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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an on-line advertising system to broadcast
advertising information about products and services on a network in
on-line shopping using a network, and its method.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, in on-line shopping using the Internet, a WWW (World Wide Web)
Server compiles access log information to determine the needs of users who
access the WWW Server. In this kind of on-line shopping, in a system that
provides advertising of products and services, the user uses existing
media (telephone and FAX inquiries) to order and purchase products and
services carried on the WWW Server.
FIG. 1 shows an existing on-line shopping system. In FIG. 1, System 1 of a
service provider, who has a WWW Server, is connected to user terminal 2,
which has a WWW browser, via the Internet 4. A WWW browser is software
that is able to easily jump to a site on the Internet 4 that has related
information, and a target file, by using a pointing device on the screen
of the user terminal 2 and performing a click operation. In FIG. 6,
on-line shopping is performed by the following procedure:
1) The user accesses a WWW Server on the Internet 4;
2) The user places a telephone call to an actual store 3(The XX Store) to
order a product that he/she likes. (At this time, the normal telephone
number 0272-52-8000 of Store 3 given in the advertisement is used);
3) The Store 3 and the user discuss the matter, and when the customer
decides to make the purchase, the product is shipped from the store 3.
However, the existing on-line shopping system described above has problems
such as the following.
The frequency of access to, for example, a product that is listed is known,
to some extent, from the WWW Server access log. Even so, since information
related to ordering and purchasing does not pass through the WWW Server,
it is not known how many of the users who accessed the WWW site actually
purchased the product (the hit rate). In order for the provider to know
whether and to what extent a certain product is selling, it is necessary
to ask the actual store directly. However, some cases in stores also
advertise in ways other than on line, such as in newspapers and magazines.
In such cases, it is often impossible to determine whether the user's
motivation to buy the product came from the advertisement on the Internet
or from some other information. For this reason, even if the store is
asked how well the product is selling, it is difficult for the provider to
determine the effectiveness of the on-line advertisement.
In another case, the store may for example, open another telephone line
exclusively for Internet use. All that is known is how many times calls to
that telephone number were received. Consequently, the above problem
cannot be solved unless the store itself consciously goes to the trouble
to collect statistics on telephone calls received.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to provide on-line advertising system and
its method that will enable a service provider to determine the
effectiveness of on-line advertising in on-line shopping using a network.
The on-line advertising system in this invention which is an information
processing system that provides an advertiser's advertising on-line in
response to access from users, has an advertising information storage
section, a communication section, and a log information recording and
analysis section.
The advertising information storage section stores advertising information
including a toll-free telephone access number for connecting to the
advertiser.
The communication section sends the said advertising information to a user
terminal when a request for access to the said advertising information is
received from the said user terminal via the said network.
The log information recording section stores 1st access information
relating to the said user's accessing of the said advertising information
when the said advertising information is accessed from a user terminal via
the said network. This 1st access information is log information on how
much users have accessed each part of the home page using the WWW browser
when, for example, doing on-line shopping on the Internet.
The analysis section receives the 2nd access information relating to access
to the said toll-free telephone access number, analyzes the said 1st and
2nd access information, and outputs the analysis results. This 2nd access
information is for example the bill for the toll-free telephone number;
the analysis section compiles and analyzes the 1st access information, for
example the number of times the advertising information is accessed
according to the said log, and the 2nd access information, for example the
number of calls recorded on the bill for the toll-free telephone number.
In the information processing system according to this invention, when a
user accesses advertising in an on-line advertising system from a user
terminal, advertising information including the advertiser's toll-free
access telephone number stored in the advertising information storage
section is sent to the user terminal by the communication section and
stored as the 1st access information relating to access by the said user
to the said advertising information in the log information storage
section. Next, when the user calls the toll-free telephone number from the
user terminal, the analysis section compiles and analyzes the hit rate for
that advertisement from the said 1st access information and the 2nd access
information, which is access information for access to that toll-free
telephone number. From this result, the service provider for the on-line
advertising or the advertiser can determine the effectiveness of that
advertisement.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing prior on-line shopping system;
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of this invention;
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the form in which on-line shopping is carried
out;
FIG. 4 is an operating flow chart showing the provider's processing;
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an access log;
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a sample toll-free telephone number bill;
FIG. 7 is an operating flow chart of the log analysis processing;
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a toll-free dialing file;
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a store management file; and
FIG. 10 is an operating flow chart of record computation processing.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of the on-line advertising system
of this invention. The on-line advertising system shown in FIG. 2 is
achieved by means of an information processing system which is connected
to a network, and has an advertising information storage section 11, a
communication section 12, a log information storage section 13 and an
analysis section 14.
The advertising information storage section 11 stores advertising
information including a toll-free telephone access number connected to the
advertiser.
In practice, "toll-free" refers to the wide-area reversed charges telephone
service operated by NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph), but of course
for purposes of this invention "toll-free" is not limited only to the NTT
service but refers to any telephone service for which access information
such as the number of times that a line is accessed is provided to the
party contracting for use of the line.
The communication section 12 sends advertising information to the user
terminal when a request to access the said advertising information is
received from a user terminal via the said network.
The access number included in the said advertising information is for
example a toll-free telephone number or a FAX (facsimile) number, and is
used when a user orders a product or service from an advertiser who is
providing it. In general, the number of times that number was called is
known from the toll-free service bill, so the on-line advertising service
provider can investigate the impact that an advertisement has. For
example, the number of times and times of day when users access the
advertiser are compiled as statistical data which can be provided to the
advertiser.
The log information storage section 13 stores the 1st access information
relating to user access to the said advertising information; when the said
advertising information is sent to the said user terminal, the
communication section 12 stores that 1st access information in the log
information storage section 13.
When on-line shopping is done on the Internet, log information that shows
what parts of the home page users accessed using WWW browsers is stored as
1st access information in the log information storage section 13.
The analysis section 14 receives the 2nd access information relating to
access to the said toll-free access number, analyzes the 1st and the 2nd
access information, and outputs the analysis results.
The toll-free service bill, for example, is used as the 2nd access
information. From the number of conversation records included in this 2nd
access information and the number of access records included in the 1st
access information stored in the log information storage section 13, the
number of effective accesses to the corresponding advertising information
can be estimated. The analysis section 14 outputs information relating to
this number of effective accesses as analysis results. The output analysis
results are provided from the provider to the advertiser as necessary.
For example, the advertising information storage section 11 and the log
information storage section 13 in FIG. 2 correspond to the memory of the
computer which forms the on-line advertising system 21 in FIG. 3 in this
embodiment. The communication section 12 and the analysis section 14
correspond to the processing unit of that computer.
We now explain an embodiment of this invention in detail, referring to the
drawings.
FIG. 3 shows on-line shopping in an embodiment of this invention. In FIG.
3, the on-line advertising system 21 of a service provider who has a WWW
Server is connected to a user terminal 22 which has a WWW browser through
the Internet 24. The on-line advertising system 21 includes a computer
that has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a memory, and places
advertising information on the Netmart home page of the provider on the
Internet 24. In FIG. 3, shopping is done by the following procedure.
1) The user accesses (refers to) on-line advertising placed on a WWW Server
on the Internet 24 from the user terminal 22, using a WWW browser. At this
time, the on-line advertising system 21 displays an explanation of the
products of XX Store 23 and a toll-free telephone number 0120-xxxxxx on
the screen of the user terminal 22, and stores information such as the
user's identification information, access time and the page that was
accessed as an access log.
2) The user calls the toll-free telephone number in the advertisement and
orders a product that he/she likes.
3) The telephone company's toll-free call control system 25 logs in
toll-free call access information such as the user's telephone number, the
date and time when the call was received and the conversation time, and
stores it as the log 26.
4) The toll-free call control system 25 connects the call from the user to
the actual telephone number 0272-52-8000 of the XX Store 23.
5) The Store 23 and the user talk to each other; if the user decides to
buy, the product is sent from the Store 23.
6) The contents (billing information) of the toll-free system log 26 are
posted from NTT to the service provider.
7) As necessary, the service provider compiles and analyzes the access logs
on the WWW Server and the toll-free telephone call access logs, and
provides the results to the XX Store 23 that placed the advertisement.
In this embodiment, the service provider concludes a contract for toll-free
telephone service with the telephone company in advance, and registers the
telephone number of the advertiser who is connected as the destination of
the toll-free telephone calls. In this case, the bill for the toll-free
telephone calls is sent to the provider. The provider requests advertisers
not to use that toll-free telephone number for personal purposes. If it
were used for personal purposes, those records would then be included in
the toll-free calls access log, and it would be impossible to distinguish
billing information for personal calls from that for calls from other
users.
Of course, the advertiser himself can contract directly with the telephone
company for toll-free telephone service, but in that case the advertiser
has to do the log analysis. When the provider contracts for the toll-free
telephone service, the provider bills the advertiser for the telephone
charges assessed by the telephone company.
When a user uses the toll-free telephone service to order a product from a
store, the provider obtains information as to how many times the user
contacted the store and how long the conversations lasted in the form of a
bill from the telephone company. By comparing this information with each
page of the telephone log, the effectiveness of the advertisement on the
Internet can be analyzed statistically. In addition, when telephone calls
are placed through the toll-free service, the telephone company
automatically transfers the calls to the store's telephone number, so the
store does not have to worry about whether the call is from a user who saw
the advertisement on the Internet.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the processing performed by the service provider
in relation to on-line shopping. When the processing shown in FIG. 4
starts, the WWW Server of the on-line advertising system 21 first displays
an on-line advertisement including a toll-free telephone number on a
network (Step S1), then compiles an access log of users who access that
telephone number (Step S2). The access log information is obtained every
time the user changes to a different displayed page by a clicking
operation.
FIG. 5 shows an example of an access log on the WWW Server. The access log
in FIG. 5 includes the host name, user name, identification name, date and
time of access, request, status, and length of returned data. The host
name shows the name of the host computer of the on-line advertising system
21; the user name and identification name identify the user who accessed
the advertisement. The request shows information in the HTML (Hyper Text
Markup Language) file which the user requested using a WWW browser; the
data length shows the length of data that the WWW Server returned to the
user terminal 22. A.HTML in the request corresponds to the file name of
the HTML file.
Next, the provider obtains an access log for the toll-free telephone
service from the telephone company in the form of a bill, and inputs it to
the on-line advertising system 21 (Step S3).
FIG. 6 shows an example of a toll-free telephone service bill. The bill
shown in FIG. 6 shows the toll-free telephone number (not shown in the
figure), and also the month and day of each telephone conversation, the
time when each conversation started, the area from which the call was
made, the conversation time, the number of message units and the charge
for the call. Thus the bill for the toll-free telephone service charge
provides not only information on the total number of calls in a given time
period, but also information on each telephone conversation. Consequently,
it is easy to determine how many people called in a given time period.
The on-line advertising system 21 compiles and analyzes the access log
obtained from the WWW Server according to a program entered in advance and
the toll-free telephone service access log (Step 4). Here, for example,
the number of times the on-line advertisement was accessed during a given
time period is compiled from the WWW Server access log, and so is the
number of telephone conversations in the same time period is compiled from
the toll-free telephone service access log. Then the ratio of telephone
calls to accesses to the Netmart during that time period (the hit rate) is
calculated. In the case of advertising in which the products change
seasonally, the hit rate during any desired time period can also be
calculated.
Then the provider posts the analysis results to the advertiser (Step S5),
and the processing ends. The analysis results can be posted either
on-line, for example by electronic mail from the on-line advertising
system 21 to the advertiser's terminal, or by regular mail.
When the number of accesses recorded in the access log is relatively small,
then, instead of the on-line advertising system 21 compiling and analyzing
the access logs in Step S4, the provider can do this calculation by hand.
Next, referring to FIGS. 7 through 10, we explain the processing in Steps
S3 and S4 in FIG. 4 in detail.
FIG. 7 is an operating flow chart of the log analysis processing
corresponding to Steps S3 and S4 in FIG. 4. When the processing in FIG. 7
is started, first the provider inputs the toll-free telephone service
billing information to the on-line advertising system 21, then the on-line
advertising system 21 creates a toll-free telephone service file base on
the information that was input (Step S11).
FIG. 8 shows an example of a toll-free telephone service file created at
this time. In the toll-free telephone service file shown in FIG. 8, the
toll-free telephone number, the month and day of the call, the time when
the conversation started, the duration of the conversation, the message
units, the area from which the call originated and whether or not there
was access are recorded for each telephone conversation. The access/no
access item among these is used as a control flag in the log analysis
processing.
Next, using the toll-free telephone number as a key, the on-line
advertising system 21 searches for the corresponding HTML file name on the
store's screen from a previously created store management file (Step S12).
FIG. 9 shows an example of a store management file used at this time. The
toll-free telephone number, the store's identification name, and the
relationship to the HTML file name on the screen display that includes the
toll-free telephone number (the toll-free telephone screen display) are
recorded in the store management file in FIG. 9.
Next, the on-line advertising system 21 extract the corresponding on-line
advertising access log as a key to the HTML file name on the store screen
display being searched for (Step S13). Then, referring to the access date
and time of each extracted access log entry, the records of the toll-free
telephone service file in a certain time period including those log
entries are computed (Step S14).
FIG. 10 is an operating flow chart of the record computation processing
performed in Step S14 in FIG. 7. In FIG. 10, when the processing starts
the on-line advertising system 21 first sorts the extracted access log
entries in order of the access day and time (Step S21), then sorts the
toll-free telephone file records in order of the time of the start of each
call (Step S22).
Next, one record at a time is fetched from the toll-free telephone service
file (Step S23); from the fetched record, it is judged whether or not the
start time in the record is within the time period starting from the
access times in one of the access log entries (step S24). If the starting
time is within one of the specified time periods, then "yes" is stored as
the flag in the access/no access item for that record (Step S25); if not,
then "no" is stored as the flag (Step S26).
Next, it is judged whether or not that record is the last record (Step
S27); if it is not the last record then the next record is fetched (Step
S23) and the processing starting with Step S24 is repeated. If it is the
last record then the processing ends. In this way, the access/no access
item in the toll-free telephone service file record becomes "yes" for
those calls in the on-line advertising access log that occurred within the
specified time period.
Next, the on-line advertising system 21 computes the ratio of records in
the toll-free telephone service file for the specified time period that
have the same store toll-free telephone number for which the access/no
access item is "yes" as the toll-free telephone service file on-line
access rate (Step S15 in FIG. 7).
Next, the number of records for which the access/no access item is "yes" is
divided by the number of access log entries extracted in Step S13 to
compute the effective access rate (the rate of accesses that resulted in
telephone calls, or the hit rate) (Step S16), and then the processing
ends.
This kind of on-line advertising system compares the times of access to the
on-line advertising to the times of access to the toll-free telephone
number and judged that a call that immediately follows access to the
advertisement is from the same user. Consequently, it is possible to
statistically determine how many of the accesses to an on-line
advertisement were effective accesses resulting in an order or inquiry.
The provider can use the results of this analysis to set an appropriate
advertising rate, and the advertiser can use the same results to compare
the effectiveness of on-line advertising with other forms of advertising.
Other forms of advertising, such as catalogue advertising, give the same
toll-free telephone numbers that are given in the system of this
invention. When a user calls after seeing such an advertisement a bill for
the toll-free telephone call is sent to the advertiser, but, in contrast
to the system of this invention, there is no access log for the
advertisement, so a hit rate such as described above cannot be found
easily.
In the embodiment described above, the advertiser does not have to have a
physical store, but can merely act as an intermediary for a vendor who
provides products and/or services. In addition, the methods by which the
user places an order for products are not limited to telephone calls, but
can include any method such as FAX (facsimile) for which a toll-free
telephone contract exists. When FAX is used, it is sufficient for the
toll-free FAX number to be given in the on-line advertisement.
According to this invention, in on-line shopping it is possible to
investigate the relationship between information on user access to on-line
advertising and information on access to a supplier of (for example)
products. This makes it possible for an on-line advertising service
provider or advertiser to determine the effectiveness of that advertising.
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