US 2006/0190343 A1Published application

Method of marketing memberships in a consumer group

AssigneeWord of Mouth Marketing, Inc.

InventorMerle Cooper

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Abstract

An organization is presented that includes members of a consumer group. A facilitator coordinates and issues memberships in the organization. The facilitator negotiates with suppliers for favorable deals for members of the organization. The memberships are sold primarily by existing members. For each membership sold, a facilitator fee is paid to the facilitator, and a commission is paid to one of the members. A tree-like logic structure is used to determine which member is entitled to the commission. The first specified number of membership sales made by a member are qualifying sales for which the commission is paid to the member at the top of the tree. For all sales after the specified number, the member becomes the top member of a new tree and is entitled to all commissions from qualifying sales of all progeny.

Claims2

Dependent claims

A method of marketing memberships in an organization, the method comprising:

selling a membership in the organization to an initial member;
permitting that initial member to sell memberships in the organization to subsequent members in exchange for payment of a membership fee by each subsequent member;
dividing each membership fee into a facilitator fee and a commission, and retaining the facilitator fee and paying out the commission fee to a deserving member;
and
determining the deserving member through use of a tree-like logic structure whereby the first specified number of sales by a member are qualifying sales, for which the deserving member is the member at the top of the tree-like logic structure and further whereby sales after the specified number are commission sales for which the deserving member is the member who made the sale, and furthermore, whereby for all sales after the specified number, the member making the sale becomes the member at the top of a new tree structure.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.