Merritt W Mayher

US Patent:

20090240567, Sep 24, 2009

Filed:

Feb 23, 2009

Appl. No.:

12/390972

Inventors:

Devon Kinkead - Holliston MA, US
Merritt W. Mayher - Boston MA, US
Charla Jones - Roslindale MA, US
Venkat Rangamani - Shrewsbury MA, US

Assignee:

Micronotes, LLC - Cambridge MA

International Classification:

G06Q 10/00
G06Q 30/00
G06Q 40/00
G06F 17/30
G10L 13/08

US Classification:

705 10, 705 1, 705 26, 705 7, 705 39, 705 14, 707 3, 705 35, 704260, 7071041, 707E17044, 707E17108, 704E13001

Abstract:

The present invention is a system which enables a marketing team to initiate and sustain directed and interactive communication with thousands or millions of existing or prospective customers. In the preferred embodiment, a marketer accesses a database and selects a group of qualified prospects, using lifestyle dimensions and or demographic information, from a stable group of prospective or existing customers conducting financial transactions online. Once a prospect list is selected, the marketer designs a series of questions, typically using branch and skip logic, and the system deploys the question sequence to the target list in the form of a response-redeemable savings coupon. When prospects are next performing their financial transactions online, they are presented with a lifestyle-relevant coupon which is immediately redeemable by responding to the question/communication, therewith lowering the respondent's bill instantaneously upon response, as in the case of online bill payment. Reponses are made available to the marketer who can use this information to further segment and qualify respondents. The marketer can then initiate a new, more relevant line of inquiry, based on previous responses, with a more highly qualified subset of prospects. By repeating an ever more relevant communication process with an increasingly qualified prospect group, which ultimately may result in a welcomed invitation to purchase a product or service (e.g. in the form of a coupon redeemable with product or service purchase), both marketer and consumer engage in an interactive relationship. The present invention can use systems and methods for the payment of debts. A communications network can be used by debtors to acquire and transfer funds, securities or any other transferable instrument that increases in value with time to satisfy the debt.