Patent ID: 7711598
Filing Date: 2010-05-04
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A Web-based consumer product marketing communication network for managing and delivering consumer product marketing communications to consumers along E-Commerce (EC) enabled Web sites on the World Wide Web (WWW), wherein each said EC-enabled Web site includes a plurality of HTML-encoded pages containing images and/or text descriptions of a plurality of consumer products offered for sale through said EC-enabled Web sites, said Web-based consumer product marketing communication network comprising: a first Web-based subsystem, operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, and configured to allow product management team members and/or authorize parties, associated with one or more of said plurality of consumer products, to create and deploy one or more Web-based Multi-Mode Virtual Kiosks (MMVKs) for said one or more of said plurality of consumer products; wherein each said MMVK has a graphical user interface (GUI) that is characterized by a plurality of independently programmable display modes selected from the group consisting of (i) an advertising display mode for displaying one or more advertising spots, (ii) a promotional display mode for displaying one or more promotional spots, and (iii) a consumer product information (CPI) menu display mode for displaying a set of consumer product information (CPI) resources, wherein a plurality of Web-based information servers are operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, for serving a plurality of consumer product information (CPI) resources; a database server, in communication with a first Internet-enabled information server, and for storing and managing a CPI link structure for each said consumer product, wherein each said CPI link structure includes (i) a consumer product identifier assigned to the consumer product, and (ii) a set of URLs specifying the location of said plurality of CPI resources on the WWW, and for programming said independently programmable display modes of said MMVK created and deployed for the consumer product identified by said consumer product identifier; a second Web-based subsystem configured to allow said product management team members and/or said authorized parties to manage said CPI link structures for said one or more MMVKS, and independently program said set of CPI resources displayable during said CPI menu display mode of each said MMVK; a third Web-based subsystem configured to allow said product management team members and/or said authorized parties to independently program the advertising and promotional display modes of each MMVK with one or more of said advertising spots and said promotional spots; wherein each said MMVK is implemented employing (a) a computer-executable server-side component stored on said first Internet-enabled information server, and (b) a MMVK tag embedded within any of the HTML-encoded pages included in said BC-enabled Web sites, embodying a unique URL, and referencing said computer-executable server-side component; wherein said computer-executable server-side component includes code specifying: wherein, the Web-browser of the consumer is configured to process said MMVK tag embedded within an HTML-encoded page of at least one of said EC-enabled Web sites, wherein said computer-executable server-side component corresponding to the MMVK tag is configured to automatically execute, and wherein said first Internet-enabled information server is configured to generate the GUI of said MMVK for display on the Web browser, for review by the consumer at the EC-enabled Web site.