Good businesses listen to their customers. Better businesses charge their customers to influence their business. This patent application outlines a business method where the customer pays for the privilege to influence the offering of a business. In stark opposite of the focus group model (where the business pays participants for their input), this method describes how varying pricing levels can turn profit from individual or collective customer participation. There is a market of potential customers who would instantly pay for an opportunity to influence brands for which they hold great affinity. The amount the he is willing to pay or trade determines how much the customer's influence counts. This influence includes but is not limited to:
1.having opinions heard
2.developing a new technology
3.contributing to a repository
4.carrying out a design task
5.refining an algorithm
6.coming to a group decision
7.helping capture, organize, systematize or analyze amounts of data
Businesses Used to Pay Focus Groups for R & D:
Businesses Now Give Customers (Prosumers) the Option to Contribute for Free:
Business Will Soon Charge Customers (Prosumers) for the Opportunity to Contribute:
Patent Claims
1.This patent describes a business method (sales contract) that allows customers to pay for the right to influence company decisions on strategy, mission, projects, products or services. Users may express their influence, thoughts, contributions, proposals, opinions, endorsements, votes, research, analyzations, files, and/or participations with the the business, website, association, non-profit, or any other organized entity. This transaction involves the customer either sending monetary value, quantifiable goods, quantifiable participation, or quantifiable service value to any organized entity (or partner business) in exchange for the right to influence the overall-make-up, design, production, distribution, strategic direction, events, campaigns, initiatives or any other business decision of a company. This privilege can be, but is not limited to, a company privilege offering packaged alongside additional goods, services or media provided to the customer by the business.
2.Also under this patent, we are applying to patent the right for a business, website, association, non-profit, or any other organized entity to charge participants at various privilege levels in return for various influence levels of weighted potency & privilege. These various privilege levels are sold at different rates based on price or either the amount of value traded, the amount amount of participation traded, and/or the amount of goods traded. Here, a customer could pay for the amount of influence on a particular decision as well as the amount of total decisions to have an influence on. The more money or trade value supplied by the customer, the more influence and lasting value the customer has when proposing, endorsing, contributing, voting, organizing, etc... This includes the ability for past votes or contributions, cast from a particular customer, to influence the manner, process, price, and weighted potency for which future contribution opportunities are offered, thereby rewarding or penalizing based on past voting and contribution track record. A customer's participation in this business relationship can either remain exclusive towards a particular company privilege offering or a collective group of customers can all influence a particular company decision together. Contributions can either be tallied equally or the weighted system mentioned above can determine how much influence each customer has. In addition, partner companies can be involved in the same offering (or collectively supply a package of offerings) so that customers can influence multiple companies within one transaction, with revenue from these collective offering(s) shared accordingly.
3.Fees mentioned are either on a subscription basis or a pay per contribution basis. Prices can be fixed or set through an auctioning process. We are patenting the process of value-cash flow where the customer is paying the company instead of the current norm where the company pays the customer (or the customer works for free) for its collaborative input.
Potential Businesses Capitalizing on New Method (just a few examples)
(1) Professional Sports – fans pay for team season ticket packages in order to propose and vote on roster management decision
(2) Radio Stations/Newspaper/TV – Audience members pay various amounts to influence programming featured during different time blocks scheduled throughout the week or within the show itself
(3) Interactive choose our own adventure Movies – customer pays for ticket and finds a remote when he gets to his seat – alowing him to vote ( along with other audience members) on character decisions
(4) Public referendum in local, county, state, and federal government
(5) Campaign Fund-raising: assuring the sponsor that their choice in candidate actually stands up for the sponsor preferred stances on various issues
(6) Non-profit fund-raising: offering a menu of projects that can commence based on the discretion of participating sponsors
(7) WWF: subscribing fans voting on who their favorite wrestler should challenge next
(8) NASCAR: Point-pricing per vote on real-time pit decisions
(9) Customer Service: Customer pays to jump to the head of the line when calling in with problems in exchange for the right to answer focus group (alpha user) surveys – Monetizing the suggestion box
Possible Citations
System and method for influencing dynamic community shared elements of audio
Method and apparatus for prioritizing a telephone call according to a level
Electronic proposal preparation system for selling vehicles
Integrated decision management system
Subscriber call routing processing system
System and method for scheduling broadcast of and access to video programs
Some more jibber-jabber:
-Marketizing/Democrasizing the decision process based on money
-Auctioning off the decision making process
-Time counts as an assett being traded
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In the face of Net Neutrality, large web companies benefit because they can afford to transition from content providers to web portals, thereby creating an oligopoly with limited competition around their particular niche - left king on the mountain after dust settles
Today, there is an Equal Plain of Competition among Established Websites and Upcoming Authors/Bloggers:
Upcoming Web Authors and Established Portals will soon be charged a fee by local internet service providers, reflecting how much local bandwith consumption their content is responsible for. Overnight web success stories will be impossible because of this expensive fee:
Because Government rules whether local service providers can charge content providers for "bandwith responsibility", an opportunity is in place for local non-profits and communities to prosper from monies extracted from the traditional model. The Government has the power to step in and Quantify Consumption Patterns by Keyword, then distribute tax revenue accordingly to geographically affiliated Non-Profits (i.e. All the consumption of Palm Tree web pages from computer/cellphone screens located in Miami Beach should generate "net neutrality tax revenue" to plant more Palm Trees in Miami Beach):
81% of teens know that the sunburns increase their risk of developing skin cancer as an adult.
60% of the teens admitted they got sunburned last summer.
66% think people look better with a tan. 47% think they look healthier.
52% say they are not careful to protect their skin from sun exposure.
Teens are much less careful than adults surveyed – 70% vs. 52%
More teen girls believe they are careful about sun protection than teen boys – 59% vs. 37%
source: American Academy of Dermatology 2004
Over half of all new cancers are skin cancers.
More than 1 million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year.
An estimated 10,590 people will die of skin cancer this year, 7,770 (73%) from melanoma and 2,820 from other skin cancers.
One American dies of melanoma almost every hour (every 68 minutes).
1 in 5 Americans will develop some form of skin cancer during their lifetime.
Question: How can a Major League Baseball Franchise invigorate a fan base while maintaining current payroll and marketing budgets?
Answer: Build a website that allows fans to vote on actual player management & line-up decisions - then charge them to have their vote & voice count more.
CROWD SOURCING allows fans to infer control of the team while actual ownership retains full equity and final decision. The resulting loyalty translates into dollars spent on gold, silver, and bronze season ticket packages that equate to higher voting power on any decision your general manager proposes to the faithful.
DELEGATE player personnel decisions to the FAN BASE.
By charging for fan involvement on decisions, success can be measured by voter turnout; not by win/loss percentage. CURRENT WEB TECHNOLOGIES empower a world-wide market to influence programming – the result increases participation directly from the same audience that pays the bills through season tickets and advertising impressions.
CAPITALIZE on your general manager's role by having him (or her) earn season ticket sales & advertising impressions. By serving as a filmed programming host, your general manager can document and persuade the fan base to view & process statistics, video, and proposals. Motivate your fan base to actively participate in team management: line-ups, arbitration hearings, free agent bids, trade proposals, minor league call-ups, etc..
As an avid participant in online baseball discussions, I have been able to differentiate messages from many sources and venues. None of these outside venues interact directly with Major League Baseball Team websites. Each of these COMMUNITIES would welcome the opportunity to voice their influence and opinions inside your preferred online venue. The online social network Facebook was successful because it collected friend circles instead of collecting individual profiles. Think of the Official Major League Baseball websites as podiums where such group-to-group communication could be enabled and encouraged. Further imagine how such group input to team management could be monetized - very powerful to the fan base; very profitable for the organization.
Consider RECENT MEDIA INDUSTRY TRENDS. Whether with a letter, computer, cellphone, or television remote, crowd sourcing has proven that the audience cares more about programming if they know they have access to be part of it: American Idol, Wikipedia, Digg, Allstar Voting, YouTube, Democracy, Fantasy Baseball, etc... USA today recently had an article on how the NFL is capitalizing on their content by tightly controlling its flow and viscosity. Earlier this year, MyFootballClub.co.uk was launched, allowing 50,000 fans to pay £35 (US$72.42) to acquire a Majority stake in English minor league football club Ebbsfleet United. Controlling YES and NESN has made the Yankees and Red Sox more lucrative because a consistent message has been managed directly from the source and throughout its channels.
pitch & endorse proposals - vote on rosters & lineups - fans manage the team
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