CA1234631A - Method and apparatus for dispensing discount coupons - Google Patents
Method and apparatus for dispensing discount couponsInfo
- Publication number
- CA1234631A CA1234631A CA000490267A CA490267A CA1234631A CA 1234631 A CA1234631 A CA 1234631A CA 000490267 A CA000490267 A CA 000490267A CA 490267 A CA490267 A CA 490267A CA 1234631 A CA1234631 A CA 1234631A
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- coupon
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- record
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Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
DISPENSING DISCOUNT COUPONS
Apparatus, and a corresponding method, for creating a discount coupon in response to the pur-chase of a product other than the one to which the coupon applies. A record pertaining to each item purchased is examined to determine whether the item is intended to trigger the creation of a coupon. If it is, at least one associated coupon deal record is retrieved, and a coupon becomes a candidate for printing, subject to a maximum number of coupons per transaction. The apparatus also validates coupons presented for redemption, scanning a list of pur-chased products to determine whether any falls into the same product group specified on the coupon, and also determining whether the coupon date is valid.
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
DISPENSING DISCOUNT COUPONS
Apparatus, and a corresponding method, for creating a discount coupon in response to the pur-chase of a product other than the one to which the coupon applies. A record pertaining to each item purchased is examined to determine whether the item is intended to trigger the creation of a coupon. If it is, at least one associated coupon deal record is retrieved, and a coupon becomes a candidate for printing, subject to a maximum number of coupons per transaction. The apparatus also validates coupons presented for redemption, scanning a list of pur-chased products to determine whether any falls into the same product group specified on the coupon, and also determining whether the coupon date is valid.
Description
3A~
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
DISPEMSING pISCOUNT_COUPONS
BACKGRO~ND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to point-5 of-sale computer system~ of the type used ~n retail stores to record sales tran6action~. ~qore particu-lar~y, the invention relates to point-of-6ale systems capable o~ handl~ng discount coupons. ~ost point-of-sale sy~tems hava termina~ that ara capable of 10 readi.ng a code printed on each product package, and thereby determining the prics ~rom an internal file ~tored at a store controller. Products are ~oded by means o~ a ~eries of parallel lines, in accordance with ~ convention known as the Univ~rsal Product Code.
As every grocery shopper knows, many manu-~acturers di6tribut~ discount coupons for their products, either through the ~a~, or by printing them in newspaper~ or magazinasl or enclosing them in ~ sim~lar or related product packages. When a customer presenl:~ a di6count coupon at the time of purchase o~
an appropriate product, the grocery checker operating the termlnal will typically key in the coupon amount, and the discount will be substracted ~rom the cus-25 tomer'~; bill.
This procedure o~ten ha~ ths disadvantagethat the ou~tomer ~ay not have actually purchased the .~.v.
~; ~
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
DISPEMSING pISCOUNT_COUPONS
BACKGRO~ND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to point-5 of-sale computer system~ of the type used ~n retail stores to record sales tran6action~. ~qore particu-lar~y, the invention relates to point-of-6ale systems capable o~ handl~ng discount coupons. ~ost point-of-sale sy~tems hava termina~ that ara capable of 10 readi.ng a code printed on each product package, and thereby determining the prics ~rom an internal file ~tored at a store controller. Products are ~oded by means o~ a ~eries of parallel lines, in accordance with ~ convention known as the Univ~rsal Product Code.
As every grocery shopper knows, many manu-~acturers di6tribut~ discount coupons for their products, either through the ~a~, or by printing them in newspaper~ or magazinasl or enclosing them in ~ sim~lar or related product packages. When a customer presenl:~ a di6count coupon at the time of purchase o~
an appropriate product, the grocery checker operating the termlnal will typically key in the coupon amount, and the discount will be substracted ~rom the cus-25 tomer'~; bill.
This procedure o~ten ha~ ths disadvantagethat the ou~tomer ~ay not have actually purchased the .~.v.
~; ~
-2- ~23~
discountable product, and the coupon will then be improperly redeemed. There is, however, a more important disadvantag~ associated with the usual system of discount coupon distribution. The coupons for a particular product are distributed either to a person who has previously bought the same or a related product. ~rom a marketing standpoint, this is contrary to the usual goal in any marketing campaign: to increase the number of customers who buy a particular product, by adding new customers.
People who have already bought the product are clearly not new customers. And people who collect coupons from newspapers and mailings typically fall into a very narrow group. First they are part of a group of people who are motivated to collect coupons of any kind, usually for economic reasons. More importantlyt customers who collect and redeem a particular coupon will usually have had some prior knowledge of the product, i.e~ they are probably not "new" customers.
Various other strategies are sometimes used to reach new customers. These include mass mailings of free samples of the product, together with discount coupons, and mass media advertising. Free samples of some types of products cannot be conveniently mailed, however~ and many potential new customers may still ignore the mailing. Likewise, mass media advertising may fail to reach a potential new customer, or convince him to try a new product, especially if he is already relatively satisfied with a competitive product.
Ideally, what is needed from a marketing standpoint is some way of putting a discount coupon for a selected product in the hands of a customer who 35 uses some other product. The present invention satisfies this need.
discountable product, and the coupon will then be improperly redeemed. There is, however, a more important disadvantag~ associated with the usual system of discount coupon distribution. The coupons for a particular product are distributed either to a person who has previously bought the same or a related product. ~rom a marketing standpoint, this is contrary to the usual goal in any marketing campaign: to increase the number of customers who buy a particular product, by adding new customers.
People who have already bought the product are clearly not new customers. And people who collect coupons from newspapers and mailings typically fall into a very narrow group. First they are part of a group of people who are motivated to collect coupons of any kind, usually for economic reasons. More importantlyt customers who collect and redeem a particular coupon will usually have had some prior knowledge of the product, i.e~ they are probably not "new" customers.
Various other strategies are sometimes used to reach new customers. These include mass mailings of free samples of the product, together with discount coupons, and mass media advertising. Free samples of some types of products cannot be conveniently mailed, however~ and many potential new customers may still ignore the mailing. Likewise, mass media advertising may fail to reach a potential new customer, or convince him to try a new product, especially if he is already relatively satisfied with a competitive product.
Ideally, what is needed from a marketing standpoint is some way of putting a discount coupon for a selected product in the hands of a customer who 35 uses some other product. The present invention satisfies this need.
-3- ~ ~3~1L6:31 SUMMA}'cY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention resides in apparatus, and a related method, for printing a redeemable dis-count coupon at a point-of-sale terminal, in response to the purchase of a product other than the one to which the discount applies. Briefly, and in general terms, the apparatus of the invention comprises means for identifying a triggering product in a customer order, means for associating the triggering product with a coupon deal, and means for automatically printing at least one discount coupon for a product other than the triggering product r The apparatus also preferably includes means for validating a dis-count coupon presented for redemption, and means for automatically applying a discount to the price of a product to which the coupon applies.
More specifically, the means for identifying a triggering product includes an item file with a triggering field contained within each product re-cord, and means for checking the ~riggering field aseach product purchase is processed. The means for associating the triggering product with at least one coupon deal includes a file of coupon index records to which access is obtained by item code, and which 25 contains for each triggering product at least one link to a coupon deal file. Each record of the coupon deal file contains details of a coupon deal, including its value, period of validity, and a code identifying a family of products to which the coupon 30 deal applies. The means for printing the c~upon in-cludes means for determining a printing priority, and a printing device capable of reproducing a bar-type code in Uniform Product Code format.
The apparatus also includes means for 3~631 producing a log of all printing and redemption trans-actions. In the disclosed embodiment of the inven-tion, this means includes a log file, and means for storing a new record in the log file at the time of each printing transaction or redemption transaction.
The means for validating a coupon include means for reading the bar code on the coupon, which includes a date of printing and a coupon look-up number, means for accessing an associated coupon deal record, means for comparing the date on the coupon with the coupon deal validity date, and means for comparing the product family code and manufacturer's code in the coupon deal racord with corresponding codes in the items purchased by the customer. The coupon is declared to be valid only if the date is within the validity period of the coupon deal, and the manufacturer's code and product family group code on tbe coupon match similar codes in a product that was purchased.
The means for automatically applying a dis-count to the customer order is responsive to the means for validating the coupon. The apparatus in addition may include means for limiting the number of coupons printed per coupon deal or per customer order, means for maintaining counts of the numbers of coupon creations and redemptions, means for printing a default coupon if the total amount of the customer order e~ceeds a preselected value, and means for selectively turning on and off triggering or print-ing, by store, lane, coupon or product item. The system may also include means for triggering the creation of a coupon in response to the redemp~ion of another coupon that was previously printed by the apparatus of the invention.
In terms of a novel method, the invention _5_ ~3~63~
comprises the steps of identifying a triggering pro-duct from among a sequence of products purchased by a customer, associating the triggering product with at least one coupon deal involving a discount on a pro-5 duct different from the triggering product, and auto-matically printing a machine-readable coupon for the customer. More specifically, the step of associating the triggering product with a coupon deal includes the steps of accessing a coupon index record by means of a product item code of the triggering product, the product index record containing one or more coupon look-up numbers; then accessing a coupon deal record by means of each of the coupon look-up numbers in the coupon index record. Each coupon deal record con-tains all of the information necessary to print acoupon, and the only remainin~ steps in coupon cre-ation are extracting the coupon information from the coupon deal record and printing the couponu The method further includes the steps of updating a count in the coupon deal record after each coupon creation, and after each coupon redemption or misredemption. The steps of coupon validation and redemption include reading a previously created dis-count coupon, extracting a coupon look-up number from the coupon information, retrieving a coupon deal re-cord corresponding to the coupon presented for vali-dation, comparing a date read from the coupon with an expiration date in the coupon deal record, comparing a manufacturer~s code and a product family code in the coupon deal record with corresponding codes in each product purchased by the customer, and indicat-ing whether the coupon is a valid one. If the coupon is valid, the redemption process also includes apply-ing a discount to the customer's transaction total.
35 Optionally, the validation process may also include 3~i3~
the step of initiating creation of a preselected coupon in response to the redemption of another couponO
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the present invention represents a significant advance in the field of retail point-of-sale sys-tems. In particular, the invention provides a tech-nique for creating discount coupons at the point of sale and in response to the sale of products other than the ones to which the discount applies. The invention also provides a coupon validation and redemption procedure that permits the coupons pre-viously created by this invention to be inspected by machine and the discount automatically applied if the coupons are valid. Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following more detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DE~CRIP~'IO~i OF THE DRAWINGS
_ FIGURE 1 is a simplified block diagram show-ing the apparatus of a point-of-sale computer system for use in a retail store;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating in-terrelationships between the pr incipal f iles used in the apparatus of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a simplified flow chart showing the functions performed in a general wait loop o the terminal proyram;
FIG. 4a is a simplified flow chart showing the functions performed at a checkout terminal during coupon creation;
FIG. 4b is a simplified flow chart showin3 the functions performed in processing queued coupon ` ~3~i3~
printing requests during coupon creation;
FIG. 5 is a simplified Elow chart ~howing the functions performed by the store controller and a terminal during coupon redemption;
5FI~. 6 is a simplified flow chart showing date validation functions of ~IG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a simplified flow chart showing item validation functions of FIG. 5.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Overview:
As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the present invention is concerned with point-of-sale systems for recording sales transac-tiOIIS involving discount coupvns. FIG 1 shows in broad sutline the components of such a system. In each store in which the invention is to be used, there is a store point-of-sale controller, indicated by reference numeral 10, and a plurality of checkout terminals ~2, each having an associated optical scanner 13. Associated with the store controller 10 are a number of files, indicated at 14, which are used by the controller to provide information to the terminals 12. In a typical point-of-sale system, the -files 14 contain a record for each product in the store, and are used to access price and other infor-mation concerning th~ product.
The store controller 10 is coupled to a retailer host computer 16, as indicated by line 18S
which may be a telephone line or some other communi-cation link. The retailer host computer 16 controlscommunications with all store controllers in the retailer's various stores, and is responsible for generating various accounting reports, as indicated -8- ~3~;3~
at 20. The retailer host computer 16 has an asso-ciated data base 22 of various files relating to the retailer's entire store operations.
Point-of-sale systems of the general type described are not normally equipped to handle dis~
count coupons, except in the sense that a checker at one of terminals 12 can key in coupon values to be discounted from a customer's bill. In accordance with the pres~nt invention, at least one of the checkout terminals 12 has associated with it a coupon printer 24, and the system includes means, to be described, for identifying a triggering product among the items listed in the customer's bill. A trigger-ing produc~ is one that has been selected by a manu-facturer to trigger the printing of a coupon for oneof the manufacturer's products.
The files 14 associated with the store con-troller lO include an item record file 3~, a coupon look-up file 32, and a coupon log file 34. The item record file 30 is a standard price file used in point-of-sale systems, except that it includes a trigger flag, which is an additional one-bit field.
There is also room in the item record for two fields known as family group codes. A family group code is 25 a three-digit number assigned by the product manufac-turer to identify the product as belonging to a par-ticular group of products. A single product may belong to two such groups, or more if an extended record format is used. As will be discussed in more detail, the family group codes ~re used in the coupon validation process, in which a coupon presented for redemption is examined for validity in relation to a particular customer bill. For example, a particular coupon may be valid for a ~amily group csmprising all 35 different si~es of a product package.
;3~
_9_ In the process o coupon creation, the files 14 are used as illustrated in simplified form in FIG.
2. The coupon look-up file 32 includes records of two types, coupon inde~ records, indicated at 40, and coupon deal records, indicated at 42. When a product in the customer's purchase transaction is detected as a triggering item, by detection of the trigger flag 43 in the item record 44 for that product, the system is able to locate a coupon index record corresponding to the triggering product, as indicated by the arrow 45. The coupon index record 40 contains an item code, i.e. there is a unique coupon index record for every triggering product, and also contains at least one coupon look-up number (CLU)o The CLU provides a link to at least one coupon deal record 42, as indi-cated by the arrows 46. This structure allows a par-ticular trigyering product to trigger the printing of one or more coupons, which may pertain to different groups of products, and allows diferent triggering products to trigger the printing of a coupon for a single product group. Each coupon deal record 42 contains the details of a particular coupon deal, including the value of the discount, the dates of validity of the deal, a message to be printed on the 25 coupon, and various counts recording the activity of the coupon deal.
Validation of a coupon presented for redem-ption involves first reading a coupon look-up number from the coupon. This number relates the coupon to a 30 specific coupon deal record, which has as one of its data fields a manufacturer's number and a family code. If the manufacturer's number and the family code match with similar fields for an item in the customer's order, the coupon is valid, and an appro-35 priate discount is applied to the order.
File Formats:
The coupon look-up file includes two types of record: the coupon index record (CIR) and the coupon deal record (CDR~. Both types of record begin 5 with a si~-byte key in the following format:
<~ -data-~ <-X->
The X field indicates the record type. If X=00 the record is a coupon index record, and if X
=01 the record is a coupon deal record. The five-byte data field is different for each of the two record types, as will be apparent from the following formats. The coupon index record format is as follows:
<--Item code ~UPC no.)-->< 00 --CLU#--><flags>
The item code contains the Uniform Product Code for the product, in binary form. The sixth byte identifies the rerord as a coupon index record. And 20 the CLU# provides a link between a triggering product and a particular coupon deal record. To allow the purchase of one product to trigger more than one coupon deal, a coupon index record may contain up to two additional CLU# fields and flag fields, following 25 the format illustrated above. Accordingly, the purchase of one product can trigger the pri~ting of up to three coupons.
The individual bits in the flag field of the coupon index record have the following meanings, 30 where bit 7 is the most-significant bit and bit 0 is the least-significant bit:
9 ~3~631 Bit 7 - Log only (peint inhibited), Bit 6 - ~ligh priority coupon, Bit 5 - Minimum balance due applies, ~it 4 - Trigger bit, Bits 3-0 - Trigger item sequence no. 11-9).
The trigger bit is a copy of the trigger bit contained in the item record. ~owever, the item record may have its trigger bit reset during routine maintenance, and the trigger bit in the coupon index record are copied back into the item records on a regular, such as daily, basis. The log-only flag is used to inhibit printing, and may be used tn monitor the number of coupons that would have been created by the use of a particular triggering product. The high-priority flag enables coupon printing immediately upon detection of the triggering product in a customer's order. For a low priority coupon, printincl is deferred until the entire order has been processed. The flag relating minimum balance due permits printing to be inhibited unless a minimum balance due is reached in the customer order.
Finally, the trigger item se~uence number is a digit that can be used to identify the triggering product in cases where the same coupon deal is triggered by the purchase of different products. The trigger item sequence number is printed on the coupon that is created, and may therefore be used upon redemption of the coupon, to create an appropriate log record permitting analysis of which triggering items resulted in coupon-discounted sales.
It will be noted that the coupon index record has a length of from nine to fifteen bytes.
The trigger flag in the first flag byte of the record is the only one usedO i.e., the triggPr bits in flag 35 bytes for any additional CLU's are not used. The -12- ~2~4~3p CLU# field may be zeroed out to denote that the triggering product is no longer linked to a particu-lar coupo~ dealO
Each coupon deal record contains the details of a coupon to be printed. The format is as follows:
CLU# 00 00 00 01 value expn. date manuf #
<--- 6~byte key ---><- 2 -><- 2 -><- 3 ->
fam. code flags cont. CLU start date end date ~-- 3 --><- 1 -><-- 2 -->~-- 2 --><-- 2 -->
counts lengths offer descn. advert. msg.
<-- 8 --><-- 4 --><-- 2x30 --><-- 2x30 --~
The value field contains the coupon discount amount, and the manufacturer's code is a number that uniquely identifies the manufacturer of the products for which the coupon provides a discount. Each coupon deal relates to a discount on any of a family of products, the family codes being assigned by the manufacturer. A discount could apply, for example, to all sizes of a product, or to any group of related 20 products.
The expiration date contains a number indicative of the date of expiration of the coupon.
This can be a validity period in days from the coupon printing date, or the number o days from some fixed 25 time reference, such as January 1, 1983. The start and end dates are also measured in numbers of days from the same reference, modulo 1000, and indicate the period during which the coupon deal extends, i.e.
the period during which coupons will be printed.
The continuity CLU field defines another coupon deal that is linked to this one. This can be -13- ~ 3~ 3 ~
used to trigger the printing of another coupon when the original one is redeemed. The field is zero if there is no SUC;l linked coupon deal. The "lengths"
fields are four one-byte ields, each defining the length of one line of text in the offer description and the advertising message that follow.
The "counts" fields are four separate two-byte fields to record counts of the total number of coupon triggered, the total number oP coupons printed, the total number of coupons redeemed, and the total number of coupons misredeemed. The counts are used for purposes of analysis of coupon usage, both in the coupon creation and coupon redemption phases.
The flag field of the coupon deal record contains only three meaningful bits of information.
Specifically, the flag bits have the following meanings when set to a one state:
Bit 7 - log only tprint inhibited), Bit 6 - free coupon (no charge for item)~
Bit 5 - expiration date is a validity period.
When bit 5 is setr the expiration date indicates the number of days beyond the printing date that the coupon is to remain valid. If bit 5 is not 25 set, the expiration date indicates the number of days beyond a preselected reference date that the coupon is to remain valid.
~ rhe coupon log file is a sequential file into which a new record is written whenever a coupon 30 is printed or a coupon is redeemed. The format of the log file record is as follows:
Store terminal operator fun. code flags trans.~
<- 1 -><-- 1 -->c-- ~ -->~ <- 1 -><- 2 ->
; ~23~;3~
UPC# CPN# item price date/time ~- 5 -><- 5 -><-- 2 --><-- 3 --~
The store number field contain~ a relative store number. A value 01 indicates a local store and a value 02 indicates a backup store~ Thi5 code i8 not critical to the invention, and relates to the use of a back-up store controller (at another store) to control check-out operations. The terminal number indicates the check stand at which the transaction took place. The function code field has the following possible meanings:
Fl (hexadecimal) - coupon creation, F2 - redemption, F3 - store support procedure entry.
The flags field has the following meanings:
80 ~hexadecimal) - free coupon, - no-sale redemption, - continuity linked (if creation), or - coupon value entered manually (if redemption), - voided redemption, OF - reason code.
The low four bits of the flag field are used to record a reason for non-printing or misredemption of a coupon. The various reasons are as follows, where the four-digit value represents the binary state of the field.
30 Coupon printing:
0000 - printed, 1000 - print inhibited store-wide, 1001 - print inhibited at this lane, 3~;3~
1010 - print inhibited for this CLU~, 1011 - print inhibited for this item, 0100 - unable to access coupon index record, 0101 - unable to access coupon deal record, 0010 - transaction below threshold~
0001 - duplicate CLU#, 1100 - printing disabled by operator. B.
Misredemption:
0000 - normal redemption, 0001 item not in order, 0010 - expiration date exceeded, 0100 match only in manufacturer number, 1000 - accepted (validation disabled).
The date/time of the transaction are recorded in the form MMDDHH, where MM is the month, DD the day of the month, and HH the hour of the day~
~'he CPNt field is used to record the entire set of da~a read from a prin~ed coupon, and the UPC# field records the triggering product code in the case of coupon creations, and the purchased product code in the case of redemptions.
~axdware and Software Overview:
~ he hardware used in this invention is conventional for point-of-lsale ~ystems. Various 25 manufacturers supply point-of-sale equipment, and the invention is not limited to any particular configura-tion. By way of example, the invention is presently implemented using the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Programma~le Store System, referred 30 to as the IB~ *3680. The store controller 10 is an IBM 3650 and the terminals 12 are IB~*3~B3 termin-alsO The IBM *3683 Model 3 terminal incorporates a third printer station in addition to a customer re-ceipt printer station~ and a ~ournal printer station * trade mark.
-16~ 4~
for maintaining a log of transactions.
IBM supplie6 a ~o~tware operating ~y~tem for USQ ln controlling operationa in th~ hardware des-cribed. The operating 8y tem i8 referred to ~8 the IB~ progxammable tore system MICROCODE, sometimes referred to as the general control program. IBM alæo supplies a program product to enable users to write program for execution in the controller and the terminal~. The program product i8 referred to as SPPS II (Subsystem Program Preparation Support II), and includes languages, macro instructions, and a terminal display language. Communication between th~
terminal~ and the ctore controller is aocomplished using a store communications loop and a program of instructiona wrltten ~n IBM 3650 Progr2mmable Store SyRtem Microcode. Other application program~ that typically form part of the envirnnment o~ the inven-tion are SD~ ~Store Data Management) and HCP (Host Communication Program), both sold by IB~.
2Q ~11 of these aspects of the invent$on hard-ware and software are well known ~nd well de~ined in trade literature and IB~ tecllnical li~erature. For further information, ~ useful 6tarting po~nt i~ the publi~ation ~IBM 3680 Programmable Store SyEtem Intro-duction," (GA27-3199-3) publlshed by IBPS, Dept. E02, P.O. Box 12195, Research Triangle Park, Noxth Caro ~n~ 27709.
An appl~cation program product written to run in the SPPS II environment provides various 30 checkout and administrative functions ~or the 6tore.
This product is referred to as ISIS (In Store Infor-mation System), produced by Data Connection ~imi~ed, Enfield, ~iddlesex EN2 6UE, England.
: ~L23~;3~
CouPon Creatlon:
The coupon creation function~ pergormed by the terminals 12 and the controller 10 are shown in FIGs. 3, 4a and 4b. FIG. 3 illustrate~ a "general wait 6tate" of the terminal, wherein the terminal software cyclicly checks to determine whether any proc ssing is required. OncP processing is inltiated to a certain stage, a return is made to tAe general wait state, a~ will be further explained.
The first ~llustrated block of the general wait state poses the question whether there i6 any input data to process, as indic:ated at 50. The input data typically take~; the form of bar code scanner input, but may also ~nclude keyboard input ~rom the terminal operator. If there is input data to pro-cess, the terminal departs from the general wait state and enters an input program ~equence, ~s indicated at 51. If there is currently no input data to process, the next test, posed in block 52, ~s whether a requested response has been received from the controller 10. As will be describ~d, each of the terminals 12 ~requently makes requests to the con-troller 10 ~or file access. ~he reguesting program r~turns control to the general wait state, to await 25 arrival of teh response. I:E a response has been received, control i~ transferr~d to a response return point, as indicated at 53. The respon~e re~urn point ~equentially follows the point in the program ~rom which the file access request was mad~- to the con-~roller.
If no response has ~een received from thecontroller 10, the next guestion posed in the general wait state $s ~hether a presele~ted time-out is com--18- ~23~
plete, as indicated at 54. As will be described, a time-out is initiated after each coupon printing re-quest, to ensure that the coupon printing function does not totally occupy the time of the terminal printer. In the equipment presently employed to implement the invention~ coupons are printed at a separate station of the printer, but employing a print head shar~d by other print stations. In this manner, separate printed documents can be generated at the separate stations, but the single print head behaves in effect like a single printer. Printing of too many coupons can preclud~ or limit printing of a customer receipt. When the time-out is completed, return is made to the program that initiated the time-out, as indicated at 55. If the time-out is not yet complete, control is transferred back to the beginning of the general wait state loop.
In the input processing steps, shown in FIG.
4a, only the purchase and coupon creation functions are shown. If the input involves coupon redemption, as determined in block 58, control is transferred to the redemption processing functions illustrated in FIGo 5. Otherwise, the first step o input process-ing is to obtain the product code input to the ter-25 minal, as indicated in block 60. Then a request ismade to the controller 10 for the item record corres-ponding to the input product code. The request for this record, indicated at 61, is one of a number of such requests made to the controller during the input 30 process. In each case, after the request is trans-mitted to the controller 10, a return is made to the general wait state shown in FIGo 3, to await the re-turn of the response from the controller. When the response is received, the wait state loop of FIG. 3 35 transfers control back to the input sequence, at a -19- ~3~fi3~
point immediately following block 61.
Next, as shown at 62, a print request is is-sued to initiate printing of a line on the customer receipt. The print request results in the storing of printable data in a print queue. One function of the system software associated with the terminal is to take printable information from the print queue on a first-in-first-out basis, and to print it using the terminal printer.
Up to this point in the input processing, ~he functions performed are conventional ones that take place regardless of whether any coupon creation is to occur. In the next step, shown at 63, a check is made to determine whether the trigger flag is set in the item record being processed. If ~he trigger flag is setf a request is made to the controller 10 fox the corresponding coupon index record, as indi-cated at 64 t and the coupon look-up number, or num-bers, stored in the coupon index record are placed as 20 a coupon request in a coupon queue, as indicated at 65, together~ with the flags associated with ~ach coupon look-up number in the coupon index record.
One of the flags is, of course, the printing priority flag, and this determines the position in which the 25 coupon request will be placed in the coupon queue.
High priority coupons are entered behind any already queued high priority coupons and ahead of any low-priority items, while low-priority items are entered at the bottom or end of the coupon queue. After en-30 try of a coupon request in the coupon queue, returnis made to the general wait state, as indicated at 66.
If a product being processed has no coupon trigger flag, as determined in block 63, there is 35 still a possibility that a coupon should be printed ~3~Ç~3~1L
during the current transaction. The store has the option of printing a default coupon if no other cou-pons are printed in a transaction, and provided an optional minimum purchase requirement i8 met. To determine whether this should be done, a check is made, in block 67, to determine whether the transac-tion has advanced to the point whexe the balance due has been registered on the terminal, i.e., all items have been inpu~ and processed. If the balance-due io point has not been reached, control is transferred to block 66, to return to the general wait state. If the balance-due point has been reached, the next question posed, in block 68, whether any coupons at all have been printed during the entire transaction.
If not, a store default coupon is stored in the cou-pon queue~ as indicated at block 6~, before a return is ~lade to the general wait state.
Input processing proceeds in the manner shown in EIG. 4a, with coupon requests being placed in the coupon queue as corresponding triggering items are detected in the transaction. The process by which coupon requests are r~moved from the coupon queue is shown in FIG. 4b.
After a return from a time-out, from the 25 general wait state, the coupon queue is first checked, as shown at 7~, to determine whether there are any coupon requests waiting to be processed. If there are, the next question posed, in block 73, is whether the balance-due point has been reached in the 30 transaction. If it has not, the only coupons eli-gible for printing are high priority coupons. This is determined in block 74. If there are no items in the coupon queue, or if there are only low-priority items and the balance-due point has not been reached, 35 control is transferred to block 75, which selects a ~23~3~L
zero or near-zero time-out period. Then, in block 76, the time-out is initiated and a return i8 made to the general wait state. Control will very soon pass back again from the general wait state, to check the condition of the coupon queue once more.
If the balance-due point has been reached, as determined in block 73, the next test, in block 77, is to determine whether the end of the transac-tion has been reached, that is whether the terminal operator has received payment for the sale and has closed out the transaction in preparation for begin-ning a new one. If this has not occurred, control is passed to the next step, at block 78, to ~elect the next unprocessed item in the coupon ~ueue. If the end of the transaction has been reached, however, a log-only flag is set, in block 79, before passing to block 78. Control also passes to block 78 if a high-priority coupon creation request is detected in blo~k 74.
At this point, a coupon creation candidate has been selected from the coupon queue, but it is still subject to a number of further tests before an actual print request is made to print the coupon.
First, in block 80, a check is made to determine if 25 the same coupon has already been printed in this transaction. Only one coupon of the same coupon look-up number is normally permitted for each transac-tion. ~ext, if there have been no previous coupons of the same kind, a check is made in block 81 to 30 determine whether a minimum purchase threshold has been reached. For each coupon deal, there is an option to prevent printing of the coupon if a desig-nated (store-wide) total purchase minimum is not reached. If the answer obtained from block 81 is 35 negative, control is transferred to block 75, to exit -22~ 3 ~
to ths general wait state, but without removing the coupon request from the coupon queue. The next time the coupon is processed t the total purchase amount is again checked. If the coupon is never printed, be cause the threshold purchase amount is not reached by the end of the transaction, a log record is created for the coupon In block 82, a check is made on the total count of coupon~ print~d for this transaction. If the number exceeds a maximum set for this particular checkout terminal, no further printing of coupons is permitted. In addition, printing is permitted if a print inhibit flag has been set, as determined in block 83~ If printing is inhibited, or if the maxi-15 mum coupon count is reached, or if the coupon hasbeen printed already, then the log-only flag is set, as indicated in block 84, before advancing to the step shown in block 85, in which the complete coupon deal record, corresponding to the currently processed 20 coupon queue entry, is requested from the controller 10 .
Next, if the log-only flag is not set, as determined in block 86, the coupon is formatted for printing, as indicated in block 87, using the infor-25 mation obtained from the coupon deal record. Then aprint reguest is issued, as indicated in block ~8, to place in the print queue the printable data that is to appear on the coupon. This data will include bar code data that will result in the printing o a cou-30 pon with pertinent information encoded in bar-code form.
The next step, shown at block 89, is to prepare a log record of the coupon creation, or in the case of log-only situations, ~o create a log 35 record of a coupon request that did not result in `~ 23~3~
printing of a coupon. The log-only flag is checked again in blvck 90, after the logging step of block 89. If the log-only flag is set, control is trans-ferred to block 75, to set a zero time-out and then to return to the general wait state. If the log-only flag is not set, i.e., a coupon is to be printed, a six-second delay or time-ou} is selected, in block 92, before returning to the general wait state through block 76. The time-out ensures that the 10 printer will not be totally occupied with the coupon printing function, but will be free for at least the next six seconds to print other material, such as portions of the customer receiptO
An important aspect of coupon creation is lS that one of the fields printed on the coupon in bar code form is a trigger item sequence number, obtained from the coupon index record flags. This number identifies the triggering product or item, and can be used to compile statistics relating the printed cou~
20 pon to the items that triggered its printing. The other fields of data printed on the coupon in bar code form include the coupon value, the expiration date, the manufacturer's code, and the product family code to which the coupon deal applies. Printed on 25 the coupon in human-readable form are the offer des-cription and the advertising message, as well as some of the information also printed in bar code form.
Coupon Validation and Redemption:
When a store-printed coupon is presented for 30 redemption, it must first be validated both with res-pect both to the date of its presentation and the product for which it is presented~ FIG. 5 shows the functions that are performed during the validation phase. First, at block 120, coupon data is input at 35 a terminal. The coupon may be one that was created -24- ~..2,~
at the store in accordance with the procedures des-cribed, or it may be a conventional coupon. this determination is made in block 122. Conventional coupons, which may be identified as a Number System 5 coupon in accordance with Uniform Product Code guide-lines, are handled by first determining whether an item with the same family group code and manufacturer code has been sold in this transaction, as indicated in block 124. If no match is found, an error message is transmitted to the controller, as indicated in block 126. If a match is found; the appropriate discount is applied to the customer transaction, as shown in block 128.
Of more significance to the invention is the treatment of coupons that were printed in the store as described above. Such coupons are identified as num1~er System 4 coupons in block 122. The terminal makes a request to the controller for a coupon deal record, based on the coupon look-up number encoded on the coupon. This is indicated in block 130 and broken line~ 131. The controller then reads the appropriate coupon deal record from its coupon look-up ile, updates the counts in the record, as indicated in block 132, ancl transmits it to the terminal, as indicated by brsken line 133. If the requested coupon deal record cloes not exist, an error message is returned to the terminal and ~he coupon is rejected as invalid.
~ext, the terminal validates the date of 30 presentation of the coupon, as indicated in block 134. This logic being expanded in FIG. 6. Then, the terminal validates the c~upon with respect to the item for which a discount is requested, as shown in block 136 and FIG. 7, and applies the discount to the 35 customer's transaction, as shown in block 138.
- ` ~ 2~ E;3~
An important step in validation processing is to check coupon deal record to determine if a "continuation~ coupon is associated with this par-ticular deal. A continuation coupon is one generated as a result of the redemption of another coupon.
This process step is indicated in b}ock 139. If a continuation coupon is to be created, a coupon re-quest is entered in the coupon queue at this point.
The coupon is generated in its turn by the program sequence shown in FIG. 4b. Finally, the terminal creates a log record, in block 140, and transmits it to the controller, as indicated by broken line 142.
The details of date validation are shown in FIG. 6. The first question posed in this logic is 15 whether the coupon date is equal to the current day's date, as shown in block 144. If the dates are equal, an invalid date is indicated, as shown at 146.
Although not critical to the invention, this aspect of the date validation is usually desirable, to en-courage the customer to return to the store to redeemthe coupon.
The next test in the date validation sequence is to determine whether the expiration date is a Pixed one or is determined from the date of 25 coup~n printing. This is shown in block 14B. If a fixed expiration date is used, the expiration date is obtained from the coupon deal record, as indicated at 150. On the other hand, i the expiration date is coupon-dependent, the expiration date is determined from the coupon date and the validity period stored in the coupon deal record, as indicated in block 152. Finally, in block 154 the current date is subtracted from the expiration date and the validity of the coupon is determined. Return to the calling 35 program sequence is made with an accept or reject -26- ~3~3.~
flag to indicate the validity of the coupon date, as indicated at 156 and 158 Item validity of a coupon is determined as shown in FIG. 7 by first scanning a transaction buffer in the terminal, as indicated at 160. The transaction buffer contains a record of all purchased items in the transaction. ~or each item purchased, a comparison is made between the manufacturer's code, as indicated at 162, and family group code, as indicated at lS4 in the coupon deal record and the corresponding fields in the transaction buffer. If a match is found, the item validation results in accep-tance of the coupon, as indicated at 166, and if no match results the coupon is rejected, as indicated at 168.
File Maintenance:
Maintenance of the controller files used in coupon creation and redemption is effected by means of a sequential maintenance file, which may be 20 prepared at a site remote from the store, and then processed at thP store controller to effert the desired changes in the files. The maintenance functions include adding, deleting or replacing coupon deal records and coupon index records, 25 enabling and disabling coupon triggering by item, enabling and disabling coupon printing by item, copying the coupon by file, and retrieving the coupon counts. Other functions include reorganizing the coupon-look-up file, clearing the file before a 30 reload, and adding or replacing system configuration data. The latter function includes enabling or disabling coupon creation by coupon deal, enabling or disabling printing by store or checkout lane, enabling or disabling txiggering by store or checkout -27~ 3~
lane, enabling or disabling coupon validation but continuing to log redemptions and ml~redemptions, updating a per-transaction coupon maxi~um, by check-out lanet and updating a traneaction threshold.
The format of the ma~ntenance ~le is as followa:
Command 1 ~one byte) Data ...
Data Data End of-data record Command 2 Data ...
...
End-o~-data record --End-of-document record Four commands do nDt require accompanying data. These are command6 to reorganiza the coupon look-up file, create a report log, report all coupon counts, and clear the coupon look-up file ~or a reload.
The ~peci~ic ~ormat~ for effec~ing these maintenance commands ls not ~ritical to the present invention. Any desired progr~mming approach may be employed to make chang~s to the controller files as desired.
It will be appre~iated from th~ ~oregoing that the present invention represents a significant advance in the field of retail point-of-~ale sys-tems. In particular, the invention provides a newapproach for distributing diecount COUpQn~; to retail ~L~3~;3~
--2~
customers, based on the purchase o~ products other ~han the ones to which the discount coupone apply.
Th~ invention al60 provides means ror validating coupons printed in this n~analer, both Ior date S validity and ~tem valid1ty, and automatically apply-ing a discount to the ~usto~er sales transactlo~.
I~ w;1l al~o be appr~ciated that~ al~hough a speci~ic embodiment of the invention has been described ln detail for purposes og` illustration, 10 various modificationE; may be made without departing from the ~pirit and scope o~ the invention. Accord-ingly, the invention is not to be limited except a~
by the appended cla~ms.
The present invention resides in apparatus, and a related method, for printing a redeemable dis-count coupon at a point-of-sale terminal, in response to the purchase of a product other than the one to which the discount applies. Briefly, and in general terms, the apparatus of the invention comprises means for identifying a triggering product in a customer order, means for associating the triggering product with a coupon deal, and means for automatically printing at least one discount coupon for a product other than the triggering product r The apparatus also preferably includes means for validating a dis-count coupon presented for redemption, and means for automatically applying a discount to the price of a product to which the coupon applies.
More specifically, the means for identifying a triggering product includes an item file with a triggering field contained within each product re-cord, and means for checking the ~riggering field aseach product purchase is processed. The means for associating the triggering product with at least one coupon deal includes a file of coupon index records to which access is obtained by item code, and which 25 contains for each triggering product at least one link to a coupon deal file. Each record of the coupon deal file contains details of a coupon deal, including its value, period of validity, and a code identifying a family of products to which the coupon 30 deal applies. The means for printing the c~upon in-cludes means for determining a printing priority, and a printing device capable of reproducing a bar-type code in Uniform Product Code format.
The apparatus also includes means for 3~631 producing a log of all printing and redemption trans-actions. In the disclosed embodiment of the inven-tion, this means includes a log file, and means for storing a new record in the log file at the time of each printing transaction or redemption transaction.
The means for validating a coupon include means for reading the bar code on the coupon, which includes a date of printing and a coupon look-up number, means for accessing an associated coupon deal record, means for comparing the date on the coupon with the coupon deal validity date, and means for comparing the product family code and manufacturer's code in the coupon deal racord with corresponding codes in the items purchased by the customer. The coupon is declared to be valid only if the date is within the validity period of the coupon deal, and the manufacturer's code and product family group code on tbe coupon match similar codes in a product that was purchased.
The means for automatically applying a dis-count to the customer order is responsive to the means for validating the coupon. The apparatus in addition may include means for limiting the number of coupons printed per coupon deal or per customer order, means for maintaining counts of the numbers of coupon creations and redemptions, means for printing a default coupon if the total amount of the customer order e~ceeds a preselected value, and means for selectively turning on and off triggering or print-ing, by store, lane, coupon or product item. The system may also include means for triggering the creation of a coupon in response to the redemp~ion of another coupon that was previously printed by the apparatus of the invention.
In terms of a novel method, the invention _5_ ~3~63~
comprises the steps of identifying a triggering pro-duct from among a sequence of products purchased by a customer, associating the triggering product with at least one coupon deal involving a discount on a pro-5 duct different from the triggering product, and auto-matically printing a machine-readable coupon for the customer. More specifically, the step of associating the triggering product with a coupon deal includes the steps of accessing a coupon index record by means of a product item code of the triggering product, the product index record containing one or more coupon look-up numbers; then accessing a coupon deal record by means of each of the coupon look-up numbers in the coupon index record. Each coupon deal record con-tains all of the information necessary to print acoupon, and the only remainin~ steps in coupon cre-ation are extracting the coupon information from the coupon deal record and printing the couponu The method further includes the steps of updating a count in the coupon deal record after each coupon creation, and after each coupon redemption or misredemption. The steps of coupon validation and redemption include reading a previously created dis-count coupon, extracting a coupon look-up number from the coupon information, retrieving a coupon deal re-cord corresponding to the coupon presented for vali-dation, comparing a date read from the coupon with an expiration date in the coupon deal record, comparing a manufacturer~s code and a product family code in the coupon deal record with corresponding codes in each product purchased by the customer, and indicat-ing whether the coupon is a valid one. If the coupon is valid, the redemption process also includes apply-ing a discount to the customer's transaction total.
35 Optionally, the validation process may also include 3~i3~
the step of initiating creation of a preselected coupon in response to the redemption of another couponO
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the present invention represents a significant advance in the field of retail point-of-sale sys-tems. In particular, the invention provides a tech-nique for creating discount coupons at the point of sale and in response to the sale of products other than the ones to which the discount applies. The invention also provides a coupon validation and redemption procedure that permits the coupons pre-viously created by this invention to be inspected by machine and the discount automatically applied if the coupons are valid. Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following more detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DE~CRIP~'IO~i OF THE DRAWINGS
_ FIGURE 1 is a simplified block diagram show-ing the apparatus of a point-of-sale computer system for use in a retail store;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating in-terrelationships between the pr incipal f iles used in the apparatus of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a simplified flow chart showing the functions performed in a general wait loop o the terminal proyram;
FIG. 4a is a simplified flow chart showing the functions performed at a checkout terminal during coupon creation;
FIG. 4b is a simplified flow chart showin3 the functions performed in processing queued coupon ` ~3~i3~
printing requests during coupon creation;
FIG. 5 is a simplified Elow chart ~howing the functions performed by the store controller and a terminal during coupon redemption;
5FI~. 6 is a simplified flow chart showing date validation functions of ~IG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a simplified flow chart showing item validation functions of FIG. 5.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Overview:
As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the present invention is concerned with point-of-sale systems for recording sales transac-tiOIIS involving discount coupvns. FIG 1 shows in broad sutline the components of such a system. In each store in which the invention is to be used, there is a store point-of-sale controller, indicated by reference numeral 10, and a plurality of checkout terminals ~2, each having an associated optical scanner 13. Associated with the store controller 10 are a number of files, indicated at 14, which are used by the controller to provide information to the terminals 12. In a typical point-of-sale system, the -files 14 contain a record for each product in the store, and are used to access price and other infor-mation concerning th~ product.
The store controller 10 is coupled to a retailer host computer 16, as indicated by line 18S
which may be a telephone line or some other communi-cation link. The retailer host computer 16 controlscommunications with all store controllers in the retailer's various stores, and is responsible for generating various accounting reports, as indicated -8- ~3~;3~
at 20. The retailer host computer 16 has an asso-ciated data base 22 of various files relating to the retailer's entire store operations.
Point-of-sale systems of the general type described are not normally equipped to handle dis~
count coupons, except in the sense that a checker at one of terminals 12 can key in coupon values to be discounted from a customer's bill. In accordance with the pres~nt invention, at least one of the checkout terminals 12 has associated with it a coupon printer 24, and the system includes means, to be described, for identifying a triggering product among the items listed in the customer's bill. A trigger-ing produc~ is one that has been selected by a manu-facturer to trigger the printing of a coupon for oneof the manufacturer's products.
The files 14 associated with the store con-troller lO include an item record file 3~, a coupon look-up file 32, and a coupon log file 34. The item record file 30 is a standard price file used in point-of-sale systems, except that it includes a trigger flag, which is an additional one-bit field.
There is also room in the item record for two fields known as family group codes. A family group code is 25 a three-digit number assigned by the product manufac-turer to identify the product as belonging to a par-ticular group of products. A single product may belong to two such groups, or more if an extended record format is used. As will be discussed in more detail, the family group codes ~re used in the coupon validation process, in which a coupon presented for redemption is examined for validity in relation to a particular customer bill. For example, a particular coupon may be valid for a ~amily group csmprising all 35 different si~es of a product package.
;3~
_9_ In the process o coupon creation, the files 14 are used as illustrated in simplified form in FIG.
2. The coupon look-up file 32 includes records of two types, coupon inde~ records, indicated at 40, and coupon deal records, indicated at 42. When a product in the customer's purchase transaction is detected as a triggering item, by detection of the trigger flag 43 in the item record 44 for that product, the system is able to locate a coupon index record corresponding to the triggering product, as indicated by the arrow 45. The coupon index record 40 contains an item code, i.e. there is a unique coupon index record for every triggering product, and also contains at least one coupon look-up number (CLU)o The CLU provides a link to at least one coupon deal record 42, as indi-cated by the arrows 46. This structure allows a par-ticular trigyering product to trigger the printing of one or more coupons, which may pertain to different groups of products, and allows diferent triggering products to trigger the printing of a coupon for a single product group. Each coupon deal record 42 contains the details of a particular coupon deal, including the value of the discount, the dates of validity of the deal, a message to be printed on the 25 coupon, and various counts recording the activity of the coupon deal.
Validation of a coupon presented for redem-ption involves first reading a coupon look-up number from the coupon. This number relates the coupon to a 30 specific coupon deal record, which has as one of its data fields a manufacturer's number and a family code. If the manufacturer's number and the family code match with similar fields for an item in the customer's order, the coupon is valid, and an appro-35 priate discount is applied to the order.
File Formats:
The coupon look-up file includes two types of record: the coupon index record (CIR) and the coupon deal record (CDR~. Both types of record begin 5 with a si~-byte key in the following format:
<~ -data-~ <-X->
The X field indicates the record type. If X=00 the record is a coupon index record, and if X
=01 the record is a coupon deal record. The five-byte data field is different for each of the two record types, as will be apparent from the following formats. The coupon index record format is as follows:
<--Item code ~UPC no.)-->< 00 --CLU#--><flags>
The item code contains the Uniform Product Code for the product, in binary form. The sixth byte identifies the rerord as a coupon index record. And 20 the CLU# provides a link between a triggering product and a particular coupon deal record. To allow the purchase of one product to trigger more than one coupon deal, a coupon index record may contain up to two additional CLU# fields and flag fields, following 25 the format illustrated above. Accordingly, the purchase of one product can trigger the pri~ting of up to three coupons.
The individual bits in the flag field of the coupon index record have the following meanings, 30 where bit 7 is the most-significant bit and bit 0 is the least-significant bit:
9 ~3~631 Bit 7 - Log only (peint inhibited), Bit 6 - ~ligh priority coupon, Bit 5 - Minimum balance due applies, ~it 4 - Trigger bit, Bits 3-0 - Trigger item sequence no. 11-9).
The trigger bit is a copy of the trigger bit contained in the item record. ~owever, the item record may have its trigger bit reset during routine maintenance, and the trigger bit in the coupon index record are copied back into the item records on a regular, such as daily, basis. The log-only flag is used to inhibit printing, and may be used tn monitor the number of coupons that would have been created by the use of a particular triggering product. The high-priority flag enables coupon printing immediately upon detection of the triggering product in a customer's order. For a low priority coupon, printincl is deferred until the entire order has been processed. The flag relating minimum balance due permits printing to be inhibited unless a minimum balance due is reached in the customer order.
Finally, the trigger item se~uence number is a digit that can be used to identify the triggering product in cases where the same coupon deal is triggered by the purchase of different products. The trigger item sequence number is printed on the coupon that is created, and may therefore be used upon redemption of the coupon, to create an appropriate log record permitting analysis of which triggering items resulted in coupon-discounted sales.
It will be noted that the coupon index record has a length of from nine to fifteen bytes.
The trigger flag in the first flag byte of the record is the only one usedO i.e., the triggPr bits in flag 35 bytes for any additional CLU's are not used. The -12- ~2~4~3p CLU# field may be zeroed out to denote that the triggering product is no longer linked to a particu-lar coupo~ dealO
Each coupon deal record contains the details of a coupon to be printed. The format is as follows:
CLU# 00 00 00 01 value expn. date manuf #
<--- 6~byte key ---><- 2 -><- 2 -><- 3 ->
fam. code flags cont. CLU start date end date ~-- 3 --><- 1 -><-- 2 -->~-- 2 --><-- 2 -->
counts lengths offer descn. advert. msg.
<-- 8 --><-- 4 --><-- 2x30 --><-- 2x30 --~
The value field contains the coupon discount amount, and the manufacturer's code is a number that uniquely identifies the manufacturer of the products for which the coupon provides a discount. Each coupon deal relates to a discount on any of a family of products, the family codes being assigned by the manufacturer. A discount could apply, for example, to all sizes of a product, or to any group of related 20 products.
The expiration date contains a number indicative of the date of expiration of the coupon.
This can be a validity period in days from the coupon printing date, or the number o days from some fixed 25 time reference, such as January 1, 1983. The start and end dates are also measured in numbers of days from the same reference, modulo 1000, and indicate the period during which the coupon deal extends, i.e.
the period during which coupons will be printed.
The continuity CLU field defines another coupon deal that is linked to this one. This can be -13- ~ 3~ 3 ~
used to trigger the printing of another coupon when the original one is redeemed. The field is zero if there is no SUC;l linked coupon deal. The "lengths"
fields are four one-byte ields, each defining the length of one line of text in the offer description and the advertising message that follow.
The "counts" fields are four separate two-byte fields to record counts of the total number of coupon triggered, the total number oP coupons printed, the total number of coupons redeemed, and the total number of coupons misredeemed. The counts are used for purposes of analysis of coupon usage, both in the coupon creation and coupon redemption phases.
The flag field of the coupon deal record contains only three meaningful bits of information.
Specifically, the flag bits have the following meanings when set to a one state:
Bit 7 - log only tprint inhibited), Bit 6 - free coupon (no charge for item)~
Bit 5 - expiration date is a validity period.
When bit 5 is setr the expiration date indicates the number of days beyond the printing date that the coupon is to remain valid. If bit 5 is not 25 set, the expiration date indicates the number of days beyond a preselected reference date that the coupon is to remain valid.
~ rhe coupon log file is a sequential file into which a new record is written whenever a coupon 30 is printed or a coupon is redeemed. The format of the log file record is as follows:
Store terminal operator fun. code flags trans.~
<- 1 -><-- 1 -->c-- ~ -->~ <- 1 -><- 2 ->
; ~23~;3~
UPC# CPN# item price date/time ~- 5 -><- 5 -><-- 2 --><-- 3 --~
The store number field contain~ a relative store number. A value 01 indicates a local store and a value 02 indicates a backup store~ Thi5 code i8 not critical to the invention, and relates to the use of a back-up store controller (at another store) to control check-out operations. The terminal number indicates the check stand at which the transaction took place. The function code field has the following possible meanings:
Fl (hexadecimal) - coupon creation, F2 - redemption, F3 - store support procedure entry.
The flags field has the following meanings:
80 ~hexadecimal) - free coupon, - no-sale redemption, - continuity linked (if creation), or - coupon value entered manually (if redemption), - voided redemption, OF - reason code.
The low four bits of the flag field are used to record a reason for non-printing or misredemption of a coupon. The various reasons are as follows, where the four-digit value represents the binary state of the field.
30 Coupon printing:
0000 - printed, 1000 - print inhibited store-wide, 1001 - print inhibited at this lane, 3~;3~
1010 - print inhibited for this CLU~, 1011 - print inhibited for this item, 0100 - unable to access coupon index record, 0101 - unable to access coupon deal record, 0010 - transaction below threshold~
0001 - duplicate CLU#, 1100 - printing disabled by operator. B.
Misredemption:
0000 - normal redemption, 0001 item not in order, 0010 - expiration date exceeded, 0100 match only in manufacturer number, 1000 - accepted (validation disabled).
The date/time of the transaction are recorded in the form MMDDHH, where MM is the month, DD the day of the month, and HH the hour of the day~
~'he CPNt field is used to record the entire set of da~a read from a prin~ed coupon, and the UPC# field records the triggering product code in the case of coupon creations, and the purchased product code in the case of redemptions.
~axdware and Software Overview:
~ he hardware used in this invention is conventional for point-of-lsale ~ystems. Various 25 manufacturers supply point-of-sale equipment, and the invention is not limited to any particular configura-tion. By way of example, the invention is presently implemented using the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Programma~le Store System, referred 30 to as the IB~ *3680. The store controller 10 is an IBM 3650 and the terminals 12 are IB~*3~B3 termin-alsO The IBM *3683 Model 3 terminal incorporates a third printer station in addition to a customer re-ceipt printer station~ and a ~ournal printer station * trade mark.
-16~ 4~
for maintaining a log of transactions.
IBM supplie6 a ~o~tware operating ~y~tem for USQ ln controlling operationa in th~ hardware des-cribed. The operating 8y tem i8 referred to ~8 the IB~ progxammable tore system MICROCODE, sometimes referred to as the general control program. IBM alæo supplies a program product to enable users to write program for execution in the controller and the terminal~. The program product i8 referred to as SPPS II (Subsystem Program Preparation Support II), and includes languages, macro instructions, and a terminal display language. Communication between th~
terminal~ and the ctore controller is aocomplished using a store communications loop and a program of instructiona wrltten ~n IBM 3650 Progr2mmable Store SyRtem Microcode. Other application program~ that typically form part of the envirnnment o~ the inven-tion are SD~ ~Store Data Management) and HCP (Host Communication Program), both sold by IB~.
2Q ~11 of these aspects of the invent$on hard-ware and software are well known ~nd well de~ined in trade literature and IB~ tecllnical li~erature. For further information, ~ useful 6tarting po~nt i~ the publi~ation ~IBM 3680 Programmable Store SyEtem Intro-duction," (GA27-3199-3) publlshed by IBPS, Dept. E02, P.O. Box 12195, Research Triangle Park, Noxth Caro ~n~ 27709.
An appl~cation program product written to run in the SPPS II environment provides various 30 checkout and administrative functions ~or the 6tore.
This product is referred to as ISIS (In Store Infor-mation System), produced by Data Connection ~imi~ed, Enfield, ~iddlesex EN2 6UE, England.
: ~L23~;3~
CouPon Creatlon:
The coupon creation function~ pergormed by the terminals 12 and the controller 10 are shown in FIGs. 3, 4a and 4b. FIG. 3 illustrate~ a "general wait 6tate" of the terminal, wherein the terminal software cyclicly checks to determine whether any proc ssing is required. OncP processing is inltiated to a certain stage, a return is made to tAe general wait state, a~ will be further explained.
The first ~llustrated block of the general wait state poses the question whether there i6 any input data to process, as indic:ated at 50. The input data typically take~; the form of bar code scanner input, but may also ~nclude keyboard input ~rom the terminal operator. If there is input data to pro-cess, the terminal departs from the general wait state and enters an input program ~equence, ~s indicated at 51. If there is currently no input data to process, the next test, posed in block 52, ~s whether a requested response has been received from the controller 10. As will be describ~d, each of the terminals 12 ~requently makes requests to the con-troller 10 ~or file access. ~he reguesting program r~turns control to the general wait state, to await 25 arrival of teh response. I:E a response has been received, control i~ transferr~d to a response return point, as indicated at 53. The respon~e re~urn point ~equentially follows the point in the program ~rom which the file access request was mad~- to the con-~roller.
If no response has ~een received from thecontroller 10, the next guestion posed in the general wait state $s ~hether a presele~ted time-out is com--18- ~23~
plete, as indicated at 54. As will be described, a time-out is initiated after each coupon printing re-quest, to ensure that the coupon printing function does not totally occupy the time of the terminal printer. In the equipment presently employed to implement the invention~ coupons are printed at a separate station of the printer, but employing a print head shar~d by other print stations. In this manner, separate printed documents can be generated at the separate stations, but the single print head behaves in effect like a single printer. Printing of too many coupons can preclud~ or limit printing of a customer receipt. When the time-out is completed, return is made to the program that initiated the time-out, as indicated at 55. If the time-out is not yet complete, control is transferred back to the beginning of the general wait state loop.
In the input processing steps, shown in FIG.
4a, only the purchase and coupon creation functions are shown. If the input involves coupon redemption, as determined in block 58, control is transferred to the redemption processing functions illustrated in FIGo 5. Otherwise, the first step o input process-ing is to obtain the product code input to the ter-25 minal, as indicated in block 60. Then a request ismade to the controller 10 for the item record corres-ponding to the input product code. The request for this record, indicated at 61, is one of a number of such requests made to the controller during the input 30 process. In each case, after the request is trans-mitted to the controller 10, a return is made to the general wait state shown in FIGo 3, to await the re-turn of the response from the controller. When the response is received, the wait state loop of FIG. 3 35 transfers control back to the input sequence, at a -19- ~3~fi3~
point immediately following block 61.
Next, as shown at 62, a print request is is-sued to initiate printing of a line on the customer receipt. The print request results in the storing of printable data in a print queue. One function of the system software associated with the terminal is to take printable information from the print queue on a first-in-first-out basis, and to print it using the terminal printer.
Up to this point in the input processing, ~he functions performed are conventional ones that take place regardless of whether any coupon creation is to occur. In the next step, shown at 63, a check is made to determine whether the trigger flag is set in the item record being processed. If ~he trigger flag is setf a request is made to the controller 10 fox the corresponding coupon index record, as indi-cated at 64 t and the coupon look-up number, or num-bers, stored in the coupon index record are placed as 20 a coupon request in a coupon queue, as indicated at 65, together~ with the flags associated with ~ach coupon look-up number in the coupon index record.
One of the flags is, of course, the printing priority flag, and this determines the position in which the 25 coupon request will be placed in the coupon queue.
High priority coupons are entered behind any already queued high priority coupons and ahead of any low-priority items, while low-priority items are entered at the bottom or end of the coupon queue. After en-30 try of a coupon request in the coupon queue, returnis made to the general wait state, as indicated at 66.
If a product being processed has no coupon trigger flag, as determined in block 63, there is 35 still a possibility that a coupon should be printed ~3~Ç~3~1L
during the current transaction. The store has the option of printing a default coupon if no other cou-pons are printed in a transaction, and provided an optional minimum purchase requirement i8 met. To determine whether this should be done, a check is made, in block 67, to determine whether the transac-tion has advanced to the point whexe the balance due has been registered on the terminal, i.e., all items have been inpu~ and processed. If the balance-due io point has not been reached, control is transferred to block 66, to return to the general wait state. If the balance-due point has been reached, the next question posed, in block 68, whether any coupons at all have been printed during the entire transaction.
If not, a store default coupon is stored in the cou-pon queue~ as indicated at block 6~, before a return is ~lade to the general wait state.
Input processing proceeds in the manner shown in EIG. 4a, with coupon requests being placed in the coupon queue as corresponding triggering items are detected in the transaction. The process by which coupon requests are r~moved from the coupon queue is shown in FIG. 4b.
After a return from a time-out, from the 25 general wait state, the coupon queue is first checked, as shown at 7~, to determine whether there are any coupon requests waiting to be processed. If there are, the next question posed, in block 73, is whether the balance-due point has been reached in the 30 transaction. If it has not, the only coupons eli-gible for printing are high priority coupons. This is determined in block 74. If there are no items in the coupon queue, or if there are only low-priority items and the balance-due point has not been reached, 35 control is transferred to block 75, which selects a ~23~3~L
zero or near-zero time-out period. Then, in block 76, the time-out is initiated and a return i8 made to the general wait state. Control will very soon pass back again from the general wait state, to check the condition of the coupon queue once more.
If the balance-due point has been reached, as determined in block 73, the next test, in block 77, is to determine whether the end of the transac-tion has been reached, that is whether the terminal operator has received payment for the sale and has closed out the transaction in preparation for begin-ning a new one. If this has not occurred, control is passed to the next step, at block 78, to ~elect the next unprocessed item in the coupon ~ueue. If the end of the transaction has been reached, however, a log-only flag is set, in block 79, before passing to block 78. Control also passes to block 78 if a high-priority coupon creation request is detected in blo~k 74.
At this point, a coupon creation candidate has been selected from the coupon queue, but it is still subject to a number of further tests before an actual print request is made to print the coupon.
First, in block 80, a check is made to determine if 25 the same coupon has already been printed in this transaction. Only one coupon of the same coupon look-up number is normally permitted for each transac-tion. ~ext, if there have been no previous coupons of the same kind, a check is made in block 81 to 30 determine whether a minimum purchase threshold has been reached. For each coupon deal, there is an option to prevent printing of the coupon if a desig-nated (store-wide) total purchase minimum is not reached. If the answer obtained from block 81 is 35 negative, control is transferred to block 75, to exit -22~ 3 ~
to ths general wait state, but without removing the coupon request from the coupon queue. The next time the coupon is processed t the total purchase amount is again checked. If the coupon is never printed, be cause the threshold purchase amount is not reached by the end of the transaction, a log record is created for the coupon In block 82, a check is made on the total count of coupon~ print~d for this transaction. If the number exceeds a maximum set for this particular checkout terminal, no further printing of coupons is permitted. In addition, printing is permitted if a print inhibit flag has been set, as determined in block 83~ If printing is inhibited, or if the maxi-15 mum coupon count is reached, or if the coupon hasbeen printed already, then the log-only flag is set, as indicated in block 84, before advancing to the step shown in block 85, in which the complete coupon deal record, corresponding to the currently processed 20 coupon queue entry, is requested from the controller 10 .
Next, if the log-only flag is not set, as determined in block 86, the coupon is formatted for printing, as indicated in block 87, using the infor-25 mation obtained from the coupon deal record. Then aprint reguest is issued, as indicated in block ~8, to place in the print queue the printable data that is to appear on the coupon. This data will include bar code data that will result in the printing o a cou-30 pon with pertinent information encoded in bar-code form.
The next step, shown at block 89, is to prepare a log record of the coupon creation, or in the case of log-only situations, ~o create a log 35 record of a coupon request that did not result in `~ 23~3~
printing of a coupon. The log-only flag is checked again in blvck 90, after the logging step of block 89. If the log-only flag is set, control is trans-ferred to block 75, to set a zero time-out and then to return to the general wait state. If the log-only flag is not set, i.e., a coupon is to be printed, a six-second delay or time-ou} is selected, in block 92, before returning to the general wait state through block 76. The time-out ensures that the 10 printer will not be totally occupied with the coupon printing function, but will be free for at least the next six seconds to print other material, such as portions of the customer receiptO
An important aspect of coupon creation is lS that one of the fields printed on the coupon in bar code form is a trigger item sequence number, obtained from the coupon index record flags. This number identifies the triggering product or item, and can be used to compile statistics relating the printed cou~
20 pon to the items that triggered its printing. The other fields of data printed on the coupon in bar code form include the coupon value, the expiration date, the manufacturer's code, and the product family code to which the coupon deal applies. Printed on 25 the coupon in human-readable form are the offer des-cription and the advertising message, as well as some of the information also printed in bar code form.
Coupon Validation and Redemption:
When a store-printed coupon is presented for 30 redemption, it must first be validated both with res-pect both to the date of its presentation and the product for which it is presented~ FIG. 5 shows the functions that are performed during the validation phase. First, at block 120, coupon data is input at 35 a terminal. The coupon may be one that was created -24- ~..2,~
at the store in accordance with the procedures des-cribed, or it may be a conventional coupon. this determination is made in block 122. Conventional coupons, which may be identified as a Number System 5 coupon in accordance with Uniform Product Code guide-lines, are handled by first determining whether an item with the same family group code and manufacturer code has been sold in this transaction, as indicated in block 124. If no match is found, an error message is transmitted to the controller, as indicated in block 126. If a match is found; the appropriate discount is applied to the customer transaction, as shown in block 128.
Of more significance to the invention is the treatment of coupons that were printed in the store as described above. Such coupons are identified as num1~er System 4 coupons in block 122. The terminal makes a request to the controller for a coupon deal record, based on the coupon look-up number encoded on the coupon. This is indicated in block 130 and broken line~ 131. The controller then reads the appropriate coupon deal record from its coupon look-up ile, updates the counts in the record, as indicated in block 132, ancl transmits it to the terminal, as indicated by brsken line 133. If the requested coupon deal record cloes not exist, an error message is returned to the terminal and ~he coupon is rejected as invalid.
~ext, the terminal validates the date of 30 presentation of the coupon, as indicated in block 134. This logic being expanded in FIG. 6. Then, the terminal validates the c~upon with respect to the item for which a discount is requested, as shown in block 136 and FIG. 7, and applies the discount to the 35 customer's transaction, as shown in block 138.
- ` ~ 2~ E;3~
An important step in validation processing is to check coupon deal record to determine if a "continuation~ coupon is associated with this par-ticular deal. A continuation coupon is one generated as a result of the redemption of another coupon.
This process step is indicated in b}ock 139. If a continuation coupon is to be created, a coupon re-quest is entered in the coupon queue at this point.
The coupon is generated in its turn by the program sequence shown in FIG. 4b. Finally, the terminal creates a log record, in block 140, and transmits it to the controller, as indicated by broken line 142.
The details of date validation are shown in FIG. 6. The first question posed in this logic is 15 whether the coupon date is equal to the current day's date, as shown in block 144. If the dates are equal, an invalid date is indicated, as shown at 146.
Although not critical to the invention, this aspect of the date validation is usually desirable, to en-courage the customer to return to the store to redeemthe coupon.
The next test in the date validation sequence is to determine whether the expiration date is a Pixed one or is determined from the date of 25 coup~n printing. This is shown in block 14B. If a fixed expiration date is used, the expiration date is obtained from the coupon deal record, as indicated at 150. On the other hand, i the expiration date is coupon-dependent, the expiration date is determined from the coupon date and the validity period stored in the coupon deal record, as indicated in block 152. Finally, in block 154 the current date is subtracted from the expiration date and the validity of the coupon is determined. Return to the calling 35 program sequence is made with an accept or reject -26- ~3~3.~
flag to indicate the validity of the coupon date, as indicated at 156 and 158 Item validity of a coupon is determined as shown in FIG. 7 by first scanning a transaction buffer in the terminal, as indicated at 160. The transaction buffer contains a record of all purchased items in the transaction. ~or each item purchased, a comparison is made between the manufacturer's code, as indicated at 162, and family group code, as indicated at lS4 in the coupon deal record and the corresponding fields in the transaction buffer. If a match is found, the item validation results in accep-tance of the coupon, as indicated at 166, and if no match results the coupon is rejected, as indicated at 168.
File Maintenance:
Maintenance of the controller files used in coupon creation and redemption is effected by means of a sequential maintenance file, which may be 20 prepared at a site remote from the store, and then processed at thP store controller to effert the desired changes in the files. The maintenance functions include adding, deleting or replacing coupon deal records and coupon index records, 25 enabling and disabling coupon triggering by item, enabling and disabling coupon printing by item, copying the coupon by file, and retrieving the coupon counts. Other functions include reorganizing the coupon-look-up file, clearing the file before a 30 reload, and adding or replacing system configuration data. The latter function includes enabling or disabling coupon creation by coupon deal, enabling or disabling printing by store or checkout lane, enabling or disabling txiggering by store or checkout -27~ 3~
lane, enabling or disabling coupon validation but continuing to log redemptions and ml~redemptions, updating a per-transaction coupon maxi~um, by check-out lanet and updating a traneaction threshold.
The format of the ma~ntenance ~le is as followa:
Command 1 ~one byte) Data ...
Data Data End of-data record Command 2 Data ...
...
End-o~-data record --End-of-document record Four commands do nDt require accompanying data. These are command6 to reorganiza the coupon look-up file, create a report log, report all coupon counts, and clear the coupon look-up file ~or a reload.
The ~peci~ic ~ormat~ for effec~ing these maintenance commands ls not ~ritical to the present invention. Any desired progr~mming approach may be employed to make chang~s to the controller files as desired.
It will be appre~iated from th~ ~oregoing that the present invention represents a significant advance in the field of retail point-of-~ale sys-tems. In particular, the invention provides a newapproach for distributing diecount COUpQn~; to retail ~L~3~;3~
--2~
customers, based on the purchase o~ products other ~han the ones to which the discount coupone apply.
Th~ invention al60 provides means ror validating coupons printed in this n~analer, both Ior date S validity and ~tem valid1ty, and automatically apply-ing a discount to the ~usto~er sales transactlo~.
I~ w;1l al~o be appr~ciated that~ al~hough a speci~ic embodiment of the invention has been described ln detail for purposes og` illustration, 10 various modificationE; may be made without departing from the ~pirit and scope o~ the invention. Accord-ingly, the invention is not to be limited except a~
by the appended cla~ms.
Claims (42)
1. A system for printing a redeemable coupon in a retail store, solely in response to the purchase of a competitive item, the system comprising:
a plurality of terminals at customer checkout locations, each having means for reading product codes on purchased items in a customer order;
a store controller with which the terminals can communicate, the store controller having access to an item record file containing price and other informa-tion for each product item;
means for storing the terms of at least one coupon deal in which the printing of a discount coupon for a selected product will be triggered by the purchase of a triggering competitive product;
means for identifying the triggering product in the customer order;
means for associating the triggering product with the coupon deal; and means for automatically printing at least one discount coupon for a product other than the triggering product, based on the details of the coupon deal and without the intervention or participation of the customer other than in purchasing the triggering product.
a plurality of terminals at customer checkout locations, each having means for reading product codes on purchased items in a customer order;
a store controller with which the terminals can communicate, the store controller having access to an item record file containing price and other informa-tion for each product item;
means for storing the terms of at least one coupon deal in which the printing of a discount coupon for a selected product will be triggered by the purchase of a triggering competitive product;
means for identifying the triggering product in the customer order;
means for associating the triggering product with the coupon deal; and means for automatically printing at least one discount coupon for a product other than the triggering product, based on the details of the coupon deal and without the intervention or participation of the customer other than in purchasing the triggering product.
2. A system as set forth in claim 1, wherein:
the means for identifying the triggering product includes a trigger field in each record of the item record file.
the means for identifying the triggering product includes a trigger field in each record of the item record file.
3. A system as set forth in claim 2, wherein the means for associating the triggering product with the coupon deal includes:
a coupon look-up file located with the store controller and accessible by item number, wherein each record of the coupon look-up file contains details of a coupon discount deal.
a coupon look-up file located with the store controller and accessible by item number, wherein each record of the coupon look-up file contains details of a coupon discount deal.
4. A system as set forth in claim 3, wherein:
the coupon look-up file includes coupon index records and coupon deal records, the coupon index records being accessible by item number and containing at least one coupon look-up number providing access to a coupon deal record; and each coupon deal record contains details of a corresponding coupon deal.
the coupon look-up file includes coupon index records and coupon deal records, the coupon index records being accessible by item number and containing at least one coupon look-up number providing access to a coupon deal record; and each coupon deal record contains details of a corresponding coupon deal.
5. A system as set forth in claim 4, wherein:
each coupon deal record provides means for identifying a manufacturer and a product family group to which the deal applies, means for specifying an expiration date, means for recording activity counts with respect to the deal, and means for recording an offer description to be printed on the coupon.
each coupon deal record provides means for identifying a manufacturer and a product family group to which the deal applies, means for specifying an expiration date, means for recording activity counts with respect to the deal, and means for recording an offer description to be printed on the coupon.
6. A system as set forth in claim 5, wherein the coupon deal record also includes:
means for recording a coupon look-up number relating to a different coupon deal to be activiated in response to the redemption of a coupon for the original coupon deal.
means for recording a coupon look-up number relating to a different coupon deal to be activiated in response to the redemption of a coupon for the original coupon deal.
7. A system as set forth in claim 1, wherein:
the means for automatically printing in-cludes means for printing in optically scannable bar-code form.
the means for automatically printing in-cludes means for printing in optically scannable bar-code form.
8. A system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the means for automatically printing in-cludes:
means for printing high-priority coupons during a sales transaction; and means for printing low-priority coupons only after a preselected point is reached in the sales transaction.
means for printing high-priority coupons during a sales transaction; and means for printing low-priority coupons only after a preselected point is reached in the sales transaction.
9. A system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the means for automatically printing includes:
means for printing on the coupon a code identifying the triggering product.
means for printing on the coupon a code identifying the triggering product.
10. A system as set forth in claim 1, and further including:
means for inhibiting coupon printing based on the occurrence of any of a number of preselectable conditions.
means for inhibiting coupon printing based on the occurrence of any of a number of preselectable conditions.
11. A system as set forth in claim 10, wherein the means for inhibiting printing includes:
means for inhibiting printing at selected terminals and by selected products.
means for inhibiting printing at selected terminals and by selected products.
12. A system as set forth in claim 10, wherein the means for inhibiting printing includes:
means for inhibiting printing of a minimum purchase total is not reached.
means for inhibiting printing of a minimum purchase total is not reached.
13. A system as set forth in claim 10, wherein the means for inhibiting printing includes:
means for inhibiting printing of a maximum coupon count is reached.
means for inhibiting printing of a maximum coupon count is reached.
14. A system as set forth in claim 1, and further including:
means for initiating printing of a default coupon if no other coupons are created in the trans-action.
means for initiating printing of a default coupon if no other coupons are created in the trans-action.
15. A system as set forth in claim 1, wherein:
each triggering product can generate a plur-ality of coupon deals; and each coupon deal can be triggered by any of a plurality of triggering products.
each triggering product can generate a plur-ality of coupon deals; and each coupon deal can be triggered by any of a plurality of triggering products.
16. A system as set forth in claim 1, and further including:
means for creating a log record of each triggered printing of a coupon.
means for creating a log record of each triggered printing of a coupon.
17. A system for printing a redeemable coupon in a retail store, solely in response to the pur-chase of a competitive item, the system comprising:
a plurality of terminals at customer checkout locations, each having mean for reading product codes on purchased items in a customer order;
a store controller with which the terminals can communicate, the store controller having access to an item record file containing price and other information for each product item;
means for storing the terms of at least one coupon deal in which the printing of a discount coupon for a selected product will be triggered by the purchase of a triggering competitive product;
means for identifying the triggering product in the customer order;
means for automatically printing at least one discount coupon for a product other than the triggering product, based on the details of the coupon deal and without the intervention or participation of the customer other than in purchasing the triggering product;
and means for redeeming a coupon printed by the means for automatically printing.
a plurality of terminals at customer checkout locations, each having mean for reading product codes on purchased items in a customer order;
a store controller with which the terminals can communicate, the store controller having access to an item record file containing price and other information for each product item;
means for storing the terms of at least one coupon deal in which the printing of a discount coupon for a selected product will be triggered by the purchase of a triggering competitive product;
means for identifying the triggering product in the customer order;
means for automatically printing at least one discount coupon for a product other than the triggering product, based on the details of the coupon deal and without the intervention or participation of the customer other than in purchasing the triggering product;
and means for redeeming a coupon printed by the means for automatically printing.
18. A system as set forth in claim 17, and further including:
means for creating a log record of each redemption and misredemption.
means for creating a log record of each redemption and misredemption.
19. A system as set forth in claim 18, and further including:
means for crediting a log record of each triggered printing of a coupon.
means for crediting a log record of each triggered printing of a coupon.
20. A system as set forth in claim 17, wherein the means for redeeming the coupon includes:
validation means, for validating the coupon with respect to its date and the item to which it pertains; and means for automatically applying a discount to the customer order.
validation means, for validating the coupon with respect to its date and the item to which it pertains; and means for automatically applying a discount to the customer order.
21. A system as set forth in claim 20 wherein the validation means includes:
means for comparing the date of coupon presentation with an expiration date to determine the date validity of the coupon;
means for retrieving a coupon deal record specified by a coupon look-up number on the coupon;
and means for comparing the manufacturer's code and product family group code in the retrieved coupon deal record, with corresponding fields associated with each purchased item, to find a match required to validate the coupon.
means for comparing the date of coupon presentation with an expiration date to determine the date validity of the coupon;
means for retrieving a coupon deal record specified by a coupon look-up number on the coupon;
and means for comparing the manufacturer's code and product family group code in the retrieved coupon deal record, with corresponding fields associated with each purchased item, to find a match required to validate the coupon.
22. A system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the means for comparing the coupon date includes:
means for storing an absolute coupon expiration date in the coupon deal record, for comparison with the date of presentation of the coupon; and alternative expiration date means, for storing a coupon validity period in the coupon deal record, for use in deriving the coupon expiration date from the date of coupon printing.
means for storing an absolute coupon expiration date in the coupon deal record, for comparison with the date of presentation of the coupon; and alternative expiration date means, for storing a coupon validity period in the coupon deal record, for use in deriving the coupon expiration date from the date of coupon printing.
23. A system as et forth in claim 17, and further including:
means for optionally initiating printing of another coupon different from the one presented for redemption.
means for optionally initiating printing of another coupon different from the one presented for redemption.
24. For use in a retail store point-of-sale system having a plurality of terminals at customer checkout locations, each with means for reading product codes on purchased items in a customer order, and a store controller with which the terminals an communicate, the store controller having access to an item record file containing price and other information for each product item, a method for printing a redeemable coupon solely in response to the purchase of a competitive item, the method comprising the steps of:
preselecting a discountable product for which a discount coupon is to be printed;
preselecting at least one competitive triggering product, the purchase of which is intended to initiate printing of the discount coupon;
storing the terms of at least one coupon deal relating to the discount coupon to be printed;
identifying the triggering product in the customer order;
associating the triggering product with the previously stored terms of the coupon deal; and automatically printing at least one discount coupon for the discountable product, based on the details of the coupon deal and without the intervention or participatlon of the customer other than in purchasing the triggering product.
preselecting a discountable product for which a discount coupon is to be printed;
preselecting at least one competitive triggering product, the purchase of which is intended to initiate printing of the discount coupon;
storing the terms of at least one coupon deal relating to the discount coupon to be printed;
identifying the triggering product in the customer order;
associating the triggering product with the previously stored terms of the coupon deal; and automatically printing at least one discount coupon for the discountable product, based on the details of the coupon deal and without the intervention or participatlon of the customer other than in purchasing the triggering product.
25. A method as set forth in claim 24, wherein:
the step of identifying the triggering product includes retrieving a trigger field in each record of the item record file.
the step of identifying the triggering product includes retrieving a trigger field in each record of the item record file.
26. A method as set forth in claim 25, wherein the step of associating the triggering product with the coupon deal includes:
accessing a coupon look-up file located with the store controller by means of an item number access key, wherein each record of the coupon look-up file contains details of a coupon discount deal.
accessing a coupon look-up file located with the store controller by means of an item number access key, wherein each record of the coupon look-up file contains details of a coupon discount deal.
27. A method as set forth in claim 26, wherein the step of accessing the coupon look-up file includes:
first retrieving a coupon index record in the file, by means of an item number access key, the coupon index record containing at least one coupon look-up number providing access to a coupon deal record; and then accessing a coupon deal record by means of the coupon look-up number obtained form the coupon index record, wherein each coupon deal record contains details of a corresponding coupon deal.
first retrieving a coupon index record in the file, by means of an item number access key, the coupon index record containing at least one coupon look-up number providing access to a coupon deal record; and then accessing a coupon deal record by means of the coupon look-up number obtained form the coupon index record, wherein each coupon deal record contains details of a corresponding coupon deal.
28. A method as set forth in claim 27, wherein the step of automatically printing a coupon includes:
extracting from the coupon deal record the coupon deal information, including expiration date, discount amount, and a customer message;
printing this coupon deal information on the coupon; and updating an activity count stored in the coupon deal record.
extracting from the coupon deal record the coupon deal information, including expiration date, discount amount, and a customer message;
printing this coupon deal information on the coupon; and updating an activity count stored in the coupon deal record.
29. A method as set forth in claim 24, and further including:
redeeming a coupon printed by the step of automatically printing.
redeeming a coupon printed by the step of automatically printing.
30. A method as set forth in claim 29, wherein the step of redeeming the coupon includes:
validating the coupon with respect to its date and the item to which it pertains; and automatically applying a discount to the customer order.
validating the coupon with respect to its date and the item to which it pertains; and automatically applying a discount to the customer order.
31. A method as set forth in claim 30, wherein the validating step includes:
comparing the date of coupon presentation with an expiration date to determine the date validity of the coupon;
retrieving a coupon deal record specified by a coupon look-up number on the coupon; and comparing the manufacturer's code and product family group code in the retrieved coupon deal record, with corresponding fields associated with each purchased item, to find a match required to validate the coupon.
comparing the date of coupon presentation with an expiration date to determine the date validity of the coupon;
retrieving a coupon deal record specified by a coupon look-up number on the coupon; and comparing the manufacturer's code and product family group code in the retrieved coupon deal record, with corresponding fields associated with each purchased item, to find a match required to validate the coupon.
32. A method as set forth in claim 31, wherein the step of comparing the coupon date includes:
storing an absolute coupon expiration date in the coupon deal record, for comparison with the date of presentation of the coupon; and optionally storing a coupon validity period in the coupon deal record, for use in deriving the coupon expiration date from the date of coupon print-ing.
storing an absolute coupon expiration date in the coupon deal record, for comparison with the date of presentation of the coupon; and optionally storing a coupon validity period in the coupon deal record, for use in deriving the coupon expiration date from the date of coupon print-ing.
33. A method as set forth in claim 31, and further including:
detecting a continuity coupon identifier in the coupon deal record of a validated coupon presented for redemption; and in response to the detection of a continuity coupon identifier, printing coupon for another product.
detecting a continuity coupon identifier in the coupon deal record of a validated coupon presented for redemption; and in response to the detection of a continuity coupon identifier, printing coupon for another product.
34. A method as set forth in claim 29, and further including:
creating a log record of each printing step and each redeeming step.
creating a log record of each printing step and each redeeming step.
35. A method as set forth in claim 24, wherein:
the step of automatically printing includes printing a portion of the coupon in optically scan-nable bar-code form.
the step of automatically printing includes printing a portion of the coupon in optically scan-nable bar-code form.
36. A method as set forth in claim 24, wherein the step of automatically printing includes:
printing high-priority coupons during a sales transaction; and printing low-priority coupons only after a preselected point is reached in the sales transac-tion.
printing high-priority coupons during a sales transaction; and printing low-priority coupons only after a preselected point is reached in the sales transac-tion.
37. A method as set forth in claim 24, wherein the step of automatically printing includes:
printing a code identifying the triggering product.
printing a code identifying the triggering product.
38. A method as set forth in claim 24, and further including:
inhibiting coupon printing based on the occurrence of any of a number of preselectable condi-tions.
inhibiting coupon printing based on the occurrence of any of a number of preselectable condi-tions.
39. A method as set forth in claim 38, wherein the inhibiting step includes:
inhibiting coupon printing at selected terminals and by selected products.
inhibiting coupon printing at selected terminals and by selected products.
40. A method as set forth in claim 38, wherein the inhibiting step includes:
inhibiting coupon printing if a minimum pur-chase total is not reached.
inhibiting coupon printing if a minimum pur-chase total is not reached.
41. A method as set forth in claim 38, wherein the inhibiting step includes:
inhibiting printing if a maximum coupon count is reached.
inhibiting printing if a maximum coupon count is reached.
42. A method as set forth in claim 24, and further including:
initiating printing of a default coupon if no other coupons are created in the transaction.
initiating printing of a default coupon if no other coupons are created in the transaction.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000490267A CA1234631A (en) | 1985-09-09 | 1985-09-09 | Method and apparatus for dispensing discount coupons |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000490267A CA1234631A (en) | 1985-09-09 | 1985-09-09 | Method and apparatus for dispensing discount coupons |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1234631A true CA1234631A (en) | 1988-03-29 |
Family
ID=4131347
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000490267A Expired CA1234631A (en) | 1985-09-09 | 1985-09-09 | Method and apparatus for dispensing discount coupons |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1234631A (en) |
-
1985
- 1985-09-09 CA CA000490267A patent/CA1234631A/en not_active Expired
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| Date | Code | Title | Description |
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| MKEX | Expiry |