US 2016/0104178 A1Published application

Systems and methods for tracking and incentivizing brand, category, and/or industry expertise

OwnerThomas G. Stockhaminventor

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Abstract

Individuals who are interested in products and/or areas of expertise and who have a certain influence with others in that area of expertise are incentivized to increase their awareness of an knowledge of that area of expertise as well as the manufacturers' products within that area of expertise through various activities. Activities that are incentivized may include gaining information about products and brands through participating in or consuming training materials, by purchasing or otherwise owning the products and brands, through experience, and the like. As the individuals gain knowledge about the area of expertise, the brands, and the products, the individuals gain influence and ability to inform others about the brands and products and their features and benefits. The manufacturers benefit because they now have a large number of individuals able to act on the manufacturers' behalf in informing others of the features and benefits of the manufacturers' products.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions to cause a computer system to execute a method for tracking individuals' category, industry, or brand expertise, the method comprising:

receiving and storing data evidencing an individual's knowledge of products in an area of expertise;
receiving and storing data evidencing the individual's ownership of or familiarity with products in the area of expertise;
receiving and storing data evidencing the individual's experience in the area of expertise;
receiving and storing indicia of the individual's helpfulness received from one or more persons other than the individual;
utilizing the data evidencing the individual's knowledge of products in the area of expertise, the data evidencing the individual's ownership of or familiarity with products in the area of expertise, the data evidencing the individual's experience in the area of expertise, and the indicia of the individual's helpfulness to generate a score of the individual's influence in the area of expertise;
and
using the score of the individual's influence in the area of expertise to match the individual with a person or entity selected from the group consisting of:
a manufacturer of products in the area of expertise, a brand of products in the area of expertise, a retailer selling products in the area of expertise, and a consumer seeking guidance or advice in the area of expertise.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.