Method and apparatus for obtaining consumer information

Claim 1

A method carried out on a programmed computer of obtaining product marketing information from consumers, the method comprising the steps of: the programmed computer presenting a first page on a display apparatus, the first page providing descriptive product information to a consumer and querying the consumer to provide an open ended response specifying at least one advantage derived from the product information; the programmed computer presenting a second page on the display apparatus, the second page listing the advantage provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide another open ended response specifying at least one benefit derived from the advantage previously provided by the consumer, the product information being concealed from the consumer at this time; the programmed computer presenting a third page on the display apparatus, the third page listing the benefit provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide an additional open ended response specifying at least one situation in which a person might experience satisfaction from the benefit previously provided by the consumer, the product information and the advantage previously provided by the consumer being concealed from the consumer at this time; the programmed computer storing the consumer responses, including categorizing the consumer responses into advantages, benefits, and situations and storing the categories of responses into memory electronically connected to the programmed computer; the programmed computer searching the consumer responses stored in the memory for character strings and determining the frequency that each character string appears in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories; and the programmed computer displaying on the display apparatus the frequency that at least some of the character strings stored in memory occur in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories.

Claim 2

A method carried out on a programmed computer of obtaining product marketing information from consumers, the method comprising the steps of: the programmed computer presenting a first page on a display apparatus, the first page providing descriptive product information to a consumer and querying the consumer to provide an open ended response specifying at least one advantage derived from the product information; the programmed computer presenting a second page on the display apparatus, the second page listing the advantage provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide another open ended response specifying at least one benefit derived from the advantage previously provided by the consumer, the product information being concealed from the consumer at this time; the programmed computer presenting a third page on the display apparatus, the third page listing the benefit provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide an additional open ended response specifying at least one situation in which a person might experience satisfaction from the benefit previously provided by the consumer, the product information and the advantage previously provided by the consumer being concealed from the consumer at this time; the programmed computer storing the consumer responses, including categorizing the consumer responses into advantages, benefits, and situations and storing the categories of responses into memory electronically connected to the programmed computer; the programmed computer searching the consumer responses stored in the memory for character strings and determining the frequency that each character string appears in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories; and the programmed computer displaying on the display apparatus the frequency that at least some of the character strings stored in memory occur in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories.

Claim 7

A method for obtaining product marketing information from consumers, the method comprising the steps of: presenting a first page providing descriptive product information to a consumer and querying the consumer to provide an open ended response specifying at least one advantage derived from the product information; presenting a second page listing the advantage provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide another open ended response specifying at least one benefit derived from the advantage previously provided by the consumer, the product information being concealed from the consumer at this time; presenting a third page listing the benefit provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide an additional open ended response specifying at least one situation in which a person might experience satisfaction from the benefit previously provided by the consumer, the product information and the advantage previously provided by the consumer being concealed from the consumer at this time; inputting the consumer responses into a programmed computer for categorizing the consumer responses into advantages, benefits, and situations and storing the categories of responses into memory electronically connected to the programmed computer; the programmed computer searching the consumer responses stored in the memory for character strings and determining the frequency that each character string appears in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories; and the programmed computer displaying on a display apparatus the frequency that at least some of the character strings stored in memory occur in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories.

Claim 8

A method for obtaining product marketing information from consumers, the method comprising the steps of: presenting a first page providing descriptive product information to a consumer and querying the consumer to provide an open ended response specifying at least one advantage derived from the product information; presenting a second page listing the advantage provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide another open ended response specifying at least one benefit derived from the advantage previously provided by the consumer, the product information being concealed from the consumer at this time; presenting a third page listing the benefit provided by the consumer and querying the consumer to provide an additional open ended response specifying at least one situation in which a person might experience satisfaction from the benefit previously provided by the consumer, the product information and the advantage previously provided by the consumer being concealed from the consumer at this time; inputting the consumer responses into a programmed computer for categorizing the consumer responses into advantages, benefits, and situations and storing the categories of responses into memory electronically connected to the programmed computer; the programmed computer searching the consumer responses stored in the memory for character strings and determining the frequency that each character string appears in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories; and the programmed computer displaying on a display apparatus the frequency that at least some of the character strings stored in memory occur in each of the advantages, benefits and situations categories.