METHOD OF CONTROLLING CUSTOMERS' RESPONSE TO A GROUP OF INFORMATION IN A CYBERSPACE

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of controlling customers' response to the information about the advertisement provided in a cyberspace preferably a web site on the Internet. This method comprises presenting an item group of the same kind; presenting detailed information about an item in response to a selection from the item group; requesting a response to the detailed information and registering the customer based on the response; and providing a reward for the response for the customer. Preferably, the response includes a questionnaire provided by the advertisement site. Also, the reward includes a gift being an item selected by the customer from the item group. The gift is given by drawing lot for the registered customer. The drawing lot is performed when it is due on the designated date, or every time the accumulated number of the registered customers reaches a predetermined number. This invention provides an effective means for inducing customers' response to the product advertisement in a real-time manner. Survey or comparison between the items presented in the item group can be accomplished accordingly. Information about the customer's preference in the item group can be easily obtained if research of customers' response is made.

Description: METHOD OF CONTROLLING CUSTOMERS' RESPONSE TO A GROUP OF INFORMATION IN A CYBERSPACE Technical Field The present invention relates to a method of providing information responsive to customers' selection of an item in a cyberspace preferably in a web site on the Internet. Background Art Electronic transactions through the Internet have established the new era of business. In the World Wide Web (hereinafter referred to "web") of the Internet, there located many advertisement sites sponsored by goods and service providers. One of the sites uses the advertising method that gives visitors some money if they visit sponsors' advertisements for the prescribed number of times. The advertisements in those sites are usually presented in the form of a banner that is given a value. Every time a visitor clicks the banner advertisement and moves to the corresponding sponsor's web site, the value is accumulated to the visitor's account. When the accumulated value reaches predetermined amounts, they pay the visitor the value of money. Such an electronic advertisement method has problems in that from the customer's point of view it requires a plenty of time to move to the sponsor's web site and thus needs a high speed communication line such as leased lines in order to visit sponsors' web sites as much times as possible. From the sponsors' viewpoint, if a visitor enters a sponsor's web site and exits without a survey, it cannot fully convey the contents of the advertisement, for example details about goods to the visitor, which ends in failure of attaining their object. There is known another Internet advertising method called "treasure hunt." It provides the visitor of the sponsor's web site with qualification that may receive a gift, if the visitor surveys contents of the advertisement and finds a predetermined number of hidden treasures. The gift is presented by drawing lots to those who gain the designated points within a definite period of time. However, this advertising method has disadvantage of burdening the visitor with establishing high speed communication lines in order to explore contents of the advertisement quickly and with the complicated game progress. Further, the visitors may ignore the contents of the advertisement while finding treasures. Thus, the aforementioned conventional advertising methods are not effective in obtaining customers' response to the contents of the advertisement, for example valuation of the advertising goods, brand image, and preferences. Disclosure of Invention It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method of controlling customers' response to the contents of an electronic advertisement by grouping an item of the same kind, presenting detailed information about each item selected from the item group, and providing a reward for a response to the detailed information. In accordance with the invention, there is provided a method comprising: presenting an item group of the same kind being advertised in a cyberspace; presenting detailed information about an item in response to selection of the item from the item group; requesting a response to the detailed information and registering a customer based on the response; and providing a reward for the response for the customer. Preferably, the response includes a questionnaire provided by the advertisement site. Also, the reward includes a gift being at least one item selected by the customer in the item group, and in which the gift is given by drawing lot for the registered customer. The drawing lot is performed when it is due on the designated date, or every time the accumulated number of the registered customers reaches a predetermined number. The method of the present invention further comprises the step of responding to the request of a customer by determining whether a customer wish to purchase an item while surveying the detailed information about an item selected from the item group. Preferably, the method further comprises the step of presenting probability of winning the gift by displaying number of the registered customer versus number of the gift. In the item group, it is presented as a list including product name, manufacturer, price, and select buttons arranged in a row. Brief Description of Drawings This invention may be understood and its object, features, and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying drawings in which; Fig. 1 is a diagram representing an electronic advertisement system for adopting the method of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a flow diagram showing a method of controlling customers' response to the grouped information of the advertisement and their screen presentations in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 3 is a flow diagram similar to that of Fig. 2, showing a method of controlling customers' response to the grouped information of the 5 advertisement and their screen presentations in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 4 is a flow diagram similar to that of Fig. 2, showing a method of controlling customers' response to the grouped information of the advertisement and their screen presentations in accordance with a third o embodiment of the present invention. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Referring to Fig. 1 , there is shown a diagram representing an electronic advertisement system for which the method of the present invention can be 5 adopted. Preferably, the advertisement system uses the Internet communication network by which a server computer of an advertisement web site can be linked to customers' personal computer system. In the server computer part, it includes a storage 101, a controller 102, and a memory 103. The storage 101 stores information about goods grouped in similarity. The 0 controller 102 provides the customer with the information stored in the storage 101 and responsive to the customer's response presents detailed information about the selected goods, a questionnaire, a lottery, and transactions with the customer. The memory 103 is a buffer memory for storing information on the customer's response. 5 The server may be connected with a customer's personal computer system over a communication line 104 such as a public switched telephone network or integrated services digital network. Personal computer system constitutes the user interface of the advertisement system. Usually, it includes a personal computer 105, a display 106, and an input device 107. The personal computer 105 processes the data provided by the server computer via the communication line 104 and transmits the response data of the customer produced by the input device 107 to the server computer. The input device 107 includes a keyboard and a mouse. The personal computer 105 also displays the information provided by the server computer onto the screen of the display 106. When the customer's personal computer is connected with the server of the advertisement web site, the customer may select a desired or interested item on the screen of the display 106. Basically, the advertisement site provides the customer with an item information in which products of the same kind are grouped. Also, the advertisement server controls presentation of the information in response to the customer's response. Fig. 2 shows an example of the information about the selected item displayed in the display 106 as well as the controlling process in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention. If a customer chooses "Scanners" item, for example, the corresponding item group is displayed as shown in Fig. 2. The Scanner Item Group is presented in the form of a list including product name, manufacturer, price, and select buttons arranged in a row. Also, this information is provided by the server via the communication line while retrieving the related data stored in the storage 101. In the Scanner Item Group window, four scanner items are listed. When the customer clicks an item, further information is presented by another window with select buttons including Photo, Details, Questionnaire, and Choice. If the customer clicks the Photo button, a photo of the selected item is presented. Details button invokes the detailed description of the selected item. Questionnaire button requires the customer to respond to questions about valuation of the item, brand image, preferences, etc. If the customer finished the questionnaire, the server stores the information about the customer who responds thereto in the memory 103 of the server computer. Subsequently, the server presents probability of winning a prize on the location below the Questionnaire button by displaying number of the responded person versus number of the gift. If the customer surveyed all items listed in the item group and responded to all questionnaires, the customer is then qualified to choose one item as an acceptable gift. The chosen gift is put in virtual gift bag or cart, and this choice information and the customer's identification is transmitted to the server memory 103 for later lot drawing. Alternatively, the customer may be qualified to receive a second choice to the gift if the customer visited other item group and finished the above- mentioned survey. With this, the customer may have the chance to choose the same gift, thereby doubling the probability of winning the gift. The Scanner Item Group shown in below portion of Fig. 2 represents the second choice is made to the second item "SCANKTNG 100" which was chosen at the first choice. The lot drawing for the gift can be performed by the following two modes: First, when it is due on the designated date, it can be performed randomly based on the information of the customer who responds to the questionnaire and registered in the memory of the server. Secondly, every time the accumulated number of persons relative to a gift item reaches a predetermined number, the lottery may be performed. The advertisement server may give limitations on the customer's right to receive a gift as follows: In case an item is designated to choose within a definite period of time and the term expires, customers are prohibited to put the item in the cart. Within the designated term for the lottery, a customer is limited to have one chance of choice relative to one item in an item group. In case more than one item is chosen in an item group, the last chosen item is nullified, except that the sponsor of an item permits free choice. In case of the customer who win a prize, the customer may receive a further questionnaire about the corresponding item chosen at the next visit. The aforementioned Internet advertisement method can be applied to the cable television network having home-shopping channel. In this case, for example, information about all the item groups is provided in a printed matter such as a catalog to the customer. If an item is selected, the detailed information can be provided to the customer with the gift and lottery designated in a similar manner. Referring to Fig. 3, there is shown a method of controlling the customer's response and their screen presentations in accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention. Comparing to the embodiment of Fig. 2, the method further includes the step of responding to the request of a customer by determining whether the customers wish to purchase an item while surveying detailed information about an item selected from the item group. To this end, at the bottom portion of a selected item information window, a button representing purchase is provided. If the purchase button is clicked, the purchase information about the selected item is put in the virtual cart. The method further includes in the step of presenting detailed information of the selected item, an additional banner advertisement is provided as further information accompanying each selected item information. Furthermore, the address of the sponsor's web site is provided as further information using hyperlink so that the customer may directly move to the sponsor's web site. If the customer clicks the additional banner advertisement, advertisement for other products or announcement provided by the same sponsor is presented and some point is given to the customer as an incentive. The contents of the additional advertisement are displayed on the screen of the display. If the customer clicks the address of the sponsor's web site, the customer is moved to the sponsor's web site and there may be given a lottery as incentive for responding to the questionnaire after a full survey of the contents of the web site. Alternatively, if the customer clicks the purchase button, it may allow the customer to directly move to the sponsor's web site by linkage, provided that there already built a home shopping system. Referring to Fig. 4, there is shown a method of controlling the customer's response and their screen presentations in accordance with the third embodiment of the present invention. Comparing to the embodiment of Fig. 2, the method further includes after the first choice step of an item for lottery, a step of giving the customer a double chance for lotting the gift. If the customer surveyed all items listed in the item group and responded to all questionnaires, there is presented probability of winning the gift or providing reward points. Then, it is considered that the comparison between items is completed and the customer is qualified to choose any of the items as an acceptable gift. Next, if the customer chooses at least one item or all items, a double chance is given to the customer in which the lot probability is doubled. Alternatively, if the reward points reach the prescribed amount, other repaying gift may be given to the customer regardless of lotteries of the gift. Industrial Applicability As apparent from foregoing description, the method of present invention provides an effective means for inducing customers' response to the product advertisement in a real-time manner by grouping an item of the same kind and providing questionnaire within the detailed information of the selected item, and a reward for the response. With this, in-depth survey or comparison between the items presented in an item group can be accomplished. Also, information about the customer's preference in the item group can be easily obtained if research of customers' response is made. The sponsors of the advertisement web site may have the satisfaction of grasping the response of the customer promptly and fully conveying their advertisement contents to the customer. While the invention has been described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it is contemplated that they may be practiced as outlined above with modifications within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims: A 1 IVl o What is claimed is: 1. In a method of controlling customers' response to the information of the advertisement in a cyberspace preferably in a web site on the Internet, the method comprising: presenting an item group of the same kind in response to a customer's selection; presenting detailed information about an item in response to selection 0 of the item from the item group; requesting a response to the detailed information and registering the customer based on the response; and providing a reward for the response for the customer. 5 2. The method of Claim 1, wherein the response includes a questionnaire provided by the advertisement site. 3. The method of Claims 1 or 2, wherein the reward includes a gift being at least one item selected by the customer in the item group, and wherein the o gift is given by drawing lot for the registered customer. 4. The method of Claims 1 or 2, wherein the drawing lot is performed when it is due on the designated date, or every time the accumulated number of the registered customers reaches a predetermined number. 5 5. The method of Claims 1 or 2, further comprising the step of responding to the request of a customer by determining whether a customer wish to purchase an item while surveying the detailed information about an item selected from the item group. 6. The method of Claims 1 or 2, further comprising the step of presenting 5 probability of winning the gift by displaying number of the registered customer versus number of the gift. 7. The method of Claims 1 or 2, wherein the item group is presented in the form of a list including product name, manufacturer, price, and select buttons l o arranged in a row. 8. The method of Claims 1 or 2, wherein the detailed information about an item includes an additional banner advertisement for providing further information about other items or announcement of the sponsor. 15 9. The method of Claims 1 or 2, wherein the reward includes a gift being the item chosen by the customer after the response and the gift is given by drawing lot, and wherein the lot probability can be doubled if the customer chooses all items presented in the item group. 20 10. The method of Claims 1 or 2, wherein the reward includes merit points being accumulated to the registered customer at every choice of the item, and wherein if the accumulated points reach a prescribed amount, other repaying gift is given to the customer regardless of the lottery of the gift. 25 11. The method of Claims 5, wherein the response to the request of the purchase is performed through a home shopping system using the Internet or cable television network. 12. The method of Claims 5, wherein the response to the request of the purchase is performed in the sponsor's web site. 13. The method of Claims 8, wherein the detailed information about an item includes an address (URL) of the corresponding sponsor's web site being accessible by linkage. 14. The method of Claims 13, wherein the sponsor's web site presents an item group of the same kind, and is responsive to the customer's response such that it presents detailed information about the item selected by the customer in the item group, registers the customer who responds to the information, and provides a reward for the response for the registered customer. 15. An electronic transaction system which controls customers' response to the information of advertisements, the system comprising: a storage storing an item group of the same kind being advertised in the cyberspace; a controller for providing the item group to the remote site and for presenting detailed information about an item in response to customers' selection from the item group, in which the controller requests a response to the detailed information and provides a reward for the response; and a memory for storing contents of the response and for registering the customer based on the response.

Inventors: LIM MIN TAEK, LIM, MIN, TAEK
Applicants: LIM MIN TAEK, LIM, MIN, TAEK
Application year: 2000
Main classification: G06F
IPC codes: G06Q30