WO2001025990A1

WO2001025990A1 - Virtual marketing office using the world wide web

Info

Publication number: WO2001025990A1
Application number: PCT/US2000/026001
Authority: WO
Inventors: Edison Tack-Shuen Tse; Sunyih Juang; Jin Jiang; Hsu-Jong Tang
Original assignee: Stanford Global Link Corporation
Priority date: 1999-10-01
Filing date: 2000-09-21
Publication date: 2001-04-12
Also published as: WO2001025990A9; AU1070801A

Abstract

A virtual marketing office (22) wherein two companies using different communications formats may communicate with each other. For example, a company without technology access and without a Web presence may interact with and sell products to customers with different communication methods.

Description

VIRTUAL MARKETING OFFICE USING THE WORLD WIDE WEB

Background of the Invention This invention relates generally to a system and method for permitting an entity to have a presence on and sell products using the World Wide Web without any connection to the World Wide Web (the "Web").

In the world of companies selling products, there are companies which make use of e-commerce and companies that do not make use of e-commerce. Similarly, there are companies that make use of the Web to advertise their products and those that do not use the Web. The companies that do not have or use technology today are rapidly falling behind those companies that do have and use technology for e-commerce and product marketing. Often, those companies that do not use technology and the Internet to sell and advertise products do not have the necessary technology infrastructure or cannot get access to the necessary technology (i.e., it is difficult for the company to get Internet access because of the geographic location of the company). In other words, these companies do not have a presence on the Web and therefore are losing business to other competitors who have harnessed the Web as a business and advertising tool. Thus, it is desirable to provide these companies that do not have a Web presence with a way to establish a Web presence in a cost effective, rapid manner. Thus, it is desirable to provide a virtual marketing office using the World Wide

Web and it is to the end that the present invention is directed.

Summary of the Invention The virtual marketing office in accordance with the invention permits a company without a Web presence and without Web access to establish a virtual Web presence so that it can take advantage of the benefits of Web-based advertising and e-commerce. To accomplish the virtual Web presence, the system may convert between traditional message formats (e.g., facsimile and phone messages) and newer electronic messages (e.g., e-mail or Web-based messages) so that the company may appear to be connected to the Web. In particular, the company may have the system send out facsimile broadcast or e-mail message on behalf of the company to target customers and permit any responses to these messages to be directed to the customer through the system. Thus, the virtual Web presence system operates transparently so that the customers of the company believe that the company has a Web presence. The system may also host a Web page for the company and forward any leads generated by the Web page directly to the company and then the company may respond to the lead directly. Once again, the virtual Web presence system in accordance with the invention may be transparent to the people accessing the Web page.

Thus, in accordance with the invention, a virtual marketing system for connecting a product supplier to a product customer is provided wherein the supplier and the customer communicating using messages having different formats. The system comprises means for storing a customer profile generated by a supplier that identifies target customers, means for generating a message to the target customers based on the customer profile, the message being in a first format, means for receiving a response from the target customer, the response being in a second format, and means for converting the second format into the first format so that the supplier may communicate with the customer despite different message formats.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method for providing a Web presence to a supplier is provided. The method comprises receiving a message from a customer of the supplier in a first message format, determining the selected message format for the supplier, and converting the message from the customer to the selected message format of the supplier so that the supplier communicates with the customer despite different message formats.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a virtual marketing office system in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating more details of the virtual marketing office in accordance with the invention; Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating a method for permitting a phone-based supplier to initiate a product marketing request in accordance with the invention;

Figure 4 is a block diagram illustrating a method for permitting a Web-based supplier to initiate a product marketing request in accordance with the invention; and Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for connecting a Web-based customer with a phone-based company in accordance with the invention.

Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment The invention is particularly applicable to a virtual marketing system using the World Wide Web and it is in this context that the invention will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that the system and method in accordance with the invention has greater utility since it may be used with other communication networks and systems.

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a virtual marketing office system 20 in accordance with the invention. The system may include a virtual marketing office 22 in accordance with the invention which permits a product supplier company 24 that does not have any Web presence to effectively use the Web and other electronic means to market and sell products to one or more target customers 26 and one or more casual customers 28. A target customer may be someone that the supplier 24 is specifically targeting due to past experiences and/or knowledge about the customer whereas the casual customers 28 may be customers who happen to find the Web page of the supplier being hosted by the virtual marketing office (by performing a search on the Web, for example) and then expresses an interest in a product based on the Web page.

Thus, the virtual marketing office 22 in accordance with the invention permits the supplier 24, that does not have Web access or a Web presence (e.g., no Web page and no e-mail access), to attract both target customers and causal customers using the World Wide Web, facsimile messages and e-mails as will be described in more detail below. In accordance with the invention, the virtual marketing office 22 may communicate with the customers 26, 28 by various different means, such as over the Internet by downloading one or more Web pages, via facsimile or via telephone. Thus, the virtual marketing office 22 may include a Web server 30 for hosting one or more Web pages and a local facsimile number. In accordance with the invention, there may be a virtual marketing office 22 in a plurality of different locations, such as different countries, so that the customers being contacted by the virtual marketing office may respond using a local facsimile number. For purposes of illustration, however, only a single virtual marketing office is shown.

The virtual marketing office 22 may further include a Web server 30 for hosting one or more individual Web sites for the companies 24 who are customers of the virtual marketing office (only one is shown in the drawing for illustration purposes) and an intelligent database 32 for keeping track of the customers of the supplier and the messages being transmitted between the virtual marketing office, the customers and the suppliers. In accordance with the invention, the supplier 24 may generate a customer profile 33 of the desired customers that is then transmitted to the virtual marketing office 22 by any typical means such as by e-mail, over the phone or via facsimile. The customer profile is stored in the intelligent database 32. The intelligent database, based on responses from one or more customers, may transmit any leads 34 back to the supplier (containing information about the customers that have an interest in a product of the supplier) by any typical means such as via facsimile in this example since the supplier does not have access to e-mail. The supplier may then respond to the leads generated by the virtual marketing office so that the virtual marketing office may generate additional leads for the supplier in accordance with the invention using the Web and other typical communications mediums such as a facsimile message, not ordinarily available to the supplier 24.

Based on the customer profile provided by the supplier 24, the intelligent database 32 may match the profile to one or more customers contained in the database and generate one or more facsimile broadcast messages 36 that are directed to particular target customers 26 and provide the target customers 26 with information about a product of the supplier that may be of interest to the target customer based on the customer profile provided by the supplier. The facsimile broadcast messages 36 may provide each target customer 26 with a response mechanism that may include, for example, a local facsimile response number or the uniform resource locator (URL) for a Web site such as the Web site hosted by the Web server 30. If the target customer responds via facsimile, then the virtual marketing office may redirect the incoming local facsimile message to the supplier 24 so that the supplier receives a copy of that facsimile message expressing interest in the product. Now, the matching of the customer profile to the target customer will be briefly described.

In accordance with the invention, there may be three different matching methods to match a supplier to a customer. Those matching methods may include profile matching, content matching and concept matching. Each of these matching methods in accordance with the invention will now be described in more detail. During profile matching, the customers are registered customers (e.g., members) of the virtual marketing office. During the membership registration, the members may establish a profile indicating, among other things, their favorite product categories. For example, the member could be the supplier and/or the product customer and may be required to register his favorite product categories (e.g., both in the buy and the sell categories) with the virtual marketing office. The product categories that may be selected by the members are predefined by the virtual marketing office. When the supplier posts a sell or a buy product lead, the supplier will choose a category or categories for the product being sold or bought that may be the best way to categorize the product. Once the supplier submits the lead information (including the product category), the lead information may be automatically distributed to the system members who subscribe to product categories that match the categories containing in the lead information.

As described above, the lead information may be distributed by facsimile, e-mail or the Web, depending on the member's requirement. In addition to specifying the delivery mechanism, the member may also specify the time schedule to receive the lead information. For example, a member ("A") can specify "Electronic Device" as his favorite product category. When a supplier (e.g., a member that is posting products to sell) issues a sell item for selling computer monitors, the supplier would be notified of the member's post in the "Electronic Device" category. Once the post is done, this information will be automatically forwarded to member A since member A has a matched profile with the posted item. Member A may then identify the method of receiving the information by e-mail, facsimile, or the Web. In the current embodiment of the system, approximately 500 product categories exist, but the number of product categories may increase.

During content matching, the objective is to match the supplier's interested content with all of the system's members' corporate information and product database. Content matching is different from profile matching since profile matching is based on the predefined product category. In the content matching, the supplier may provide the content for matching. Then, the content will go through system's searching engine to match any content in system's corporate database and corporate Web sites. In this method, the match does not require an exact match and it may therefore by a partial match. For example, we take the previous example of selling a monitor. In this case, the system's search engine will go through the system's corporate database to search all of the members' Web sites and product information to find any company's product description or interest matching the content key word "monitor" in this example. A concept match is the broadest match since the match is based on the concept of the industrial knowledge. In other words, the match is based on the business objective to find the matching partners. The concept would be based on a set of conditions. For example, a supplier may want to find companies that satisfy one or more conditions, that may include for example located in certain countries, with capital greater than a certain amount, in certain industries, etc. Based on these conditions, the system may perform a concept matching against the system's database with all its members and corporate database to find matching companies. In any of the above matching methods, the result will be presented in an electronic or printed form depending on the customer's need. Also, the information delivered to those matched companies can be via e-mail, fax, or Web.

If the target customers respond by visiting the Web site using the URL on the Web server 30, the Web server 30 may provide lead information 38 to the database 32 that will then forward the lead information onto the supplier via facsimile in this example. In addition, the Web server 30 may also provide facsimile on demand information 40 to the target customer 26 and then forward the information about the target customer through the database 32 to the supplier. In this manner, the virtual marketing office 22 ensures that the target customer has one or more different methods (facsimile, phone or Web site) for responding to the product information. The virtual marketing office also ensures that all leads generated by the virtual marketing office are forwarded to the supplier by whatever necessary communications method, such as facsimile if the supplier does not have e-mail.

In addition to the targeted customers 26 identified based on the database 32, the virtual marketing office 22 also permits casual customers 28 to view the product information of the supplier using the Web site hosted by the Web server 30. In particular, the casual customer 28 may locate the Web site by various different methods, such as by performing a Web search 42, and may view the Web pages of the Web site using a typical Web browser software application. Based on the information contained in the Web pages of the Web site, the casual customer 28 may indicate an interest in a particular product and the Web server 30 may 1) provide electronic information to the casual customer and forward the lead information 38 to the database 32 and onto the supplier; or 2) in response to a facsimile on demand inquiry 44, transmit facsimile information to the casual customer and provide the lead information to the database.

In summary, the virtual marketing office provides the supplier with a Web presence (the Web site with the Web pages on the Web server 30) and one or more different methods for contacting and receiving a response form both customers and casual customers using the Web, via facsimile, via telephone or via e-mail even if the supplier does not have the capability to handle all of the types of messages. To accomplish this, the virtual marketing office 22 may include other elements as will now be described. Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating more details of the virtual marketing office 22 in accordance with the invention. The virtual marketing office 22 may include a buy/sell portal 50, a Web hosting for fax-based companies system 52, a Web hosting for Web based companies system 54 and a unified messaging platform 56. The buy/sell portal 50 may be an e-commerce server that handles the buying and/or selling transactions of the supplier's products including various e-commerce functions. The Web hosting systems 52, 54 permit the system to host a Web site for both Web-based and facsimile-based suppliers in accordance with the invention. In particular, both Web-based companies and facsimile-based companies may take advantage of the virtual marketing office using whatever communications means are available to the supplier. For example, the Web hosting for a facsimile company may permit customers to interact with the virtual marketing office over the Web but then pass all information onto the supplier in the form of facsimile messages. The unified messaging platform 56 may convert messages from one format to another format (e.g., from e-mail to facsimile, from e-mail to voice, from facsimile to e-mail, from facsimile to voice and voice to facsimile or e-mail) so that customers and suppliers using different communication mediums and formats may still communicate with each other. Additional details of the unified messaging system are described in co-pending patent application serial number 09/299,406, filed April 26, 1999 and entitled "MESSAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD" that is owned by the same assignee as the present application and that is incorporated herein by reference. Using the virtual marketing office 22 with the unified messaging platform 56, a facsimile based company 58 may develop a Web presence using the Web hosting system 52 and receive leads from the virtual marketing office using the facsimile as a means of communications even if customers are communicating via other means, such as the Web. Now, a method for a phone-based customer to initiate a product request in accordance with the invention will be described.

Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating a method 60 for permitting a phone- based supplier (a supplier without a Web presence and without access to the Internet) to initiate a marketing request in accordance with the invention. A marketing request initiation supplier 62 may submit a customer profile description 64 in a particular product category and transmit the description 66 to the virtual marketing office over a typical communications link, such as the telephone or via facsimile. In accordance with the invention, the system may post the description in step 68 onto a Web page in the Web hosting systems (See Figure 2) so that casual customers may view the descriptions via e-mail or the Web using the unified messaging system 56 to convert the messages. When a customer asks for more information about the product based on the Web site, the unified messaging system 56 may forward the lead information about that customer to the initiating supplier 62 via facsimile or telephone.

Returning to step 66, when the supplier transmits the description to the virtual marketing office, the virtual marketing office may also, in step 70, match the category specified by the supplier in the profile with companies contained in the database (See figure 1). In step 72, the virtual marketing office may transmit a broadcast facsimile message to the companies that match the description from the supplier (the target customers) and provide the customers with a facsimile or Web address for responding to the broadcast facsimile message. If the target customers respond via voice or facsimile, the message is routed directly back to the supplier for a response. If the target customer responds using the Web site or e-mail, then the message from the target customer is converted into a facsimile or phone message by the unified messaging system 56 and transmitted to the supplier so that the supplier may respond to the message. Thus, a supplier, that does not have any Web presence or access to the Web, may make use of the Web and other communications mediums (facsimile) to sell products using the virtual marketing office in accordance with the invention wherein the messages to the supplier are converted into an appropriate format (phone or facsimile in this example) so that the supplier is able to communicate with the customers and leads developed by the virtual marketing office. Now, a method for permitting a Web based supplier to initiate a marketing request will be described.

Figure 4 is a block diagram illustrating a method 80 for permitting a Web based supplier to initiate a marketing request in accordance with the invention. A marketing request initiation supplier 82 may access the virtual marketing office portal (Web page) in step 84 and submit a customer profile product category 86 to the virtual marketing office over a typical communications link, such as the Web. In accordance with the invention, the system may post the description in step 88 onto a Web page in the Web hosting systems (See Figure 2) so that casual customers may view the descriptions and generate a response via-e-mail or the Web using the unified messaging system 56 to convert the messages. In particular, when a customer asks for more information about the product based on the Web site, the unified messaging system 56 may forward the lead information about that customer to the initiating supplier 62 via a format requested by the supplier. These formats may include facsimile, telephone, e-mail or a Web page.

Returning to step 86, when the supplier transmits the description to the virtual marketing office, the virtual marketing office may also, in step 90, match the category specified by the supplier with companies contained in the database (See Figure 1). In step 92, the virtual marketing office may transmit a broadcast facsimile message to the companies that match the description from the supplier (the target customers) and provide the customers with a facsimile number for responding to the broadcast facsimile message. When, if the target customers respond via facsimile, the message is converted into the appropriate format by the unified messaging system 56 as requested by the supplier (facsimile, voice, e-mail or Web page) and then routed directly back to the supplier for a response. Thus, a supplier with a Web presence may make use of the Web and other communications mediums (facsimile) to sell products using the virtual marketing office in accordance with the invention wherein the messages to the supplier are converted into an appropriate format (phone, e-mail, facsimile or a Web page in this example) so that the supplier is able to communicate with the customers and leads developed by the virtual marketing office. Now, a method for connecting a Web based supplier with a phone-based supplier in accordance with the invention will be described. Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method 100 for connecting a Web-based company with a phone-based company in accordance with the invention. In step 102, the Web-based company generates an e-mail message that is placed in a mailbox and then forwarded to the virtual marketing office's database in step 104. In step 106, the virtual marketing office (the unified messaging system in particular) may determine how the second user (voice-based company) would like to receive the message. In this example, the second user has the options to receive a facsimile or a voice message only although other choices may be available to other users. If the second user elects to receive a facsimile message, then in step 108, the unified messaging system converts the original e-mail message into a facsimile message. In step 110, the system sends the generated facsimile message to the designated facsimile number. In step 112, the second phone-based user responds to the facsimile by sending a response to the response facsimile number. In step 114, the system converts the reply facsimile message into an e-mail message and then forwards the e-mail reply back to the Web- based company in step 116. Thus, the Web based company and phone-facsimile based company may communicate with each other in accordance with the invention. Returning to step 106, if the second user elects to receive a voice message, the system may convert the e-mail message into a voice message in step 118 using a computer generated synthesized voice. In step 120, the system may read the e-mail message to the second user and the user may respond by voice in step 122. In step 124, the system may convert the reply voice message into a voice data file. In step 126, the system may forward an e-mail message, with the voice data file attached, to the Web- based company. In this manner, a Web-based company and a phone-based company are able to communicate with each other using different communications mediums since the virtual marketing office in accordance with the invention converts transparently between the various different message formats. While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

Claims:

1. A virtual marketing system for connecting a product supplier to a product customer, the supplier and the customer communicating using messages having different formats, the system comprising:

means for storing a customer profile generated by a supplier that identifies target customers; means for generating a message to the target customers based on the customer profile, the message being in a first format; means for receiving a response from the target customer, the response being in a second format; and means for converting the second format into the first format so that the supplier may communicate with the customer despite different message formats.

2. The system of claim 1 further compromising means for maintaining a Web site for the supplier so that a customer visits the Web site and means for generating a lead from the customer's visit to the Web site.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the message compromises a Web page.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the message compromises a broadcast facsimile message.

5. A method of providing a Web presence to a supplier, comprising: receiving a message from a customer of the supplier in a first message format; determining the selected message format for the supplier; and converting the message from the customer to the selected message format of the supplier so that the supplier communicates with the customer despite different message formats.