JP2003256607A - Commodity and the like sales method using computer network and affiliate advertisement effect measuring method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make comparable advertisement effect of every medium by using a success reward type commission payment method in an affiliate program through the conventional advertising medium such as an advertisement carried on a publication and tie-up advertisement. <P>SOLUTION: This affiliate advertisement effect measuring method includes a step of writing commodity advertisement carrying an identification sign varying with every advertising medium for an advertising medium such as a magazine, a step of transmitting a file of Web page necessary for application of purchase to a customer terminal on condition that the identification sign is received from the customer terminal in a Web server connected to a network and recording sales information in connection with the identification sign or the corresponding advertising medium when application of purchase is received from the customer terminal, and a step of accumulating the recorded sales information for every identification sign or every corresponding advertising medium. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product sales method and a publicity effect measuring method capable of measuring the advertising effect of an affiliate program such as a magazine advertisement, and a printed matter, an advertising effect measuring device and a program used for implementing the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a means for advertising a product, methods such as introducing a new product in a commercially available magazine and advertising a company tie-up are generally used. In order to combine various media and perform an optimal advertisement according to the characteristics of each product, it is necessary to measure the advertising effect of each media and allocate the budget effectively. However, it is difficult to accurately measure the effect of each medium because it is not possible to know which medium the purchaser went through when using a plurality of advertising mediums by a normal sales method.

With the recent spread of PCs and communication devices to general consumers, virtual stores have been built on servers connected to the Internet, and electronic data exchange allows customers to order products and reserve services from PCs. Businesses that accept customers are flourishing (these virtual stores are called shopping sites.) Since shopping sites on the Internet need to encourage active access by consumers,
Affiliate programs have become popular as a means of sales promotion. Affiliate program is a linking program between Internet sites, which displays images and characters (called banner advertisements) that link to its own site on the display screen of Internet sites such as portals that consumers often access, and consumes them. We expect the effect of attracting customers by visiting the company's site by clicking the banner advertisement of the partner site with the mouse. In such affiliate programs, there is a case where a success fee type commission payment linked to the advertising effect is paid.

[0004] For example, when a customer clicks on a banner advertisement on a partner site, an ID for identifying the banner advertisement.
The banner advertisement has a function of adding the link information to the link information and transmitting the link information in advance. On the store side, the ID received from the customer terminal is recorded in the database in association with the sales information, and if the amount of sales that goes through the affiliated site is automatically added up, the fee linked to the sales can be set without any trouble. Since it is possible to pay, it is convenient for the store without having to evaluate in advance whether the advertisement fee is high or low. By implementing such a program, it is possible to measure the advertising effectiveness of each affiliated site.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In order to use the above-described success-reward-type fee payment system for an affiliate program via a conventional advertisement medium such as advertisement placement in a publication or tie-up advertisement, The problem is how to send the information for identifying the medium to the shopping site. For example, it is conceivable that a purchaser may enter an advertising medium by providing a dedicated input field on the Web page of the shopping site. However, if the number of customers increases by inputting the medium ID, the customer is separated and the sales of the shopping site increase. May reduce itself. However, if the medium ID is arbitrarily input, a sufficient response rate cannot be expected.

[0006] On the other hand, from the aspect of sales promotion of magazines and the like that are affiliated companies, it is preferable that the products seen in the magazine advertisement can be easily ordered using a mobile phone or the like. If the sales promotion effect of the magazine is recognized, it can be expected that the advertising fee will be optimized.

Therefore, the present invention is easy to use regardless of the type of customer terminal, and a method for selling goods etc. and an advertisement effect measuring method that allows the customer to easily collect information for specifying the advertising medium that the customer has passed through on a shopping site. The purpose is to provide a method.

[0008]

The invention according to claim 1 is
A web page required for a purchase application on the condition that a product advertisement in which an identification code different for each advertisement medium is described is placed on an advertisement medium such as a magazine, and the web server connected to the network receives the identification symbol from the customer terminal. Transmitting the page file to the customer terminal and recording the sales information in association with the identification symbol or the corresponding advertisement medium when the purchase application is received; and the recorded sales information for each identification symbol or the corresponding advertisement. The above-mentioned problems are solved by a method for selling products and the like and a method for measuring affiliate advertising effectiveness, which have a step of totaling for each medium.

The inventions according to claims 2 to 4 are a printed matter, an advertising effect measuring device and a computer program for carrying out the method for selling goods etc. and the method for measuring an affiliate advertising effect according to claim 1.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the number or the symbol is used as the identification symbol so that it is particularly easy to input from the numeric keyboard of the mobile phone terminal of the customer.
In the invention according to claim 6, the identification symbol is a URL that can call a different web page file for each advertising medium, so that the customer does not have to input the identification symbol again after connecting to the shopping site. .

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, a method for measuring an affiliate advertisement effect in a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the affiliate advertisement effect measuring method of the present invention. Shopping site 1 for accepting purchase applications for product sales
Reference numeral 0 has a Web server 101 that is constantly connected to a computer network such as the Internet. In the present embodiment, the web server 101 corresponds to the advertisement effect measuring device. A customer can connect to the Internet with a customer terminal 20 such as a personal computer or a mobile phone having an Internet connection function and a Web browsing function.

A database device 102 that manages various databases is also installed at the shopping site 10 and is connected to the Web server 101. An order database 102a for storing order information in the database,
An advertisement database 102b having a comparison table in which the identification symbols to be attached to the advertisement are stored in association with the product identification information (ID) and the advertisement medium ID is included. The database device 102 may further include a product database that stores product information such as product prices and images in association with product IDs.

FIG. 2 shows an example of advertisements placed in magazines and distributed publications in the affiliate program. A product (clock) is introduced in the advertisement 30. A product search information display field 301 is provided near the product introduction article of the advertisement 30. The display field 301 is a URL (Uniform Res) for connecting to the shopping site from the customer terminal.
(Source Locator) 302, an identification symbol 303 attached to each product, and necessary headings such as “URL” and “product number”. The URL specifies only the Web server name of the shopping site in this embodiment, but may specify a specific page in the shopping site 10 together with the Web server name. Further, if the method of connecting to the shopping site is well known in advance or is clear from the entire article, the URL display column may not be provided.

In the present embodiment, the identification symbol 303 is a unique number used only for the product and the advertisement medium, and is the same as that previously stored in the advertisement database 102b of the shopping site. FIG. 3 shows the flow of data through the advertising medium, showing two advertising media A,
Assuming that B exists, the advertisements for the products A and B are posted on the advertising medium A, and only the advertisement for the product A is posted on the advertising medium B, the combination of the advertising medium and the product A × A ，
Individual identification symbols are given to each of A × B and B × A. The same identification symbol may be used repeatedly when the content is submitted to the same medium multiple times. If the identification symbol 303 is a numeral (product number) as in this embodiment, there is an advantage that it can be easily input even from a mobile phone terminal.

A customer who looks at the advertisement 20 and thinks about the purchase of a product first inputs the URL into his or her customer terminal 20 by a predetermined method to connect to the shopping site 10 on the Internet. The Web server of the shopping site 10 creates a file of the first Web page (top page) suitable for the type of the customer terminal 20 by a prestored program and sends it to the customer terminal 20. FIG. 5 shows an example of the top page 40 that is first called when the customer connects to the shopping site using the Web browser of the personal computer. The top page 40 is edited so that information related to products handled by the shopping site, general articles, special features, etc. are displayed on the top page 40 as a reference for product purchase, and updated as needed to attract the interest of customers. .

The top page 40 is also provided with a product search form 401 having an identification symbol input field 401a, a product genre input field 401b, and a search button 401c. When the customer inputs the identification symbol 303 displayed in the advertisement 30 into the input field 401a and clicks the search button 401c with the mouse, the web browser displays the search program name and the identification symbol 3 previously described in the web page file.
Web server 1 by creating a search request containing the code 03
Send to 01. The product genre input field 401b is not related to the present invention, and therefore its explanation is omitted.

When the Web server 101 receives the search request from the customer terminal 20, the Web server 101 activates the specified search program. The search program receives the identification symbol 303 included in the search request, and extracts the product ID of the record (there is only one record) whose stored identification symbol value is the same as the input identification symbol 303 from the advertisement database 102b. Then, the price and appearance photograph of the corresponding product are retrieved from the product database 102c to generate a file of the individual product introduction page 50, and the file is transmitted to the customer terminal 20. This single item introduction page 50 has an identification symbol (or corresponding medium I).
D) is included.

As described above, the customer can directly access the page introducing the corresponding product from the TOP screen of the Internet site of the PC and the mobile phone by the product number described in the advertisement. The information required to access this page is only published in linked magazines, and the single item introduction page 50 with the product identification number can be called only via the advertising medium indicated by the medium ID.

Further, as another method for identifying the access route to the single item introduction page 50, a dedicated Web page prepared for a specific advertisement medium is provided, and the URL for connecting to the page is used as an identification symbol for advertisement. 30 may be described. If the URL required to access the page is published only in the collaborative magazine or the like, the access route can be limited in the same manner as above.

An example of the single item introduction page 50 displayed on the screen of the customer terminal 20 is shown in FIG. On the single item introduction page 50, in addition to the basic information (price, manufacturer name, release date, inventory information, etc.) of the product, which is necessary when making a purchase decision for the product, a quantity input field 501 and a product selection button 502 are displayed. ing. Further, the file of the individual item introduction page 50 describes the product ID and the medium ID. When the customer inputs the quantity in the input field 501 and clicks the product selection button 502 with the mouse, the medium ID, the product ID and the quantity are We.
b is transmitted to the server 101. In this embodiment, a known "shopping cart" function is used to allow a customer to purchase a plurality of products at one time, and these pieces of information are specifically sent as an addition request to the shopping cart.

The processing program called by the addition request receives the merchandise ID and the medium ID, adds them to the merchandise list, and transmits a "basket screen" file containing these information to the customer terminal 20. The basket screen 60 is a We for temporarily holding information of the product selected to be purchased.
Page b, product IDs of all selected products, medium I
D and quantity are included. Figure 7: Basket screen 60
Is a display image of the selection content description portion 601, a button 602 for continuing the selection, and a purchase application button 60.
Have three. The selection description section 601 is for the customer to confirm the product name, quantity, payment method, payment method, unit price, payment amount, etc. of the product selected by the customer, and the payment method, the payment method, the quantity, etc. different from the display. If desired, an input field 601a for correcting the display content is provided.

When the customer selects all the products, confirms the selections, and clicks the purchase application button 603 on the basket screen 60 with the mouse, the product IDs, medium IDs, and purchase quantities of all the selected products are confirmed. A purchase application including information such as a payment method is generated and transmitted to the Web server 101. At this time, the identification symbol or medium ID included in the file of the Web page being displayed is also transmitted.
The Web server 101 decodes the purchase application, stores the data necessary for settlement and delivery in the order database, and associates information such as the product ID, sales amount, and quantity in a predetermined file with the purchase quantity or medium ID. Record (Affiliate Master Log). Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the sales information indicating that the information of the specific medium A / product A among the advertised products is passed is accumulated as the contents of the log.

The shopping site 10 may be provided with a member authentication screen and a purchase content confirmation screen if necessary.
In addition, since a technique for reducing the number of input operations by the customer is used as necessary, the communication procedure may be different.
In short, in the present invention, the file of the dedicated Web page is transmitted to the customer terminal 20 on condition that the identification symbol described in the advertising medium is transmitted from the customer terminal 20 to the Web server 101 at least once, and the sales information received by the server is It is characterized in that it includes a step of being recorded in association with an identification symbol or a medium ID.

The computer of the shopping site 10 periodically uses the affiliate master log to automatically collect the sales quantity, the amount of money, etc. for each identification symbol or each advertising medium and product. The administrator of the shopping site 10 accurately grasps the sales information of the actual purchase from the associated advertising medium by calculating the sales amount through the specific medium in the total sales, and links it with the payment of the commission. be able to. Further, when a plurality of media are used, the advertising effects of each media can be compared with each other. For example, in FIG.
In the process, the advertising effect can be compared by comparing the sales amounts of the medium A and the medium B for the product A.

In the advertisement effect measuring method of the present invention, the merchandise to be measured may be only a part of the merchandise posted in the advertisement. In addition, in order to measure the advertising effectiveness, in addition to the products that should be advertised, special products that everyone wants may be added.

In the above embodiment, the terminal owned by the customer was used to connect to the shopping site on the Internet. However, the terminal connected to the shop and the communication network of the shop network were used to connect to the Web server 101. It is also possible to do it. Normally, these terminals are set to connect directly to the shopping site, so customers can reach the target single-item page by simply entering the identification code written in the advertisement in the search input field and searching. It is possible to connect more easily than entering a URL on this terminal. Also, by installing a terminal near a store that sells magazines, etc., many customers can use it, which has a great synergistic effect with the store.

[0028]

[Effects of the Invention] By using the product sales method and the advertisement effect measuring method of the present invention, the sales amount for each advertising medium is regularly aggregated, and a commission such as 3 to 5% of the sales amount is given to affiliates such as publishers. By making a contract to pay, a success-reward type promotion model is possible even in an advertising medium such as a magazine outside the Internet, so that it becomes easy to formulate an advertising plan for each product. In addition, it can be expected that the commercial value of media such as magazines will be increased by the advertisement.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows the contents of a correspondence table of an advertisement database.

FIG. 3 shows the flow of data through an advertising medium.

FIG. 4 shows an example of an affiliate advertisement in an advertisement medium.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a screen image of a TOP page of a shopping site.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a screen image of a single item introduction page of a shopping site.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an image of a basket screen of a shopping site.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 shopping sites 101 Web server 102a Sales database 102b Advertising database 20 customer terminals 30 Advertising media 301 Product search information display column 302 URL display 303 identification symbol 40 TOP pages 401 Search form 401a Identification code input field 401b Product genre input field 401c Search button 50 Single product introduction page 501 Quantity input field 502 Product selection button 60 basket screen 601 Selection details section 602 Selection continue button 603 Purchase application button

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A step of placing a product advertisement in which an identification symbol different for each advertising medium is described on an advertising medium such as a magazine, and a purchase on the condition that the identification symbol is received from a customer terminal in a Web server connected to a network. A step of transmitting the file of the web page required for the application to the customer terminal and recording the sales information in association with the identification symbol or the corresponding advertising medium when the purchase application is received from the customer terminal; And a method for measuring an affiliate advertising effect, including a step of totaling for each identification symbol or each corresponding advertising medium. 2. A printed matter in which an identification symbol used in the method for measuring an affiliate advertisement effect according to claim 1 is described together with a product article. 3. A computer having a network communication function, an advertisement effect measuring device having an advertisement database and an ordering database, wherein a Web required for purchase application is provided on the condition that the computer receives the identification symbol from a customer terminal. The page file is transmitted to the customer terminal, and when the purchase application is received from the customer terminal, the sales information is recorded in association with the identification symbol or the corresponding advertisement medium, and the recorded sales information is associated with each identification symbol or corresponding. An advertising effectiveness measuring device that counts each advertising medium. 4. A computer program for causing a computer connected to a network to function as the advertisement effect measuring device according to claim 3. 5. The merchandise selling device advertisement effect measuring method and printed matter according to claim 1, wherein the identification symbol is a number and a symbol which are different for each advertising medium and each merchandise item. , Advertising effectiveness measuring device or computer program. 6. The W, in which the identification symbol is different for each advertising medium
6. A product sales device, an advertising effect measuring method, a printed matter, an advertising effect measuring device or a computer program according to claim 1, wherein the eb page file is a symbol corresponding to a URL that can be called. .