Display based marketing message control system and method

A marketing system for use in a public switched telephone system having stored program controlled switches connected to screen based devices in customer premises, each said screen based device having means for storing and displaying delivered messages until overwritten with new messages and means for sending a response at the option of a customer to a delivered message;

• said system comprising:
• means for storing predetermined information respecting each customer;
• means for assembling and managing messages including, means for creating and storing messages to be delivered to one or more of said screen based devices;
• means for selecting one or more of said screen based devices to which each said message is to be delivered based on said predetermined information;
• means for delivering the messages in a non-obtrusive manner to the selected screen based devices at a predetermined time;
• means for identifying the screen based devices that each message is delivered to and storing this information;
• and means for identifying responses to each message from the screen based devices and storing this information;
• and
• means for accessing the stored information, and generating response statistics based thereupon.

An interactive home shopping system for use in a public switched telephone system having stored program controlled switches connected to screen based devices in customer premises, each screen based device having a screen for displaying information and means for transmitting instructions from said screen based device through the public switched telephone system, said system comprising:

• means for storing predetermined information respecting each customer, the predetermined information including shipping information;
• means at each said screen based device for a customer to select connection of said screen based device to the shopping system;
• means for the shopping system, in response to the customer selecting a connection, to present a set of stores or service providers to the customer upon said screen;
• means for the customer via said screen based device to select and interactively browse through the stores or service providers presented;
• means for the customer to order via said screen based device a product or service;
• means for identifying a calling telephone number of the screen based device;
• and
• means for retrieving on the basis of the calling telephone number the shipping information of the customer associated with the screen based device to complete the order.