay the passenger identification information and the displayed promotion information to the store system 4 associated with the store 2. via port 5 to allow store system 4 to automatically provide the displayed promotional benefit to the person (s) identified as being in vehicle 1. the store system 4 can even be programmed to notify the vehicle of the promotional benefit on hold via wireless communication systems 12. The person (s) identified as being in vehicle 1 would display then simply the identification to the store to receive the displayed promotion 70, again obviating the need for a printed voucher. The controller 11 can also create a record field to keep track of how many times the promotion information is accessed for a specific location, if the corresponding promotion information is displayed and for which store, if the corresponding promotion information is printed. , etc. The log file can be stored in an allocated memory area 31, or it can be sent to the host 20. Processor 11 can be programmed to send host 20 periodically, eg weekly, information from the stored log file to allow data analysis, voucher tracking, and the like. In the event that promotions information is stored in and retrieved from host 20, registration activities could be performed by host 20 as well, excluding printing of vouchers.

The amount of promotion information that may be available to processor 10 will be determined by the memory allocated to the system. In one version of the first embodiment, processor 10 could contain minimal memory allocated to promotion information. The memory 30 contains the lookup table with location information 60 and address information 61, and a certain amount of buffer memory allocated to contain promotion information. In this version the memory 30 would preferably be a semiconductor memory. If a match is made, processor 11 would then access a remote host (system 20) using wireless communication device 12 and download any appropriate information. Almost every time promotion information is to be displayed, it is retrieved from host 20 by wireless communications device 11 and stored in the buffer. The information would then be displayed on screen 13 and could be printed through user interaction. It may also be possible to instruct the processor directly to print an appropriate ticket.

In a second version, the processor could contain a larger amount of memory and store both the lookup table and the corresponding promotion information. Memory 30 could be a magnetic or optical disk. When the processor 11 determines a correspondence between the GPS position and a store, the corresponding promotion information is retrieved from memory 30 and displayed. In the event that all promotion information cannot be stored in memory 30, the second version of system 10 would contact main system 20, as described above, to retrieve the promotion information. The second version reduces the amount of remote communication and the costs associated with using wireless communication systems.

Retail stores are now typically advertised weekly in magazines and newspapers. The processor 11, in the first and second versions, at a given interval such as weekly, can be programmed to automatically use the wireless remote communication device 12 to access the main system 20 and update the lookup table (first version) and both the search table and the promotions data (in the second version), downloading the information (weekly). Wireless remote communication device 12 could also be used to update the lookup table and / or promotion data at any time advertisers desire. The lookup table, and the promotion data (in the second version), could also be updated through the use of a mass storage device

ES 2 207 301 T3 connected to port 17.

The cost of these systems could be borne by the advertisers. The system could then possibly be offered as a free option in the vehicle either as a standalone system or as a system that accesses a touch surface screen already installed in the vehicle. GPS position systems that provide driving information are also currently available in automobiles. The system according to the invention could easily be adapted to work with existing GPS navigation systems and display devices.

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of the main system 20. The system 20 includes a receiver 21 for connecting to and receiving information from the vehicle integrated system 10 installed in the vehicle. The receiver 21 connects to and sends the information to the controller 23. As discussed above, the information could be store address information 61, which was compared in a lookup table in system 10 to determine if there is a match between location information 60 and a store that wants store information to be displayed. promotions. The main system 20 compares the address of the store 61 to determine if there is a match with the promotion information 62. Under the control of the controller 23, promotion information can be retrieved from a voucher file 24 or a promotion file 25 where data corresponding to the voucher or advertising information, such as image data, is stored. The voucher file 24 and the promotion file 25 could be different memory locations in a single memory. The voucher data in file 24 and the promotions data in file 25 can be mixed with each other and stored by store name or position.

Controller 23 then transmits the information back to vehicle integrated system 10 using transmitter 22. Transmitter 22 may be a modem connected to a mobile phone system or radio system, or it could be a mobile phone modem or a radio modem similar to and compatible with the modem used by system 10. Transmitter 22 and receiver 21 could also be implemented as a single transceiver device.

The main system 20 could also receive from the vehicle system 10 through the receiver 21 identification information associated with the person of the vehicle 1, identification of which promotion is displayed or has been displayed on the screen 14 and notification that the vehicle 1 You have entered zone 3 associated with a specific store 2, as discussed above. The entry of vehicle 1 in a zone 3 associated with a store 2 can be used to automatically provide promotional benefits to the identified person of vehicle 1. Automatic promotional benefits can include discounts advertised on the in-vehicle display 14. Controller 23 will communicate the personal identification and identify the promotions displayed on the in-vehicle display to a store system 4, which will then automatically provide the promotional benefit to the identified person, as described above. Store 2 will provide the promotional benefit to the person identified in vehicle 1 for a limited time 6 after the vehicle has entered zone 3 associated with the specific store 2. The person identified as in vehicle 1 will identify himself to the store to receive the displayed promotional benefit. The procedures and system designs for automatically providing promotions to individuals based on their identity are familiar to those practicing the relevant techniques.

The main system 20 stores the promotional information of the retail stores. In the first version of the embodiment where the vehicle integrated system 10 contains minimal information, the main system 20 frequently communicates and transfers promotion information 62 that resides in file 24 or file 25 to system 10. Controller 23 would then send to vehicle integrated system 10 an appropriate amount of promotion information in accordance with the memory capacity of the vehicle integrated system. During this communication the lookup table of the system 10 can be updated. In the second version where the system integrated in the vehicle 10 contains a greater amount of memory, the main system 20 communicates less frequently with the system 10.

In the first embodiment, the system integrated in the vehicle 10 displays the information when the vehicle enters near a specific store 2. When the vehicle enters another range of a second store, or when there is additional information to be displayed, the display 14 or indicator light 15 could be used to signal to the occupants of the vehicle that there is additional information waiting and the current screen can be erased or printed, then allowing additional or new information to be displayed and / or printed as desired.

A second embodiment of the in-vehicle system uses an RF receiver, and is shown in Figs. 8-10. In this embodiment the main system 80 is installed in store 2 and includes an RF transmitter. The main system 80 transmits a signal with a limited range 81 (shown in dotted lines), that is, close to store 2. This range could be the same range used in the GPS or Loran system described above. The main system 80 includes a controller 83 connected to file 24 and advertisement file 25, which contain promotional information unique to a store 2 or a group of stores. Controller 83 controls the transfer and formatting of the promotion information to the RF transmitter 82 which transmits a signal containing the promotion information. Different promotion information screens can be transmitted, together or separately.

RF transmission from host 80 is received by RF receiver 91. The received signal is received by processor 92 and processed for format recognition, display, and / or printing. The system 90 also includes a printer 93 and a display 94, and may also include an indicator 95, each operating in the manner described above for items 13-15, respectively. In this embodiment, because an RF system 80 transmits the information of promotions, the system integrated in the vehicle 10 requires a smaller amount of memory because it only needs to receive and process data related to the specific store (or stores). .

ES 2 207 301 T3

The system 90 could include an identification transmitter 96 to notify the main system 80 of the entry of the vehicle 1 in the vicinity of the store 81. The identification would identify to the store the identity of the person associated with the vehicle 1 and allow the store to provide automatically promotional benefits to the person associated with vehicle 1, for example, in the form of a frequent customer discount, as discussed above.

The main system 80 advertising or balance information would reach customers who are inclined to enter the store and those close to the store. A person could then know the promotional information each time they brought their vehicle within range of the store. The customer would then not have to spend time searching, retrieving, and sifting through information to determine if there are any special offers of interest in a store that the customer is inclined to go to and a store near the customer.

The second embodiment could also include an RF receiver 84 in main system 80 to receive identification information or other information from vehicles 1 entering the area. Controller 83 connects to store system 85 and provides the identification information to store system 85.

In a third embodiment of the system according to the invention, the vehicle integrated system of the first embodiment contains customizable features. System 10 contains a look-up table in memory 30 that contains store location information. This information could be expanded to include the store name field 64 shown in FIG. 6D. The processor 11 can search the information in the lookup table both by position and by store name.

Screen 13 is also modified to contain instruction areas that allow the user to access promotion information by location (such as zip code or street address) or by store name. Processor 11 receives the request for information from the screen and searches the lookup table for a match. In the case of GPS and Loran based systems in the first embodiment, the postal code or street address can be converted by the processor 11 to a range of GPS values ​​or Loran values. The store or stores that meet the input parameters are displayed on screen 13. The customer selects the specific stores of interest and the system integrated in the vehicle 10 displays the corresponding promotion information retrieved by the wireless remote communication device 12 of the main system 20 (first version) or retrieved from memory 30 (second version). In this embodiment, a client would not only be able to receive information due to the proximity of the vehicle to the various stores subscribed to the system, but could also view those that are of interest in the area or also view the information of the stores in an area most subscribed to the system.

Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. For example, while the above embodiments show both a receiver and a transmitter for receiving and transmitting information, a transceiver may be used instead. While the invention has been described as having one of GPS, Loran or local receivers, the system according to the invention may include two or all three receivers. In addition, various data formats can be used to suit the needs of store subscribers or system limitations. The store system may also contain various storage devices and I / O devices to store and process the various information that subscribers want or are required by system requirements. Likewise, any necessary information can be provided remotely to the store systems. It should, therefore, be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described in the present invention.