Patent Document ID: 8291316
Application ID: 11807790

Base Claim:
1. A method for gathering Customer Relationship Management (CRM) information in a variable imaging (VI) application, the method comprising: providing a digital asset included in a digital asset database; associating at least one or more keywords with each digital asset in the digital asset database; merging the digital asset with variable information included in a database using a template for generating a VI print job stream containing at least one digital asset selected from the digital asset database; receiving the VI job stream by a VI production system; processing the VI job stream by the VI production system, the processing including: for each digital image asset contained in the VI job stream, extracting the at least one or more keywords previously associated with the digital asset; and generating a CRM output containing the at least one or more extracted keywords, the at least one or more extracted keywords including marketing information related to the digital asset for associating the merged digital asset with variable information with a recipient; and delivering the CRM output to the requesting user, wherein the marketing information is based on interests of the recipient.

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Claim 2:
2. The method set forth in claim 1 , further comprising: storing the at least one or more associated keywords in an image header portion of the digital asset, wherein the image header portion includes image metadata, wherein the step of extracting the least one or more keywords previously associated with the digital asset includes extracting the at least one or more stored keyword from the image header portion.