WO2001006434A1

WO2001006434A1 - System and method for promotional profiling

Info

Publication number: WO2001006434A1
Application number: PCT/US2000/019340
Authority: WO
Inventors: Brandt C. Redd
Original assignee: Myfamily.Com, Inc.
Priority date: 1999-07-19
Filing date: 2000-07-13
Publication date: 2001-01-25
Also published as: AU6102300A

Abstract

The invention provides systems and methods for offering promotions. In one method, a computer readable member database is provided having a plurality of member profiles. Each member profile includes a name of a member, information on at least one event and relationship with at least one other member. An upcoming event that is associated with a target member of one of the member profiles is identified (10, 12). At least one member that has a relationship with the target member is also identified (14). Further, a promotion profile for the target member is identified based at least in part on the upcoming event (16). A promotion is provided to the related member based on the identified promotion profile (18, 20, 22, 24, 26).

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROMOTIONAL PROFILING

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to the field of marketing, and in particular to the marketing of items or events in a targeted manner. More specifically, the invention relates to the marketing of items or events using information stored in computerized databases.

Marketers and advertisers have long sought ways to effectively promote products and events. Once theory of marketing focuses on the targeting of an advertisement to a specific individual or group that would most likely be interested in the subject matter of the advertisement. For example, a diaper company may desire to deliver an advertisement only to parents who have recently had a child.

The advent of computerized databases that contain information personal to individuals are therefore of particular interest to marketers because of the detailed and relevant information they contain. Such databases have been created by various organizations for a variety of reasons, and can contain information such as a person's birth date, address, gender, marital status and the like. As one example, a database may be created by a credit organization based on information obtained from credit applications.

Marketers are interested in such databases because they provide a way to more precisely direct an advertisement. For example, if a database contains information on individuals age, gender, and address, a marketer may attempt to purchase a list having information that allows the marketer to mail a brochure to all women who are age 60 to 65. Some, such as consumer protection groups, have expressed concerns about using such personal information in this manner. Such objections are based on the assumption that the donators of the information did so with an expectation or assurance that the information would remain confidential.

Hence, one aspect of the invention relates to techniques for directing advertisements or promotions to specific groups or individuals. Another aspect of the invention relates to techniques for using information within a computerized database to market products or events without breaching a privacy obligation. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides exemplary techniques to market products or services to a narrowly tailored or specific audience. In one aspect of the invention, products or services are marketed using personal information that is stored in a database without breaching any actual or apparent expectations of privacy of the individuals who contribute the personal information to the database.

For example, in one embodiment the invention provides a method for offering promotions. According to the method, a computer readable member database is provided having a plurality of member profiles. Each member profile includes a name of a member, information on at least one event that is associated with the member, and a relationship with one or more other members in the database. In one step of the method, an upcoming event that is associated with a target member of one of the member profiles is identified. Also identified is at least one member that has a relationship with the target member. Further, a promotion profile for the target member is identified based at least in part on the upcoming event. A promotion is then provided to the related member based on the identified promotion profile. In this way, a promoter may be given the opportunity to provide a promotion to a specific promotion profile rather than to a specific individual so that the privacy of the member database is maintained. Further, by narrowly defining the promotion profiles, a promoter is able to provide a promotion to a specific audience. In one particular aspect, the method may be utilized in connection with a site on a network, with the database being coupled to the site. Further, only authorized members may be permitted to access the site and information in the member profiles. In this way, only an authorized member receives the promotion. In this manner, privacy expectations are not breached because the promotion is provided to a member of the site that is already entitled to access the information. Merely by way of example, the site may be a family site where the authorized members are a father, a mother, a brother, and a sister. The upcoming event may be a birthday of the son and the promotion profile may include gifts from a father to a son on the son's birthday. Hence, the promotion may suggest a gift that the father may give to the son. Since both the father and the son are able to access information on the son's birthday and the relationship between the father and the son, no expectation of privacy between the members of the site is breached. A variety of techniques may be employed to display the promotion. For example, the promotion may be in the form of a banner advertisement that is displayed on a web page, an online catalog entry, an e-mail insert, a note on an electronic calendar, and

2/1 the like. In one aspect, the promotion is delivered by sending an e-mail message to the related member, with the e-mail message including the promotion. In another aspect, the promotion may be provided by placing the promotion on a site of a network to which the related member may have access. For instance, a banner advertisement may be placed on a page at the website as previously mentioned.

Each member profile may include various information relating to the member, including birth date, marriage date, religious dates, gender, gift wish lists, hobbies, interests, mailing address, e-mail address, religion, and the like. In one particular aspect, a computer readable promotion profile database is provided that includes multiple promotion profiles. In this manner, the promotion profile database may be searched to identify a particular promotion profile. In one aspect, the promotion profile may further be. identified based at least in part on information in the member profile of the related member.

In another embodiment, the invention provides a method for compiling a promotion profile database. According to the method, multiple profiles are stored on a computer readable medium. Each promotion profile includes information on at least one event, at least two participants in the event, a role of each participant in the event, and a relationship between the participants. In one step of the method, at least some of the promotion profiles are related with one or more promotions. In this way, promotion profiles may be marketed to promoters in a manner that allows promoters to target promotions to specific audiences. For instance, one of the promotion profiles may be for husbands having a 25^th wedding anniversary. A jeweler may then be able to tailor a specific promotion that is appropriate for a 25^th wedding anniversary gift from a husband to a wife.

In one particular aspect of the method, merchants or promoters are charged a fee to relate a promotion of the merchant or promoter with one or more of the promotion profiles. In this way, a merchant is able to narrowly direct a promotion as previously mentioned. In another particular aspect, one or more promotions are stored in a promotions database. In this way, the promotion may be related with the promotion profile by searching the promotions database to find the appropriate promotion.

In another embodiment, a method is provided for promoting an item or event. According to the method, a site on a network is accessed. A display is produced from the site and includes at least one promotion that is directly targeted to a relative of a person accessing the site. For example, when accessing the site, the promotion may be

3 targeted to a person's mother, father, sibling, or other defined relative, such as a friend, co- worker, neighbor, or the like.

In one particular aspect, the name of the relative is displayed on the display, along with an event to which the promotion is directed. For instance, the display may include the name of the relative's sister and an upcoming birthday for the sister. In another particular aspect, only authorized members of the site are permitted to access the site. In this way, a level of privacy is provided to ensure that personal information or data is not shared with unauthorized members. In still yet another aspect, the display is produced by identifying an event that is associated with the relative, associating the event with a promotion profile, and associating the promotion with the promotion profile.

In yet another embodiment, a method is provided for promoting an item on a user computer. According to the method, a uniform record locator is received, along with information identifying a member sending the uniform record locator. In response to receiving the uniform record locator, an HTML document containing a promotion of an item to be given to a named relative of the member and an event associated with the promotion is sent. In this way, a promotion may be sent over a network to a named relative of the member. In this manner, promotions may be narrowly targeted to relatives of a member. Once the promotion has been sent, the member may send a request from the user computer to purchase the promoted item. In one particular embodiment, the invention provides a system for offering promotions. The system comprises a computer readable member database having multiple member profiles. Each member profile includes a name of a member, information on at least one event, and a relationship with at least one other member. The system also includes a computer readable promotion profile database having multiple promotion profiles. The system further includes at least one promotions database having at least one promotion. Code is also provided to identify at least one related member who is related to the target member. Code is further included to search the promotion profile database to identify a promotion profile based at least in part on the upcoming event and information in the member profile of the target member. The system further includes code to select the promotion from the promotions database based on the identified promotion profile, and to provide the selected promotion to the related member. In this manner, a promotion may be provided to a member without directly accessing information in the member profile. In this way, the data in the member database may be

4/1 kept confidential. Further, promotions may be marketed to specific promotion profiles to allow promotions to be narrowed tailored to a specific audience.

In one particular aspect, the system includes code to send an e-mail having the promotion to an e-mail address of the related member. In another aspect, the system further includes a network server computer that is coupled to the member database, the promotion profile database, and the promotions database. Preferably, the network server computer is configured to produce a display having the promotion. In this way, a member who accesses the network server computer may visualize the displayed promotion. In another aspect, the network server computer is configured to produce a group site, with only authorized members being able to access the group site. In this manner, only an authorized member may receive the promotion since only authorized members are able to access the site. In this way, an additional level of security is provided to ensure that only authorized members are able to access information in the member profiles.

In yet another embodiment, the invention provides a computer program to provide promotions. The computer program operates by searching a member database having a plurality of member profiles. Each member profile includes a name of a member, information on at least one event, and a relationship between at least one other member. The member database is searched to identify an upcoming event for one of the members. For the identified event, a promotion profile is identified that is associated with the event. A promotion is then associated with the identified promotional profile.

In one aspect, a promotion profile database may be searched to determine the promotion profile. Further, a promotions database may be searched to associate the promotion.

In still yet another embodiment, the invention provides a promotion profile database. The database includes a plurality of promotion profiles that are stored on a computer readable medium. Each promotion profile includes information on at least one event, at least two participants in the event, and a relationship between the participants. Code may be provided to match at least one of the promotion profiles with the names of at least two individuals that are stored in a separate database. In one aspect, one of the participants may be a gift giver and the other participant a gift receiver. The database may also include information relating each promotion profile to at least one promotion. In still another aspect, at least one interface may be provided to allow information about the promotion profile to be transmitted to a

5/1 computer having a processor. In this manner, a way is provided to assist in the matching of the promotion profiles with the names of at least two individuals that are stored in a separate database.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 illustrates a method for providing a promotion according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system for offering promotions according to the invention. Fig. 3 illustrates a screen display showing an e-mail having a promotion according to the invention.

Fig. 4 illustrates a screen display of a home page for a group web site according to the invention.

Fig. 5 illustrates a screen display of an individual group site according to the invention.

Fig. 6 illustrates a screen display of a shopping site according to the invention. Fig. 7 illustrates a screen display having various catalog entries according to the invention.

Fig. 8 illustrates a screen display of a calendar according to the invention. Fig. 9 illustrates an enlarged view of a day of the calendar of Fig. 8 showing a promotion.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS The invention provides various techniques, systems, and databases which enable products or services to be marketed to a narrowly tailored or specific audience. In one aspect, the invention may utilize personal profile information or data that is stored in a database without breaching any actual or apparent expectations of privacy. According to one aspect, this may be accomplished by relating promotions to a promotion profile rather than relating a promotion directly to individual or personal information. In this way, a marketer may be provided with the opportunity to provide a promotion or advertisement to a specific promotion profile without accessing any confidential information relating to specific individuals. Hence, an owner of a database having personal profile information may avoid breaching any expectations of privacy by selling

6/1 promotional space rather than private information. In some cases, the personal profile data may be accessed only by members within a certain group. For example, all individuals within a specific group may agree to share individual profile data. For instance, members of a family may agree to share their personal information with each other. In such cases, a promotion may be provided to an individual of the group that is directed to another individual in the group. In this way, a degree of privacy is provided by ensuring that private user profile data is only given to a member of the group that is already authorized to access the data. At the same time, the promoter is denied access to the personal profile data.

As used herein, a promotion may include any content specifically intended to promote a product, service, event or the like. In one aspect, the content is provided in electronic form. Promotions may include, but are not limited to, banner advertisements, e- mail inserts, product catalog entries, calendar inserts, and the like.

An individual or member profile may include a set of information about an individual. Such information may include, but not be limited to, birth date, parents, other relatives, including non-blood relatives, marriage date, spouse, address, personal interests, wish lists, and the like.

A promotion profile may include information about the type of person or event at which a promotion is targeted. For instance, for an event which includes gift giving, a promotion profile may include the gift giver, the gift receiver, various roles in the event, the relationship between the gift giver and the gift receiver, and the event itself. As one specific example, a diamond jewelry promotion may have a profile that indicates gifts from a husband to a wife on their tenth wedding anniversary.

One advantage of utilizing promotion profiles is that promotions may be sold for particular promotion profiles. For example, a merchant selling toys may wish to purchase the listing of a promotion to people shopping for birthday gifts for boys between the ages of 8 and 12 years old. By selling promotional space, rather than private information, the privacy of the information continued in the individual profiles is not violated. Once a promotion has been associated with a promotion profile, the promotion may then be matched against the information in the individual profiles so that the promotion is provided to the appropriate individual or individuals. With this arrangement, the information in the individual profiles may be accessed only by managers of the individual profile database who match the individuals with the specific promotions.

7 Further, an additional element of privacy may be obtained by providing a promotion only in behalf of an individual who is authorized to access individual profile information for another individual. For example, groups of individuals may agree to share their individual profile information. In such a case, a promotion may be provided to one individual identifying an appropriate gift for a named individual of the same group. Since all individuals of the group are permitted to access each other's information, privacy violation is avoided.

The techniques of the invention may find particular use with Internet websites (or sites on other networks, such as LANs, intranets, and the like) where groups of individuals agree to share information using the group site. In some cases, when setting up the group site, the system administrators agree to keep the individual profile information private, e.g., by only allowing access to the individual profile information by members of the group. For instance, one such website is the "myfamily.com" website having a URL listing of http://myfamily.com. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to any specific website, or to any specific type of network and/or computer system.

With such group websites, individuals may submit individual profile information and agree to share the information between the individuals. Such group websites allow members to post various information, such as letters, photographs, and the like so that other members of the group may view the information simply by accessing the group site over the Internet or other network. Further, all of the information included at the site is available only to members of the group (who typically may only have access by entering a login name and/or password). The group site may also be configured to include a listing of relevant events and dates that are of interest to the members of the site. For example, a calendar may be provided showing various birthdays, anniversaries, special family celebrations, and the like.

One particular feature of the invention is the ability to provide narrowly tailored promotions for such events without violating any obligations of privacy relating to the information in the individual profiles. For example, a person who is a member of the same group site as his 10-year-old nephew may be authorized to access his nephew's demographic profile and wish list directly. Therefore, when the uncle accesses a page of the group site, the nephew's individual profile may be matched against a promotion profile. An appropriate gift may then be promoted to the uncle without any privacy violation of the data in the nephew's individual profile. This feature enhances the utility

8/1 of the group's site by providing rapid and convenient access to appropriate gifts. Further, it creates a revenue source for the group site by offering merchants and manufacturers opportunities to promote their products.

One convenient way to configure a system to provide promotions is to store the promotion profiles and the individual profiles in databases. In this way, information from individual profiles may be matched with promotion profiles by crafting appropriate search terms and searching through both databases. For instance, in the above example where the promotion profile was for gifts to a 10-year-old boy, the individual profiles may be searched for all individuals who are 10-year-old males. Conveniently, the promotions may also be stored in a database so that once the appropriate individual profile data has been matched with a promotion profile, a corresponding promotion may be identified and sent to the appropriate individuals. Conveniently, such a system may utilize one or more processors to compare promotion profiles with information from the individual profiles and to compare the promotion profiles with the promotions. When used over a network, one or more servers may be employed to transfer the information between the databases and between the end users as is known in the art.

In an e-commerce system, a wide variety of promotions may be utilized. For example, the promotion may be in the form of a conventional Internet banner advertisement that may be inserted at any location on a web page as is known in the art. The promotion may alternatively be in the form of a catalog entry which may be displayed in an online shopping catalog. For example, such an entry may comprise a photograph of a promoted item, some descriptive text, the price, and a link to allow the user to purchase the item. Another type of promotion may be in the form of an e-mail insert. This form of promotion allows an e-mail to be directly sent to the appropriate individuals to notify them of the promotion. In one particular aspect, a group website may be configured to e-mail reminders to members of the group for certain events, such as birthdays and anniversaries. An e-mail insert in the form of text may be inserted into such an event notification to provide a narrowly targeted promotion that is associated with a specific event. As another example, the promotion may be in the form of an insert that is associated with an electronic calendar. In this way, the calendar may display not only an upcoming event, but also a specific promotion that is appropriate for the event. Specialized databases for storing banner advertisements, product catalogs, and text snippets are known in the art and will not be described in detail. Once such promotions

9/1 have been prepared, they may be stored in the appropriate systems of the invention so that they may be utilized to notify an individual of a promotion.

The promotions of the invention may have different levels of specificity depending on particular needs and/or privacy obligations. For example, a promotion may simply advertise a specific product or service without relating it to a named individual. For instance, for a husband approaching a 25^th wedding anniversary, a promotion may simply display a vacation package. Alternatively, the promotion may be more specific and suggest that the vacation package may be appropriate for a wedding anniversary. As still another example, the promotion may be more specific by suggesting that the vacation package may be appropriate for the wife of the user (including her name) for their 25^th wedding anniversary.

As previously mentioned, the invention may utilize several databases to provide a promotion to an individual. One database that may be employed is an individual profile database that includes the profiles of various individuals. Conveniently, the individual profiles may be grouped together into groups where the individual profile information may only be shared between members of a given group. Profile information that may be stored in such a database includes birth dates, marriage dates, religious dates, gender, gift wish lists, hobbies, interests, mailing address, religion, and the like. The information may be stored in a relational type of database, such as databases commercially available from Oracle, Sybase, and the like, as is known in the art.

Another database that may be employed is a promotion profile database which may include information about the type of person or event at which a promotion may be targeted. Such a database may include one or more parameters involved in the promotion profile. For instance, one parameter may be a stimulating event, such as a birthday, anniversary, religious rite, or the like. Another parameter may be a profile of a target individual, such as an individual intended to receive a promoted item. The target profile may include the target's age range, gender, interests, and the like. Another parameter may be a profile on an individual purchasing or giving a promoted item. In some cases, the purchasing individual and the receiving individual will be related, either by blood or other defined relationship, such that the individual purchasing the item may be referred to as a related individual. The profile on the individual purchasing the item may include the purchaser's age

10 range, gender, interest profile, and the like. As previously mentioned, another parameter may be a relationship between the giver and the

10/1 target. Other parameters may include the role of the giver in the event and the role of the target in the event. For example, the target individual may include a birthday person, a bride, or the like. The giver may have a role such as a father, a minister, and attendee, or the like. Another type of parameter that may be included in the promotion profile database is priority weights for each event. In this way, if a search produces multiple matching events, the events may be prioritized. In some cases, not all of the information is used in a particular promotion profile. For example, a promotion that is targeted at direct sales and not gift sales may include target information but not the giver information. The promotion profile database may be constructed from a conventional relational database making use of the inherent indexing and search capabilities to rapidly locate promotion profiles as is known in the art.

The invention may also utilize a promotions database which stores various promotions. The promotions database may be a relational database similar to the promotion profile database to allow for the rapid location of a promotion. In this manner, once a target promotion profile has been identified, one or more references may be provided to an appropriate promotion. In some cases, the same promotion profile may have multiple associated promotions for the same item or service. For example, the same birthday profile may have a banner advertisement and an e-mail insert. Further, multiple promotions of the same type may be associated with the same profile. In such a case, the promotions may be rotated or all or some of the promotions may be included. One or more promotions may be provided each time a promotional opportunity occurs. One instance in which a promotional opportunity may occur is when a person accesses a site on a network. The network site may be a group site to which only certain members may have access as previously described. In some cases, the site may include a number of web pages. A promotional opportunity may occur each time one of the web pages is accessed. For example, each time a web page on the site is accessed, a banner advertisement may be displayed.

Other examples of promotional opportunities are when an event notification is delivered, when a member of a web site accesses a calendar page, when an online shopping site is accessed, or the like. In such cases, the promotions database may be rapidly searched to locate an appropriate promotion in a manner similar to that previously described.

The parameters that may be searched to determine an appropriate promotion may vary according to the promotional opportunity. The following are some

11 nonlimiting examples illustrating the manner in which the search parameters may vary. One example involves the use of a family website where family members are privy to each others profile. Periodically, the profiles of the family members are searched to select a forthcoming family event. As previously mentioned, the first matching event may not be selected. For example, the birthday of a nephew might be in five days, but the individual's own wedding anniversary might be in 10 days. Hence, the anniversary may be chosen because a spouse is a closer relationship than a nephew.

Once the event is selected, the promotion profile database is searched to match the selected event along with the roles and relationships between the member accessing the site and the target receiver of the gift with an appropriate promotions profile. The promotions database may then be accessed to determine one or more appropriate promotions for the selected promotion profile. The promotions database may then be accessed to obtain the promotion which may then be inserted into the web page being generated.

In some cases, members of a family may be sent an e-mail notification of a forthcoming event for an individual. The search parameters used in selecting the family event may be the same parameters used when searching the promotions profile database. Hence, once an appropriate promotion is selected, it may be provided in the form of an insert which is added to the e-mail message before it is delivered.

A group website may also include an online catalog or store from which various products or services may be purchased online. Various promotions may be produced on certain pages of the online store. For example, the promotions profile database may be searched to determine products that a customer is likely to purchase. These may be products that the customer may purchase for their own or for products that the customer may buy as gifts for another. Products that the customer may wish to buy for herself may be based on the personal demographic profile in the profile database, such as gender, age, religion, and other information in the individual profile. Products that the customer may wish to purchase as gifts may be determined using an algorithm where the promotion profile database is searched to match a promotion profile with a certain event and the associated roles and relationships between the member accessing the site and the target receiver. Hence, upcoming family events may be selected and eventually matched with appropriate gifts. In one aspect, multiple promotions advertising multiple products may be provided on the custom shopping

12 pages. Further, the products may be organized on the page according to the potential receiver of the gift.

12/1 Referring now to Fig. 1, one particular method that may be utilized to provide a promotion will be described. As shown in step 10, member profiles are searched to select one or more upcoming events for one or more target members. Optionally, as shown in step 12, if multiple events are identified, they may be prioritized. Alternatively, the events may be filtered so that only certain events will be associated with a promotion. The method then proceeds to step 14 where a relative that has a relationship with the target member is identified along with the role of the relative and the target member in the event.

As shown in step 16, the promotion profile database is searched to match a promotion profile with the selected event and the identified roles and relationships of the relative and the target member. One or more promotions may then be selected for the matched promotion profile as shown in step 18. Once a promotion has been selected, various techniques may be employed for displaying the promotion as illustrated in step 20. For example, the promotion may be in the form of a banner advertisement, an e-mail insert, a catalog entry, a calendar notification, or the like. The method then proceeds to step 22 where the promotion is displayed to the relative. Optionally, the name of the event and/or the name of the target member may also be displayed as shown in step 24. As another optional step, a link may be provided to a promotional site to provide a convenient way to order the gift or service being promoted as shown in step 26.

As one specific example of the method set forth in Fig. 1, a family group site may include a father, Steve, and a ten-year-old son, Phil. The member profiles may be searched to find an event, e.g., Phil's 8^th birthday. In such a case, the target member may be identified as Phil and the related member identified as Steve. The relationship between Phil and Steve would be a father-son relationship. The role of the target individual would be that Phil is the birthday boy. The role of the related individual would be that of Steve as a gift giver. When searching the promotional profile database, an appropriate promotion profile may be gifts from a father to a son on the son's 8^th through 10th birthday. This promotional profile may be matched with one or more promotions which may then be provided to Steve. The promotions may be generic in that they simply present a gift that would be suitable for an 8-year-old birthday. Alternatively, the promotion may be more narrowly tailored and include a message that the gift may be appropriate for Phil's 8^th birthday.

Referring now to Fig. 2, one system 28 that may be employed to produce a promotion will be described. System 28 includes a promotion profile database 30 and a

13 promotion database 32. A server computer 34 may be used to maintain both promotion profile database 30 and promotion database 32 as well as for facilitating searches between the two databases. Although databases 30 and 32 are shown as sharing the same server, it will be appreciated that a promotion may be stored anywhere so long as it has a reference, such as an Internet URL, that uniquely identifies the promotion. Further, the promotions may be stored in separate databases and may be distributed among many different servers.

In communication with server computer 34 is a web server computer 36 which may be the host of a family or group website as previously described. Web server computer 36 is placed in a network so that it may access other information sources 38. For example, web server computer 36 may be configured to access other promotions as well as databases having individual profile data that may be shared when a member accesses web server computer 36. System 28 may also include one or more customer work stations or computers 40. Each customer computer 40 may be any type of computer that is able to send and receive information over a network, such as the Internet. Hence, with system 28, a member of group site may access the group site using computer 40 to log on to the web site produced by web server computer 36. In turn, web server computer 36 may access various sources of information and stored data in order to determine an appropriate promotion and to provide the promotion to customer computer 40. Shown in Fig. 3 is an example of a computer display 42 having an e-mail with a promotion. The e-mail message in computer display 42 may have been produced, for example, by web server computer 36 of Fig. 2. The e-mail is addressed to a father, Steve Robinson, regarding the upcoming birthday of his son Phil, who will be turning 8 years old. The e-mail message includes various promotions along with links to various web sites where the promoted items may be purchased. Further, the e-mail message offers suggestions for a service, e.g., a service to provide a birthday party, and an associated link.

Fig. 4 illustrates a screen display 44 that may be accessed from a customer computer, such as computer 40 of Fig. 2. Screen display 44 includes a header 46. Header 46 includes various icons that may be actuated to navigate the Internet as is known in the art. Screen display 44 further includes a home page 48 of a group site. Home page 48 includes a login box 50 and a password box 52 where a user login name and password may be entered to

14 gain access to the group site. Optionally, home page 48 may include a region for displaying various articles and a box 54 listing various features

14/1 that are available using the site. These features may be selected using a mouse or other pointing device as is known in the art to move to different pages within the web site.

Once the user has logged into home page 48 of Fig. 4, an individualized group site home page 56 is displayed as shown in Fig. 5. Conveniently, group home page 56 may identify the name of a family web site, such as the Robinson web site. Once the user has logged in to their personalized group site, they are free to access the individual profile information of the members of the group site. For example, any member of the site may post various information in the news section, or into the photo album. This information may be selected using a mouse or other pointing device to bring the user to another web page which displays the information. Optionally, a family photo or other personalized information may be included in home page 56.

When accessing any of the pages within the group website, one or more banner advertisements 58 may be displayed. For instance, using the previous example, the banner advertisement may indicate to the father, Steve, that his son, Phil's, 8^th birthday is approaching and may also suggest a promotion and a link to the promotional site. Optionally, the user may be provided with the option of selecting the displayed link to take the user to the promotional website. Optionally, the banner advertisement may be configured to be less specific and simply provide to an advertisement for a baseball cap, rather than specifically identifying Phil or his 8^th birthday. Another way to display a promotion is within an online catalog. For example,

Fig. 6 illustrates a screen display 60 where a home page 62 of a shopping web site is displayed. Home page 62 includes boxes 64 and 66 where a user is able to register by entering their name and/or password. Although shown on home page 62, it will be appreciated that the registration information may be entered at other pages of the shopping website.

Once the user has registered, a screen display 68 may be produced having various catalog entries. One or more of the catalog entries may be a promotion that is specifically targeted to a relative of the user. For example, as shown in Fig. 7, the catalog entry includes a picture of a bicycle photo, information on the bicycle, including various features, its price, and order information. Conveniently, the order information text may be selected to transfer the user to another site where ordering information is available. Although shown as being specifically targeted to Steve's son, Phil, it will be appreciated that the

15 catalog entry may be provided without this information. Optionally, screen display 68 may include various other catalog entries, such as items of the week. These

15/1 may also be promotions that are targeted to specific events that are associated with the user and/or a relative of the user, as previously described. Optionally, screen display 68 may also include various shopping areas, such as apparel, furniture, cosmetics, travel, and the like that may be selected to take the user to various other sites. Although screen display 68 is shown to be accessed via screen display 60 of

Fig. 6, it will be appreciated that screen display 68 may be accessed directly from a group site. For example, group home page 56 of Fig. 5 may include a shopping icon that may be selected to produce screen display 68 of Fig. 7. Because the user has already entered their login and password information into the system, this information does not need to be reentered.

Shown in Fig. 8 is a screen display 70 showing a calendar page of a group site. Conveniently, calendar page 72 may be accessed by selecting the calendar text of group home page 56 of Fig. 5. Calendar page 72 displays the current month and events for that month. Alternatively, calendar page 72 may include multiple months, various weeks, or various days, rather than just a single month. Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of a date section 74 of calendar page 72. Optionally, date section 74 may be selected on calendar page 72 to provide the enlarged view as shown in Fig. 9. Date section 74 may include various reminders of important dates. For example, an insert may be included about Phil's 8^th birthday and may include a link to a site from which the gift may be purchased. Although not shown, the various calendar pages, shopping pages, and other pages of a group site may be provided with a banner advertisement similar to banner advertisement 58 of Fig. 5. In this way, multiple opportunities are provided to present a promotion to a member of the site.

The invention has now been described in detail for purposes of clarity of understanding. However, it will be appreciated that certain changes and modifications may be practices within the scope of the appended claims.

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Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method in a computer system for offering promotions, the method comprising: providing a computer readable member database having a plurality of member profiles, wherein each member profile includes a name of a member, information on at least one event and a relationship with at least one other member; identifying an upcoming event that is associated with a target member of one of the member profiles; identifying at least one member that has a relationship with the target member; identifying a promotion profile for the target member based at least in part on the upcoming event; and providing a promotion to the related member based on the identified promotion profile.

2. A method as in claim 1 , further comprising providing a site on a network, wherein the database is coupled to the site, and wherein only authorized members are permitted to access the site and information in the member profiles such that only an authorized member receives the promotion.

3. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the promotion is selected from a group of promotions consisting of banner advertisements, on-line catalog entries, and e-mail inserts.

4. A method as in claim 1, further comprising providing a computer readable promotion profile database having multiple promotion profiles and searching the promotion profile database to identify the promotion profile.

5. A method as in claim 1 , wherein each member profile further includes information selected from a group consisting of birth date, marriage date, religious dates, gender, gift wish lists, hobbies, interests, mailing address, and religion.

6. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the step of providing the promotion comprises sending an e-mail message to the related member, with the e-mail message including the promotion.

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7. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of providing the promotion comprises placing the promotion at a site on a network to which the related member has access.

8. A method as in claim 7, wherein the promotion comprises a banner advertisement.

9. A method as in claim 1, wherein the promotion profile is further identified based at least in part on information in the member profile of the related member.

10. A method for compiling a promotion profile database, the method comprising: storing multiple promotion profiles on a computer readable medium, wherein each promotion profile includes information on at least one event, at least two participants in the event, a role of each participant in the event, and a relationship between the participants; and relating at least some of the promotion profiles with one or more promotions.

11. A method as in claim 10, further comprising charging merchants to relate a promotion of the merchant with one of the promotion profiles.

12. A method as in claim 10, wherein the one or more promotions are stored in a promotions database, and wherein the relating step comprises searching the promotions database to find the promotion.

13. A method for promoting an item or event, the method comprising: accessing a site on a network; producing a display from the site, wherein the display includes at least one promotion that is directly targeted to a relative of a person accessing the site.

14. A method as in claim 13, further comprising displaying on the display a name of the relative and an event to which the promotion is directed.

15. A method as in claim 14, further comprising permitting only authorized members of the site to access the site.

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16. A method as in claim 13, wherein the display producing step comprises identifying an event associated with the relative, associating the event with a promotion profile, and associating the promotion with the promotion profile.

17. A method in a computer system for displaying a promotion, comprising: displaying a promotion of an item to be given to a named relative of a viewer of the display; and in response to a selection of the promotion, displaying ordering information.

18. A method as in claim 17, wherein the displaying step comprises identifying an event associated with the relative, associating the event with a promotion profile, and associating the promotion profile with the promotion.

19. A method for promoting an item on a user computer, comprising: receiving a uniform record locator along with information identifying a member sending the uniform record locator; and in response to receiving the uniform record locator, sending an HTML document containing a promotion of an item to be given to a named relative of the member and an event associated with the promotion.

20. A method as in claim 19, further comprising receiving from the user computer a request to purchase the item.

21. A system for offering promotions, the system comprising: a computer readable member database having multiple member profiles, wherein each member profile includes a name of a member, information on at least one event and a relationship with at least one other member; a computer readable promotion profile database having multiple promotion profiles; at least one promotions database having at least one promotion; code to identify at least one related member who is related to the target member;

19 code to search the promotion profile database to identify a promotion profile based at least in part on the upcoming event and information in the member profile of the target member; and code to provide the promotion from the promotions database to the related member based on the identified promotion profile.

22. A system as in claim 21, further comprising code to send an e-mail having the promotion to an e-mail address of the related member.

23. A system as in claim 21, further comprising a network server computer that is coupled to the member database, the promotion profile database and the promotions database.

24. A system as in claim 23, wherein the network server computer is adapted to produce a display having the promotion.

25. A system as in claim 24, wherein the network server computer is configured to produce a group site, and wherein only authorized members may access the group site such that only an authorized member receives the promotion.

26. A computer program for providing a promotion, by: searching a member database having a plurality of member profiles, wherein each member profile includes a name of a member, information on at least one event and a relationship between at least one other member to identify an upcoming event for one of the members; for the identified event, identifying a promotion profile associated with the event; and for the identified promotion profile, associating a promotion.

27. A computer program as in claim 26, wherein the promotion is further provided by: searching a promotion profile database to determine the promotion profile; and searching a promotions database to associate the promotion.

28. A promotion profile database comprising:

20 a plurality of promotion profiles stored on a computer readable medium, wherein each promotion profile includes information on at least one event, at least two participants in the event, and a relationship between the participants; and code to match at least one of the promotion profiles with the names of at least two individuals that are stored in a separate database.

29. A database as in claim 28, wherein one of the participants is a gift receiver and the other participant is a gift giver.

30. A database as in claim 28, further comprising information relating each promotion profile to at least one promotion.

31. A database as in claim 28, further comprising at least one interface that is adapted to allow information about the promotion profiles to be transmitted to a computer having a processor.

32. An electronically produced display that is adapted to be displayed on a display screen, the display comprising: a promotion having information directly targeted to a relative of a person viewing the promotion.

33. A display as in claim 32, further comprising a name of the relative and information on an event that is associated with the relative and that coπesponds to the promotion.

34. A display as in claim 32, further comprising a link to permit an item or an event offered in the promotion to be purchased.

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