Patent ID: 7519543

Claim:
A promotion method comprising the steps of: providing an automatic vending machine, said automatic vending machine presenting point information related to predetermined points added with a commodity code particular to a commodity used to identify the commodity when a commodity is sold by an automatic vending machine to a user by a point issuing device provided in the automatic vending machine; said automatic vending machine transmitting, to a center unit by the user, the point information presented by the point issuing device in the point information presenting step together with identification information of the user by the operation of a portable terminal carried by the user; receiving, by the center unit, the point information transmitted by the user in the point information transmitting step and the identification information of the user; selectively processing, by the center unit, points corresponding to point information containing a particular commodity code among the point information received in the receiving step; totaling and managing, by the center unit, the points processed in the processing step and points corresponding to point information not containing the particular commodity code, in connection with the user identified by the identification information; and providing a predetermined service corresponding to the points totaled and managed in the totaling and managing step to the user by referring to the points totaled and managed in the totaling and managing step.