Abstract:
An improved coupon sales promotion system applies the flexibility of computerized printing to the convenience of coupon sales offers to provide a recipient with coupons of unique relevance and with a cross-referenced map to facilitate use of such coupons.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    Provisional Patent Application 60/192,078 filed Mar. 24, 2000. 
     
    
     
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
         [0002]    Not applicable  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    This invention relates to the field of coupons mailed to consumers for promoting sales or the like.  
           [0004]    Sales coupons mailed directly to consumers are well known. In most cases, such coupons are printed individually by or on behalf of individual vendors, then gathered and mailed or otherwise distributed in bulk to a broad range of consumers—for example across an entire urban area. Thus, any one recipient may receive coupons from vendors whose place of business is inconveniently far away, or whose products may be of relatively little interest.  
           [0005]    It is also common to print coupons in sheet form, many coupons being printed on a single perforated sheet whereby the recipient may tear out coupons of individual interest. Again, however, many of these coupons may be of little use to the recipient.  
           [0006]    Examples of earlier coupon systems include U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,067 to Schechter (1978) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,021 to Ovadia (1995).  
           [0007]    The recent widespread availability of data processing machines, and the networking thereof both locally as in so-called “local area networks” and broadly as by the so-called “Internet,” has made feasible a radical change in the way coupons are deployed.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    To provide a system for printing and distributing sales promotion coupons which more meaningfully addresses the individual needs of potential consumers. The system is based on demographic data and provides individualized coupon sets which explicitly target the needs or desires of individual or sets of consumers grouped according to their locale or preferences. A part of the system further provides ancillary information to benefit the consumer, such as an indexed map of the buying area. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 shows a general view of the invention, creased so that further folding will compress it into its mailing configuration.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 shows the invention folded, sealed and ready for mailing.  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 shows the front surface of the invention in its preferred form.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 4 shows the back surface of the invention in its preferred form.  
     
    
       [0013]    [0013]                                             LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS                                    10 card stock   20 folded unperforated strip           11 panel   21 promotional information           12 front surface   22 instructions           13 perforations   23 back surface           14 right edge   24 common information           15 bottom edge   25 mailing address           16 coupon   26 compact, flat packet           17 individualized information   27 wafer seal           18 mailing panel   28 label           19 cross-reference mark                        
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0014]    A coupon sales promotion system according to the present invention consists of a single sheet of card stock, either paper- or plastic-based, printed on both its front and back surfaces, perforated to facilitate tearing in a controlled manner and folded to a compact size for mailing.  
         [0015]    The front surface is printed in such a pattern that an array of coupons in columns and rows is all visible at once and together. Optionally, one or more rows or columns may be printed as a single panel to provide, for example, advertising or instruction space, or a locator map to help the reader find the companies offering their services. Instructions, as described here, may include directions for obtaining additional coupons, for example by mail, facsimile or data file transfer such as that offered by file-transfer protocol (FTP) or the so-called World Wide Web.  
         [0016]    The back surface is printed such that each coupon carries indicia identifying the coupon distributor, and such that at least one panel, folded to be on the outside surface during mailing, may carry information required by the postal service, for example postal permit, addressor and addressee data.  
         [0017]    Referring to FIG. 1, what is seen is a single sheet of card stock  10  measuring approximately 11½ inches high by 25 inches wide. This material may be of the traditional paper-fiber type or may be a polymeric plastic film or the like, and the surface seen in FIG. 1 shall be designated the front surface  12  for purposes of illustration. Shown at lines designated by the letters A, B, D and F, the card stock  10  is creased by folding adjacent panels  11  forward toward front surface  12  while each designated line is pressed backward away from front surface  12 . At lines designated by C and E, the card stock  10  is creased and folded toward the rear surface in like but opposite fashion, creating thereby folds in alternating directions, sometimes termed “Z-folding.” Fold lines A, B, C, D, E and F may include perforations  13  for ease in tearing the stock, such as micro-perforation or other common means.  
         [0018]    Perforated lines designated by the letters G, H, I, J and K are flat, or non-creased, perforations for ease in tearing card stock  10  along these lines. In the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1, these lines extend from the right edge  14  of the card stock leftwards but only extending to line A. Similarly, in the preferred embodiment, fold lines A, B, C, D, E and F are perforated extending upwards from the bottom edge  15  but only to line G.  
         [0019]    Between line A and right edge  14  and between line G and bottom edge  15 , the perforations  13  define an array of separable coupons  16 , each about 3½ inches wide by 2 inches high, or so-called business card size. In each of these rectangular areas or coupons  16  may be printed specific individualized information  17  provided by an individual subscribing company, such as a sales promotional offer by that company, as well as an offer expiration date and information for identifying and contacting the company.  
         [0020]    Information such as the company&#39;s street address, telephone number or data path (such as a so-called Internet or World Wide Web address) may be included, as well as automatically readable information such as magnetically encoded data or optically readable data in a format such as the so-called “UPC” or “:CueCat” formats. Such additional information may be used to facilitate communication between the coupon recipient and the subscribing company, as when the recipient requires more information or more coupons. It may also be used by the company to gather information about the recipient, as when each coupon is uniquely encoded.  
         [0021]    To the left of line A, in the preferred embodiment, an unperforated and non-folded mailing panel  18  may be printed with instructions or maps of the neighborhood or region encompassing the subscribing companies, and further may be keyed to their individual coupons  16  by cross-reference marks  19  such as numeric references, color codes or the like.  
         [0022]    Above line G, a folded but unperforated strip  20  may be imprinted, in the preferred embodiment, with promotional information  21 , with instructions  22  on how to use the coupon system, or with any other markings desired. One such instruction  22  may encompass a process for obtaining additional coupons by mail or telephone requests or by data file transfer such as so-called downloading via file transfer protocol (FTP) or by accessing a hypertext markup language (HTML) file using so-called Web browser software programs. An additional advantage of the latter is that an HTML file may contain its own hypertext links to similar files maintained explicitly by the subscribing companies, thereby gaining collateral recognition of, and customer involvement in, said companies themselves. Similarly, an advantage of the latter is that information about the recipient may be automatically gathered by reflexive data exchange such as today&#39;s so-called “cookies” or by other means.  
         [0023]    In FIG. 4 may be seen the back surface  23  of the card stock  10 , whereupon the back of each coupon  16  is imprinted with additional individualized information or with common information  24  such as the identification and logo of the coupon distributor. Above line G, on folded but unperforated panel  17 , may be printed more instructional or promotional information  21 . To the right of line A, on the back surface of unperforated and non-folded panel  18 , may be printed such required mailing indicia as postal permits, return address, and the mailing address  25  of the recipient to whom the system is directly mailed.  
         [0024]    As shown in FIG. 2, when folded as described, the coupon system forms a compact, flat packet  26 , completely ready for mailing when sealed along its open edge by, for example, a transparent clear wafer seal  27 . Because the panels are Z-folded, it is not required that the number of panels be restricted to an odd number.  
         [0025]    The system is made by first establishing contracts with each of several businesses wherein each agrees to offer a trade incentive to persons presenting coupons  16  at their place of business or in other ways designated by the business. Information for each coupon  16  is established and is printed on sheet stock  10  using any of a number of traditional techniques. Because each sheet stock  10  is mailed directly to an individual addressee or recipient, there can be some benefit obtained by customizing each individual sheet stock  10  with coupons  16  of interest uniquely to that recipient, for example for companies doing business in the recipient&#39;s geographical region or for products or services of greater personal interest or relevance to the recipient. Using demographic data about the recipient in conjunction with data processing systems and common computer printers facilitates the printing of a customized coupon sales promotion system or card stock  10  for each individual recipient or grouping of recipients.  
         [0026]    Trimming, creasing and perforating operations may be done before or after printing, as desired. The addressee may be indicated by such means as a label  28  or by direct printing on the card stock  10 .  
         [0027]    Upon receipt, the recipient tears the wafer seal 27 and with a single pull is presented with a convenient array of coupons  16 , all visible simultaneously. The location of individual particular coupons  16  within the array may be adjusted during printing to improve the recipient&#39;s attention to selected coupons  16 . Should the recipient choose to use one or more of the coupons  16 , he or she would tear along the perforations to remove those coupons  16  from the array and would bring or otherwise present the appropriate coupon  16  to the business of choice, aided by the cross-referenced map or instructions if provided. Where the coupons  16  are business card size, they may act as business cards as well as promotional coupons.  
         [0028]    Though prosaic, a description of how data transfer as envisaged herein might take place is included here for reference. It is common to store data in some format such as cuneiform tablets or magnetic disk domains. Such data may be transferred along a data path by direct carriage or by transmission through a medium such as electromagnetic waves. In each case, the format of the stored data, known today as a “file,” must be in a form readable by the sender and by the recipient. A popular data format today is HTML code, which comprises simple text characters which when properly processed appear as a document containing both text and so-called “links” to other data files. A popular means of transporting HTML or other data is to establish a transfer path for such data, such as a telephone line, along which path a recipient may request a data file from a holder such as a subscribing company. In reply, the data holder would transmit the3 data file to the recipient. Commonly such a data file might include company identification and instructions for accessing further data by means, for example, of a so-called “hypertext” link. Should the recipient desire further data, he or she may be required by the company to provide personal identification or demographic data. In return for such information, the subscribing company might transmit further data in a format which allows printing of additional coupons, for example, on the premises of the recipient. Additionally, the recipient may allow the company to transmit a separate data file, today termed a “cookie,” which is stored by the recipient for automatic retrieval by the company upon demand. Such files may contain data encoded to reveal the time or date or means by which the original transaction took place, which data may be of demographic use to the subscribing company.  
         [0029]    While the preferred embodiment is here fully described, it should be clear that many variations of the invention lie well within the scope of the claims which follow.