System and method for targeted advertising and marketing

摘要

A method for distributing promotional material, which may be practiced as a fully-automated process, calls for the use of packages of bread products, su ch as sliced/unsliced bread, hamburger/hotdog buns, tortillas, etc. as unique vehicles for retailer-specific targeting of promotional material. The invention achieves its objectives by connecting a network of entities and computer systems, wherein informatio n regarding bakeries' production schedules, specific retailers' purchase orders, and advertisers' specifications are collected and processed to provide instructions for baggi ng and/or coupon-targeting systems to include specified wrappers and promotional material with each bread product or groups of bread products. For each package of bread, t he promotional material may be included inside the bread bag or wrapper, outsid e of the bread wrapper, or both. A cart-marking system ensures that each retailer's order is placed on a separate cart, with the packages of bread carrying promotional material that is tailored for that retailer.