WO2002087195A2

WO2002087195A2 - Method for allocating purchasing bonuses in the form of free telephone

Info

Publication number: WO2002087195A2
Application number: PCT/FR2002/001281
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thierry Saint-Luc
Original assignee: Thierry Saint-Luc
Priority date: 2001-04-20
Filing date: 2002-04-12
Publication date: 2002-10-31
Also published as: FR2823885A1; WO2002087195A3; AU2002304532A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for managing the allocation of purchasing bonuses in the form of free telephone units to a purchaser (Ai) using a manager G, said purchaser having an account (Cai) with at least one operator (Oi), characterized in that said method comprises the following operations: a) managing purchases by G of a plurality of telephone units (UT) from the telephone operator (Oi); management of the transfer by G to at least one distributor (Di) of a plurality of telephone units; management of the credit/debit stock in a computer memory (G1) of the amounts of telephone units bought from different operators (Oi) and those obtained as purchasing bonuses by a customer (Ci) of at least one distributor (Di) until the number of telephone units reaches a set value; crediting the account (Cai) with the operator (O1) with the amount (Vai) of telephone units obtained by the purchaser Ai.

Description

METHOD FOR ALLOCATING PREMIUMS FOR PURCHASE IN THE FORM OF UNITS

FREE TELEPHONES

The present invention is in the field of marketing techniques and its subject is a method of allocating purchase bonuses, in the form of free telephone units, with the main purpose of gaining the loyalty of the customers of a distributor, and incidentally model the purchases of a given customer, taking advantage of modern means of data processing and telematics.

The idea behind the invention is based on the immateriality of telephone units as purchase bonuses.

FR 2 797 078 (FRANCE TELECOM) discloses a method for managing the payment of parking taxes, validation coupon and terminal for verifying this payment; also known from international application WO 0063859 from the same applicant a payment system for the use of software; reference may be made to these publications for a distant technical environment of the invention

According to the invention a method of distributing to a buyer (Ai) purchase bonuses in the form of free telephone units (UT), the said buyer having an account (Cai) with at least one telephone operator (Oi), the said method being implemented by a manager G, is characterized in its generality in that it comprises the sequence of operations consisting of / in: a) - the purchase by G from the said telephone operator (Oi) of a plurality of 'telephone units (UT); b) - the sale by G to at least one distributor (Oi) of a plurality of UT c) - the storage in debit credit preferably in a computer memory G1 of the quantities of telephone units purchased from the different operators ( Oi) and those obtained as purchase bonuses by a customer (Ci) at at least the distributor (Di), until the number of UT reaches a certain value (Vai), d) - credit with the operator Oi the account Cai of the quantity Vai of telephone units obtained by the buyer Ai.

In the method, or in other words the procedure, described above, the manager has an interface role between two markets: the market for telephone operations on the one hand, and the general market for products and services.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) It also has, as explained below, the role of analyst of buyers' purchasing procedures, analyzes whose results it can pass on to both buyers and distributors with the agreement of buyers.

Preferably, the allocation of the UTs to each buyer Ai from the manager G is effected by periodic transfer by telematic means, from Di to G; advantageously the periodic transfer by telematic means, from Di to G is accompanied by the list of purchases made during the period in question, while the manager periodically informs the buyer Ai of the purchases made at the various Di distributors, with the indication of the UT acquired as a bonus from each of these, and in the event that the Vai value has been reached, of the number of free telephone units whose account has been credited to the operator Oi.

The procedure, or process, described above is proposed for operations by computer, which has the advantage of processing quickly and at low cost a large number of information, however this procedure is not exclusive of the implementation other means; for example, the storage of UTs at the manager G can be effected by the transmission, from Di to G, of "paper" documents, such as cash vouchers, "smart" memory cards, etc.

It was considered above that the procedure aimed at a purchase premium but it is possible to apply it in the case where Di is any provider (Dg) of free telephone units, who gives to any person (Pi), who does not especially have the quality of buyer, but who has a Cai account, a "paper" document called "good-telephone" recognized by G and representing free UT in the telephone network of Oi, the credit operation at manager G is therefore made from the "paper" document that constitutes the "good phone".

It was also considered that it is the distributor who informs the manager of the purchases made by the buyer with a view to crediting the latter's account with the manager; however in a variant of the procedure, each article includes a unique masked code which can be displayed by "scratching" with indication of the use of the code for the purchaser holding an account with a telephone operator, and this is at buyer who is left to transmit the code to the manager, where the unique code can not be used (validated) only once to open and / or credit a telephone unit account with the latter; after which the procedure applies as indicated above.

The invention will be better understood and details will be apparent from the description which will be given in connection with the figure of the attached inique sheet which illustrates the process in a form in which the transfer of information is mainly processed by IT and telematics.

In the figure, an organization G said to be manager or also "interface", buys in number of telephone units from telephone operators 01, 02, ..Oi, ..On); then he offers them to various distributors of products or services D1, D2, .. Di, ... Dn, who themselves will offer them as a purchase bonus to their buying customers A1, A2 ... Ai, .. .Year. In the case of the figure, the first establishment of a receipt, or other invoice, to a given customer is operated with the indication of a customer code GDiAi, called loyalty. It is at the same time indicated to the buyer that an account of free telephone units is open to him with the manager and credited with such quantity of telephone units, and periodically, weekly for example, information collected during establishment receipt, such as list of products purchased, date, and customer code, etc. are transferred by telematics to G. G opens a customer account in a computer memory with the code GDiAi and credits (e, f), or increments, the telephone units acquired through the act of purchase. If the same buyer makes purchases from another distributor Di, a similar operation is repeated and at the same time the units of the same client are accumulated on a global buyer account Gai. When the accumulation (g) of the Gai account has reached a certain value Vai the manager G credits this value (for example 100 telephone units) to the operator of client A on his account; this unit credit will appear when billing telephone costs, and decreases the GDiAi account accordingly. We note that according to the process, all management of free bonus units is the responsibility of the manager. We also observe that in the example it is assumed that a buyer Ai has an account with only one telephone operator; in the event that he has one or more accounts with one or more Several operators, which for the process poses no impossibility of management, he will simply have to agree with the manager on how the units acquired will be distributed between the different operators.

According to a variant in which the buyer has been allocated a smart card acting as a buffer memory, and in which, thanks to a reader-recorder with which the distributors are equipped for this purpose, the so-called debit / credit storage of the UT is operated in the buffer memory of the card held by the buyer; it is therefore up to the latter to periodically transfer the information contained in the card to the manager.

Claims

1.- Process for managing the allocation, implemented by a manager G, to a buyer (Ai) of purchase premiums in the form of free telephone units, the said buyer having an account (Cai) with a at least telephone operator (Oi), characterized: in that it comprises the sequence of operations consisting of / a: - managing the purchase by G from said telephone operator (Oi) of a plurality of telephone units (UT); b) - management of the transfer by G to at least one distributor (Di) of a plurality of UT c) - management of the debit / credit storage in a computer memory G1 the quantities of telephone units purchased to the different operators (Oi) and those obtained as purchase bonuses by a customer (Ci) from at least the distributor (Di), until the number of UT reaches a certain value (Vai), d ) - credit the operator Ci with the account Cai of the quantity Vai of telephone units obtained by the buyer Ai;

2.- Method according to claim 1, characterized: in that the storage of UTs at the manager G is operated by periodic transfer by telematic means, from Di to G

3.- Method according to claim 2, characterized: in that periodic transfer by telematic means, from Di to G is accompanied by the list of purchases made during the period considered, and in that the manager periodically informs the buyer Ai of purchases made from the various Di distributors, with the indication of the UT acquired as a bonus from each of these, and in the event that the Vai value has been reached, the number of free telephone units whose account has been credited to the operator Oi

4.- Method according to claim 1, characterized: in that the storage of UT at the manager G is operated by the transmission, from Di to G, of "paper" documents

5.- Method according to claim 1, characterized: in that the said storage in credit debit of the UT is operated in the buffer memory of the card held by the buyer to whom belongs to periodically transfer to the manager the information contained in the card .

6.- Method according to claim 1, characterized: in that Di is any provider (Dg) of free telephone units, which gives to any person (Pi), who does not specially have the quality of buyer, but who has a Cai account with a telephone operator Oi, a "paper" document known as a "telephone check" recognized by G and representing free TUs in the telephone network of Oi, and in that the credit transaction with the manager G is operated from the paper document which constitutes the "telephone check",