Systems and methods for providing pre-point-of-sale incentive marketing with pre-printed coupons

Abstract

A system and method for providing incentives within a retail environment involving identifying shopping behavior indicators and providing incentives based on the identified shopping behavior indicators. Shopping behavior indicators comprise information related to a specific customer product selection, the information selected from the group consisting of: product type, name, brand, quantity, grade, price per unit, UPC, weight, source, shelf life and the like. These characteristics are a strong indicator of instantaneous consumer needs and desires. The present invention identifies one or more incentive offers associated with the shopping behavior indicators and provides the identified incentive offer after a customer has selected a specific product package and before the point of sale. The incentive offer may be provided in the form of a coupon that is printed at the time of product selection or preprinted and applied to a product package at any time before customer selection of the product package, including at centralized packaging and distribution facilities..

We claim:  
     
         1 . A system for providing an incentive in a retail store comprising: 
 defining an incentive that is based in part on one or more characteristics of a specific product;    applying the incentive to the specific product;    providing the incentive to a shopper at a point after the shopper has selected the specific product and before a point of sale.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the incentive is printed integrally with a product identification/quantity/pricing label applied to the specific product wherein the label is otherwise used to indicate specific information about the specific product.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the incentive comprises an incentive to buy a product and/or service that complementary to the specific product selected by the shopper.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the selected incentive comprises an incentive to buy a product and/or service that is different from the specific product selected by the customer.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the incentive is printed before customer has selected the specific product from the specialty department location and made available to the shopper after the specific product is selected.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the incentive is provided on a label that is printed at a centralized packaging site and the incentive is based at least in part upon some quantitative and/or qualitative characteristic of the specific product.  
     
     
         7 . A product label for attaching to a package containing a product, the product label comprising: 
 a product information portion; and    a coupon having an incentive offer wherein the incentive offer is chosen based upon at least one characteristic feature of the product contained within the package, wherein the at least one characteristic feature is one that is used by a shopper to select the package.    
     
     
         8 . The product label of  claim 7  wherein the incentive offer is selected to complement the at least one characteristic feature that is sued by the shopper to select the package.  
     
     
         9 . A method for providing an incentive within a retail environment comprising: 
 identifying shopping behavior indicators comprising information related to a specific customer product selection, the information selected from the group consisting of: product type, name, brand, quantity, grade, price per unit, UPC, weight, source, and shelf life;    identifying one or more incentive offers associated with the shopping behavior indicators; and    providing the identified incentive offer after a customer has selected a specific product package and before the point of sale.    
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the information is selected to reveal some aspect of current customer shopping intentions.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the act of providing the incentive is based upon supplemental information in addition to the shopping behavior indicators.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the supplemental information comprises customer shopping history.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the supplemental information comprises previously selected products.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the act of providing the incentive offer comprises printing a coupon in a central packaging location and attaching the printed coupon to the product package.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the specific customer product selection comprises a packaged meat product, and the act of providing the incentive offer comprises printing a coupon in a central meat packaging location and attaching the printed coupon to the product package before the product package is presented to the customer.  
     
     
         16 . A method for implementing a marketing incentive program comprising: 
 within a retail environment, after a product selection has been made but before a product purchase has been completed, providing an incentive coupon based upon the product selection but for goods and/or services different from that of the product selection.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the act of providing an incentive coupon is based upon supplemental information in addition to the product selection.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the supplemental information comprises customer shopping history.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the supplemental information comprises previously selected products  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the supplemental information comprises customer demographics.