Patent Application
20070267491
This application claims the foreign priority benefit under Title 35, United States Code, § 119 (a)-(d), of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-135971, filed on May 16, 2006 in the Japan Patent Office, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
This invention relates to a shop information distribution method, a shop information distribution system, an information management server and a portable information terminal, for drawing customers to a shop or other facility.
Advertisements published on websites over the Internet have been attracting widespread attention as the third-generation advertising media. Advertisers of such advertisements over the Internet may draw members from Net-surfers for each subject of interest to the Net-surfers, so that the advertisers may distribute individual advertising information that suits the personal preferences or needs of each Net-surfer to the corresponding surfer individually. However, even the advertisements contrived as above could not ensure the effects specifically, as to how effectively the advertisements are expected to draw customers to a shop.
With this in view, a variety of approaches for improving the effectiveness of advertisements to draw customers conventionally have not only been proposed but also been put into practice. For example, JP 2003-216860 A discloses an information distribution system in which discount coupons of goods are distributed together with relevant advertising information, value-adding information on goods (e.g., information associated with bargain-priced food ingredients, as to a recipe for making an item of food from the ingredients) is distributed, to thereby improve the effectiveness of advertisements to draw customers. JP 2005-326942 A discloses another information distribution system in which encrypted data of an article of a magazine, a piece of music, an amusement ticket usable at a shop are distributed from a shop having an amusement facility to portable information terminals such as mobile phone devices of members, and key data for decrypting the encrypted data are distributed at a terminal in the shop, to thereby effectively enhance the members' willingness to visit the shop.
On the other hand, as means for facilitating authentication of members and provision of shop coupons, shop information, and the like, membership cards each having an IC (integrated circuit) tag embedded therein (e.g., FeliCa®, Suica®, etc.) and mobile phone devices each having a similar IC tag embedded therein are coming into widespread use. As a system for such mobile phone devices, in which not only are shop coupons or shop information provided, but also means for exchanging the coupons among members are provided, ToruCa® is available for practical use. For ToruCa, see the website published by NTT DoCoMo, Inc. on the Internet at <URL: http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/service/imode/osaifu/toruca/index.html> (retrieved on Mar. 3, 2006) (Corresponding English page is available, see <URL: http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/imode/osaifu/toruca.html>).
In the information distribution systems as disclosed in JP 2003-216860 A and JP 2005-326942 A, however, the advertising information including discount coupons and value-adding information is configured to be distributed to all the members at any time. That is, the advertising information may be distributed to a member at a date or a period when the member does not necessarily wish to receive the information. Accordingly, the effectiveness of the advertising information is impaired on this account.
Moreover, in these information distribution systems, advertising information which a system distributes for an advertiser having a chain of franchise shops or the like may inevitably be limited to information that is common to all the franchise shops. This is because the increased quantity of information which would have to be distributed when specific information such as an original event or bargain information of each shop were provided would place the mobile phone devices or other portable information terminals at a particular disadvantage in their limited amount of displayable information and in their communication costs.
Furthermore, in a system such as ToruCa®, shop information specific to a shop may be provided through a shop terminal of the shop; however, advertising information distributed through the Internet and shop information provided through the shop terminal are not associated with each other. Therefore, the advertising effectiveness of specific advertising information distributed through the Internet cannot be evaluated, on the basis of the number of accesses to the shop information through the shop terminal, or other information.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-discussed disadvantages involved in the conventional arts.
Illustrative, non-limiting embodiments of the present invention overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, the present invention is not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment of the present invention may not overcome any of the problems described above.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a shop information distribution method, a shop information distribution system, an information management server, and a portable information terminal, whereby advertising information can be distributed efficiently to a user who wishes to receive the advertising information so as to draw customers to a shop effectively, detailed advertising information specific to a shop can be distributed to a user who has visited the shop at the request of the user, and information indicative of the effectiveness of the distributed advertising information in drawing customers can be obtained.
To be more specific, in one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a shop information distribution system is provided which comprises an information management server, a portable information terminal and a shop terminal, wherein the information management server comprises an event information storage unit configured to store event information (which may be classified into predetermined categories, for example) for shops, and a shop information storage unit configured to store shop information on merchandise and equipment of the shops, wherein the portable information terminal comprises a display unit, and wherein the shop terminal is installed in each shop. In this shop information distribution system, (1) the portable information terminal is configured to send an event information distribution request for requesting distribution of event information (with a category specified, for example); (2) the information management server is configured to, upon receipt of the event information distribution request, retrieve event information belonging to the category specified therein, from the event information storage unit, and distribute the retrieved event information to the portable information terminal; (3) the portable information terminal is configured to receive the distributed event information, and show the received event information on the display unit; (4) the portable information terminal is configured to retrieve, from the shop terminal, identifying information of the shop terminal, and send a shop information distribution request for requesting distribution of shop information of the shop in which the shop terminal is installed, with the retrieved identifying information of the shop terminal attached thereto, to the information management server; (5) the information management server is configured to, upon receipt of the shop information distribution request, retrieve the shop information of the shop from the shop information storage unit, and distribute the retrieved shop information to the portable information terminal; and (6) the portable information terminal is configured to receive the distributed shop information, and show the received shop information on the display unit.
The above aspects and advantages, and other advantages and further features of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail illustrative, non-limiting embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
A detailed description will be given hereinbelow of embodiments of the present invention with reference to the drawings.
As shown in
The mobile phone device 1 and the information management server 2 are coupled with each other through a communication network 4 which includes a mobile phone base station 5, a mobile phone network, the Internet, etc. The shop management server 6, the shop terminal 3 and the information management server 2 are also coupled with one another through the same communication network 4.
The mobile phone device 1 includes an IC tag 11, and the shop terminal 3 includes an IC tag reader/writer (hereinafter referred to in abbreviated form as “IC tag RW”) 31. Each of the IC tag 11 and the IC tag RW 31 includes a short-range wireless communication device for performing a wireless communication, for example, within a range of 10 cm or so. Accordingly, when the mobile phone device 1 is held over a portion of the shop terminal 3 near a position where the IC tag RW 31 is installed, data communication with a predetermined weak radio wave according to a predetermined protocol takes place between the IC tag 11 and the IC tag RW 31.
Specifications of the IC tag 11 used in this operation may be the same as those of FeliCa® as described above, or may be of another type of IC tag having similar functionality and construction.
As shown in
As shown in
The tag ID is information for identifying the mobile phone device 1 or a user thereof, and is always transmitted from the mobile phone device 1 to the shop terminal 3 when data communication takes place between the IC tag 11 and the IC tag RW 31. The information processor 12 of the mobile phone device 1 is configured to be able to retrieve a tag ID stored in the tag ID storage unit 111 through the wired I/O port 1102.
As shown in
On the other hand, the IC tag 11 includes, other than the tag ID storage unit 111 as described above, a tag ID transmitter 112 and a shop ID receiver 113. Furthermore, the IC tag RW 31 of the shop terminal 3 includes a tag ID receiver 311 and a shop ID transmitter 312.
When a user holds the mobile phone device 1 over a portion of the shop terminal 3 near the position where it is installed, short-range data communication with a predetermined weak radio wave takes place between the IC tag 11 and the IC tag RW 31. Thus, during the data communication, a tag ID stored in the tag ID storage unit 111 is transmitted by the tag ID transmitter 112 to the IC tag RW 31. The transmitted tag ID is received by the tag ID receiver 311 of the IC tag RW 31, and upon receipt thereof, the shop ID transmitter 312 transmits a shop ID assigned to the shop terminal 3 to the IC tag 11. Then the shop ID receiver 113 of the IC tag 11 receives the transmitted shop ID, and inputs the shop ID into the information processor 12.
As shown in
Specific functions of the function execution section will be described later, together with the specific functions of the functional blocks of the information processor 12 of the mobile phone device 1.
Referring now to
User information is information concerning a user of the mobile phone device 1 to which the information management server 2 distributes contents, and includes the fields of USER ID, CONTENT ID, AGE, and USER ATTRIBUTE INFORMATION. The user information is created, and stored in the user information storage unit 223, when the information management server 2 receives a request for distribution of contents from the mobile phone device 1, as will be described later.
The USER ID includes information by which a user is identifiable, and it is assumed in this embodiment that a tag ID assigned to the IC tag 11 of the mobile phone device 1 is used for the USER ID. Alternatively, identifying information assigned to the mobile phone device 1, instead of the tag ID, may be used for the USER ID.
The CONTENT ID includes information by which a content of shop information a user desires to receive is identifiable. For example, in a case where the shop information distribution system 10 holds information on a specific chain of pachinko parlors, information on a specific chain of hotels, and information on spas in a specific area, each piece of information is provided under a different category of contents, and the CONTENT ID is employed as information for identifying the category of each content.
The AGE represents the age of a user, and is used for the purpose of controlling distribution of the contents which are restricted to users of legal age. For example, distribution of information on chains of pachinko parlors to users under the age of 18 may be prohibited, and distribution of information on liquor shops to users under the age of 20 may be prohibited. The information in the AGE is not necessarily represented by years of age, but may be represented by age brackets or by dates of birth. The AGE may be acquired for example through a screen (see
The USER ATTRIBUTE INFORMATION includes information on various user attributes such as a sex, an address, etc., and is used if necessary or convenient depending upon the contents. In most cases, this field may be left blank.
Content attribute information is created for each CONTENT ID, and includes the fields of CONTENT ID and AGE LIMIT INFORMATION. The AGE LIMIT INFORMATION includes information on legal age associated with the content specified by the CONTENT ID, and may include an age defining the limit or a flag indicating the limit-defining age. The flag indicating the limit-defining age may be defined for example as follows: no set age limit is indicated by ‘0’; age limit set under 18 is indicated by ‘1’; and age limit set under 20 is indicated by ‘2’.
In the foregoing discussion, the content(s) refers to information to be distributed by the information management server 2 to the mobile phone device 1, and to be more specific, includes information stored in the event information storage unit 222 and the shop information storage unit 224, as well as information linked therewith, which may be stored in other storage areas of the server or storage areas in other computers. The same goes for the following discussion in this specification.
In
Customer/shop visit aggregation information is information resulting from aggregation of the customer/shop visit information for each shop within each period of time having a predetermined duration (e.g., one day, one week, one month, etc.). In this embodiment, the customer/shop visit aggregation information includes SHOP ID, GROSS NUMBER OF VISITS, NET NUMBER OF VISITS, AVERAGE NUMBER OF VISITS, and other fields of information. The customer/shop visit aggregation information is created by the customer/shop visit information aggregation unit 214. The created customer/shop visit aggregation information is transmitted to the shop management server 6 owned by an advertiser, and stored as customer/shop visit aggregation information 611 in the shop management server 6.
In
In the present embodiment, a user who wishes to receive a distributed content operates his/her mobile phone device 1 to start the user application acquisition unit 121, and then the information processor 12 of the mobile phone device 1 (the subject of operation will be hereinafter referred to “mobile phone device 1” for simplicity) makes a request to the information management server 2 for download of the user application (step S11) at the outset. This process can be achieved by a web browser with which the mobile phone device 1 typically comes equipped as standard equipment.
The process of the user application distribution unit 211 of the information management server 2 is started when the information processor (not shown in
Upon receipt of the query information, the mobile phone device 1 shows a query screen therefor formulated in accordance with the query information on the display unit 16 (step S12). As shown in
When the user chooses a content he/she wishes to receive, and/or inputs his/her age, the mobile phone device 1 transmits, to the information management server 2, information which includes the content ID of the chosen content and/or the age of the user, etc. (step S13).
Next, the information management server 2 receives the information which includes the content ID and/or the age of the user, etc. (step S22), and consults the content attribute information to check whether or not the content has any set age limit, and determines whether or not the age of the user satisfies the age condition (step S23). If it turns out as a result of the determination that the age condition is satisfied (Yes in step S23), then the information management server 2 allows a predetermined user application stored in the user application storage unit 221 to be downloaded to the mobile phone device 1 (step S24).
The mobile phone device 1 receives the downloaded user application (step S14), and stores the received user application in the memory 1201 of the information processor 12 (step S15). The mobile phone device 1 retrieves the tag ID from the tag ID storage unit 111, and transmits the retrieved tag ID, as a user ID, to the information management server 2 (step S16).
Next, the information management server 2 receives the user ID (step S25), and creates user information by combining the content ID of the content the user wishes to receive and the age of the user which have previously been received, with the user ID, to accumulate the user information in the user information storage unit 223 (step S26). In the present embodiment, the accumulation of the user information in the user information storage unit 223 is equivalent to what is called registration of user information. If it turns out as a result of the determination in step S23 that the age of the user fails to fulfill the age condition (No in step S23), then no user application is downloaded, and the registration of user information is not carried out either. In this instance, a warning message to the effect that the user is under the statutory age limit may be transmitted to the mobile phone device 1 so that the warning message is shown on the display unit 16 thereof.
Herein, it is appreciated that the event information refers to pieces of information collected on shops or facilities belonging to a specific category and arranged mainly as information representing special events or topics of the shops or facilities. In some instances, the event information storage unit 222 may be placed in a storage area for web pages established in a web server, so that advertisers may easily write event information therein for example through the shop management server 6.
In general, advertising information such as event information is transmitted from the information management server 2 to the mobile phone device 1 in the form of e-mail or the like in most instances; in the present embodiment, however, when a user wishes, a request for event information is transmitted from the mobile phone device 1, and the information management server 2 distributes relevant event information in response to the request. Accordingly, in order to acquire event information, the user operates the mobile phone device 1 and starts the process in the event information acquisition and display unit 122.
When the process in the event information acquisition and display unit 122 is started, the mobile phone device 1 first shows a predetermined initial screen on the display unit 16 thereof (step S31). At this stage, the display screen shows a calendar, an area map or the like, for example; thus, the user may choose a date and/or an area in which shops are located, etc. to check when and where a specific event is scheduled. Then, the mobile phone device 1 acquires information associated with the date and/or the area (step S32), and transmits the content ID of the content the user has registered as a content to be distributed, the acquired associated information, and the user ID, to the information management server 2 (step S33), so as to request distribution of the event information.
The information management server 2 receives the transmitted content ID, associated information and user ID (step S41), consults the user information storage unit 223 based upon the user ID (step S42) to check whether or not the user ID is of a registered user (step S43), and consults the age limit information of the content attribute information to check whether or not the user fulfills the age condition of the content (step S44).
If the results of these checking steps show that the user who has requested distribution of the event information is a registered user and fulfills the age condition (Yes in both steps S43 and S44), then the information management server 2 acquires relevant event information corresponding to the specified content ID and associated information, from the event information storage unit 222 (step S45), and distributes the acquired event information to the mobile phone device 1 (step S46).
The mobile phone device 1 receives the distributed event information (step S34), and shows the received event information on the display unit 16 as shown in the display sample of
If the results of the checking steps show that the user who has requested distribution of the event information is not a registered user (No in step S43) or fails to fulfill the age condition (No in step S44), then the mobile phone device 1 distributes no event information. In this instance, a warning message to the effect that the user is not registered or that the user is under the statutory age limit may be transmitted to the mobile phone device 1 so that the warning message is shown on the display unit 16 thereof.
As shown in the example of
In
This makes the event information distributed to the user more attractive to the user, and thus encourages the user to request event information more frequently. The effectiveness of advertisement of the event information of the shop is improved accordingly.
Herein, the shop information is information relating to commodities (merchandise), facilities (equipment) and services in a specified shop, and particularly to information which benefits users. For example, if the shop is a pachinko parlor, the shop information may includes in-shop jackpot possibility information, etc., and if the shop is a supermarket, the day's special bargain information, etc. The shop information as above is distributed from the information management server 2 to the mobile phone device 1 when a user goes to the shop and causes data communication to take place in actuality between the mobile phone device 1 the user carries and the shop terminal 3.
When a user holds his/her mobile phone device 1 over a predetermined position on the shop terminal 3, predetermined data communication takes place between the IC tag 11 of the mobile phone device 1 and the IC tag RW 31 of the shop terminal 3, and thereby a process in the shop information acquisition and display unit 123 of the mobile phone device 1 is started. To be more specific, through the communication, first, the mobile phone device 1 acquires a shop ID from the shop terminal 3 (step S51). Then, the mobile phone device 1 transmits a content ID of the content the user has registered as a content to be distributed, the acquired shop ID, and a user ID, to the information management server 2 (step S52), to request distribution of the shop information.
The information management server 2 receives the transmitted content ID, shop ID and user ID (step S61), consults the user information storage unit 223 based upon the user ID (step S62) to check whether or not the user ID is of a registered user (step S63), and consults the age limit information of the content attribute information to check whether or not the user fulfills the age condition of the content (step S64).
If the results of these checking steps show that the user who has requested distribution of the shop information is a registered user and fulfills the age condition (Yes in both steps S63 and S64), then the information management server 2 acquires relevant shop information corresponding to the specified content ID from the shop information storage unit 224 (step S65), and distributes the acquired shop information to the mobile phone device 1 (step S66). Furthermore, the information management server 2 creates customer/shop visit information by attaching date information of the day to the shop ID and user ID which have been acquired, and accumulates the customer/shop visit information in the customer/shop visit information storage unit 225 (step S67).
If the results of the checking steps show that the user who has requested distribution of the shop information is not a registered user (No in step S63), or fails to fulfill the age condition (No in step S64), then the mobile phone device 1 distributes no shop information, and creates no customer/shop visit information. In this instance, a warning message to the effect that the user is not registered or that the user is under the statutory age limit may be transmitted to the mobile phone device 1 so that the warning message is shown on the display unit 16 thereof.
On the other hand, the mobile phone device 1 receives the distributed shop information (step S53), and shows the received shop information on the display unit 16 (step S54). In this way, the user can acquire ‘beneficial’ shop information specifically for the user.
From the foregoing, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, when the user of the mobile phone device 1 submits an entry for requesting registration of distribution of contents with a category specified thereto to the information management server 2, an application program (user application) of the mobile phone device 1 for acquiring and displaying information on shops related to the contents is distributed from the information management server 2. The user may cause the mobile phone device 1 to execute the user application, and by doing so, can acquire event information of the shops of his/her registered category and general information related to the category, at any time in a simple operation. In this situation, it can be understood that the user has much interest in the category, and that the user voluntarily acquires advertising information; therefore, the effectiveness of advertisement presented to such a user can be highly evaluated.
When a user visits a shop for such a reason or others that the user has seen event information of the shop, and holds his/her mobile phone device 1 in the vicinity of a position on the shop terminal 3 where the IC tag RW 31 is installed, the mobile phone device 1 shows bargain information, etc. applied particularly to the shop. As a result, the user can acquire ‘beneficial’ information of the shop. On the other hand, the information management server 2 can acquire information on the incident that the user visits the shop, and information on the aggregated number of the visits. The information on the aggregated number of visits of the user to the shop is provided to the advertiser.
Accordingly, in the present embodiment, the advertiser can not only gain a high degree of advertising effectiveness which enhances efficiency of drawing customers, but also acquire information concerting the activities of the customers such as information on their visits to the shop.
In the shop information distribution system 10 as described above, it may become established that the advertiser pays fees for distribution of advertising information (event information and shop information), for example, in accordance with the gross number of customers visiting the shop as aggregated by the customer/shop visit information aggregation unit 214. In this instance, the advertiser pays advertising fees proportional to the effectiveness of advertisements to draw customers; therefore, this method of determining the advertising fees can be considered to be fairly reasonable. On the other hand, information distribution to users may be rendered free of charge, so that increase in the number of registered users, i.e., those who see the advertisements, can be expected.
The shop information distribution system 10a according to the second embodiment and the shop information distribution system 10 (see
Functional difference lies in one point as follows. When a user holds his/her mobile phone device 1 over a shop terminal 3, the information management server 2 in the first embodiment is configured to distribute shop information to the mobile phone device 1 of the user, but the information management server 2a in the second embodiment is configured to distribute the shop information not to the mobile phone device 1a of the user but to the shop terminal 3a, so that the shop terminal 3a shows the distributed shop information on a display unit (not shown).
To achieve this functionality, the shop terminal 3a includes a shop information display unit 313. Furthermore, the shop terminal 3a need not transmit the shop ID to the mobile phone device 1a, and thus does not necessarily have to include an IC tag RW 31 (
Moreover, the mobile phone device 1a need not acquire the shop ID from the shop terminal 3a, and thus does not have to include the shop ID receiver 113 (
In this configuration, when a user holds his/her mobile phone device 1a in the vicinity of a position on the shop terminal 3a where the IC tag reader 31a is installed, the shop terminal 3a acquires a tag ID, i.e., a user ID, from the mobile phone device 1a, and attaches a shop ID of the shop to the acquired user ID to transmit the same to the information management server 2a. The information management server 2a receives the transmitted user ID and shop ID, and performs the following process steps in the shop information distribution unit 213a.
That is, the information management server 2a consults the user information storage unit 223 based upon the received user ID to check whether the user is a registered user and whether the user fulfills the age condition of the content to be distributed. If it is determined that the user is a registered user and fulfills the age condition, the information management server 2a consults the shop information storage unit 224 based upon the shop ID to retrieve predetermined shop information, and transmits the retrieved shop information to the shop terminal 3a.
The shop terminal 3a receives, at the shop information display unit 313 thereof, the shop information transmitted from the information management server 2a, and shows the received shop information on a display unit (not shown). On the other hand, if it is determined that the user is not a registered user or fails to fulfill the age condition, the shop terminal 3a displays a warning message to that effect, or the like.
The shop information distribution system 10b according to the third embodiment and the shop information distribution system 10 (see
In this embodiment, the mobile phone device 1b does not have an IC tag 11b incorporated therein, and thus one which is incorporated in an IC card such as FeliCa® is used for the IC tag 11b. In this instance, the IC tag 11b includes a tag ID storage unit 111 and a tag ID transmitter 112, and the shop terminal 3b includes an IC tag reader 31a having a tag ID receiver 311, and a password display unit 322.
In this embodiment, the information processor 12b of the mobile phone device 1b cannot acquire a tag ID of the IC tag 11b. Therefore, the mobile phone device 1b transmits identifying information assigned to the mobile phone device 1b, as user ID, to the information management server 2b, when the mobile phone device 1b performs the process in the user application acquisition unit 121b, the event information acquisition and display unit 122b, and the shop information acquisition and display unit 123b. On the other hand, the mobile phone device 1b receives through the shop terminal 3b a tag ID of the IC tag 11b as information by which a user is identifiable. Therefore, the user ID (identifying information of the mobile phone device 1b) and the tag ID should be associated (linked) with each other.
The associated information is accumulated in the user information storage unit 223b of the information management server 2b. Thus, the user information includes the USER ID, CONTENT ID, AGE and USER ATTRIBUTE INFORMATION as shown in
In order to associate the user ID (identifying information of mobile phone device 1b) and the tag ID with each other, in the present embodiment, the mobile phone device 1b includes a tag ID association unit 215, the shop terminal 3b includes a password display unit 322, and the mobile phone device 1b includes a password input unit 124.
In the configuration as described above, when the user downloads a user application through the mobile phone device 1b, the information management server 2b, in the process of the user application distribution unit 211 thereof, creates user information and accumulates the created user information in the user information storage unit 223b. However, the TAG ID field of this user information is left blank.
On the other hand, when the user visits the shop, and holds his/her IC card over the shop terminal 3b near a position where the IC tag reader 31a is provided, the tag ID is transmitted from the IC tag 11b incorporated in the IC card, through the shop terminal 3b to the information management server 2b. In this process, the information management server 2b consults the user information storage unit 223b, and if no user information is found therein for the tag ID, executes the tag ID association unit 215, for example to thereby generate a random number having a predetermined number of digits, and transmits the random number as a password to the shop terminal 3b. The shop terminal 3b receives the password and the password display unit 322 thereof shows the password on the display unit (not shown).
The user sees the shown password, and keys the password into the information processor 12b of the mobile phone device 1b through the key button input unit 15 or the like. The password input unit 124 of the mobile phone device 1b receives the inputted password, and transmits to the information management server 2b a set of information which includes the received password and the identifying information assigned to the mobile phone device 1b, i.e., user ID. The tag ID association unit 215 of the information management server 2b receives the set of information which includes the password and the user ID, and confirms that the passwords match with each other, and associates the tag ID transmitted from the IC tag 11b with the user ID, and accumulates the association information in the user information storage unit 223b.
When the tag ID is associated with the user ID as described above, the user may receive event information and shop information distributed in accordance with the contents the user wishes to receive, in substantially the same manner as in the first embodiment. In this embodiment, even an old-fashioned mobile phone device 1b having no IC tag 1b incorporated therein can receive the same services as a later mobile phone device 1 having an IC tag 11b incorporated therein can.
According to the exemplary embodiments, the following advantageous effects may be achieved. The information management server distributes event information of a shop upon receipt of a request for distribution from a portable information terminal which a user carries. Therefore, the event information of the shop is not indiscriminately distributed, but exclusively to the user who wishes to receive the shop information. The information management server distributes shop information concerning merchandise and equipment of a shop to a user when the user visits the shop and causes data communication to take place between the portable information terminal and a shop terminal of the shop. Accordingly, the user has to visit the shop to acquire detailed information on the shop, and thus it is expected that the distribution of the event information of the shop can advantageously produce the effect to draw customers. The information management server can collect customer/shop visit data of the user, and thus can confirm the effectiveness of distribution of the event information of the shop.
Since advertising information is distributed to a user who wishes to receive shop information, it is possible to draw customers to the shop effectively. Moreover, specific advertising information unique to the shop may be distributed in response to a user who visits the shop. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the distributed advertising information for drawing customers can be acquired.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-135971 | May 2006 | JP | national |
