Patent Application
20080229632
The present invention generally relates to devices for displaying advertising material. More particularly, but not exclusively, devices for displaying real estate brochures having a direction indicator are disclosed.
Standard real estate practices include certain routine procedures such as the preparation of a flyer or brochure that describes a home's characteristics. Information typically included on the flyer are the sale or lease price, the address, the number of rooms and bathrooms, unique features, pictures of the home and other specific information about the property. A quantity of these flyers is placed at the premise being offered for sale to enable clients viewing the property to have key information in a form that is concise and convenient take home with them to remember the property and its unique characteristics. Such flyers are utilized for both new and resale properties and are recognized as a standard marketing tool by real estate professionals. In addition to the promotional material pertaining to the property, it is common practice for listing agents to leave a number of their business cards for the use of anyone viewing the property.
The flyers and business cards are sometimes placed on a kitchen table or counter where they have to be constantly organized into neat stacks. Sometimes the business cards and flyers are organized and placed in a brochure display device that is typically made of plastic. Even when placed in a plastic display device, there still is a problem of keeping the displayed material attractively arranged at the point of use. For example, in many instances, the front wall of a display pocket terminates beneath the upper edges of the papers stored therein. As a result, the papers tend to curl over the front face and become damaged. Furthermore, as material is removed from the pocket, remaining papers in the pocket lack the support provided by a greater quantity of adjacent papers. Yet, with a large number of brochures, sometimes it is difficult to remove just a single copy. Similarly with business cards, as cards are removed, the remaining cards do not have additional support from adjacent cards to remain in a substantially upright orientation and as a result, cards sometimes flop forward obscuring the front side of the card from view. Business cards are sometimes equally difficult to separate and remove requiring greater finger accessibility.
In addition to the information provided on the flyers, visitors to an open house frequently like to know in what direction the house is oriented. Typically, this information is not printed on the flyer. Sometimes, the question is asked of the agent so that the potential buyer can better visualize the expected exposure to sunlight, for example, at a time different from when visiting the house. Also, many times visitors become disoriented after spending some time inside an unfamiliar house and would like to know where a certain direction lies. Furthermore, some visitors like to know other directional information such as in which direction is a certain landmark outside the house such as a downtown, ocean, airport or nearby street relative to the house. Cardinal compass directions are also important for visitors interested in feng shui applications for the home.
These problems exist not only in the home selling industry but in all kinds of advertising industries which need to stack display brochures, often of different sizes, or provide a direction information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a promotional material display which overcomes the shortcomings described above.
According to one aspect of the invention, a promotional material display device is provided. The promotional material display device includes a first promotional material receiving portion configured to receive promotional material. A support is connected to the first promotional material receiving portion and configured to support the first promotional material receiving portion on a flat surface. The promotional material display device includes a direction indicator connected to the device. The direction indicator is configured to provide indication of at least one direction information.
According to another aspect of the invention, a promotional material display device is provided. The promotional material display device includes a back wall, a first sidewall and a second sidewall. The first sidewall is spaced apart from the second sidewall. The device includes a first front wall that is spaced apart from the back wall. The device further includes a first bottom. The back wall, the first and second sidewalls, the first front wall and the first bottom are configured to define a first cavity of a first promotional material receiving portion. The first cavity has an open top such that the first front wall is interconnected to the back wall by at least one or more of the first bottom, the first sidewall and the second sidewall. The first cavity is configured to receive promotional material. The device further includes a direction indicator connected to the device for indicating at least one direction information.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a promotional material holder for display on a substantially flat surface is provided. The holder includes a back wall, a first sidewall and a second sidewall. The first sidewall is spaced apart from the second sidewall. A first front wall is also provided that is spaced apart from the back wall. The holder further includes a first bottom. The back wall, the first and second sidewalls, the first front wall and the first bottom are configured to define a first cavity of a first promotional material receiving portion. The first front wall is interconnected to the back wall by the first bottom, the first sidewall and the second sidewall. The first cavity has an open top and is configured to receive promotional material. A third sidewall and a fourth sidewall are also provided. The third sidewall is spaced apart from the fourth sidewall. The holder includes a second front wall that is spaced apart from the first front wall. A second bottom is provided. At least a portion of the first front wall, the third and fourth sidewalls, the second front wall and the second bottom are configured to define a second cavity of a second promotional material receiving portion. The second front wall is interconnected to the first front wall by the second bottom, the third sidewall and the fourth sidewall. The first cavity has an open top and is configured to receive promotional material. The holder further includes a base wall that is connected to the first promotional material receiving portion such that the base wall forms an acute angle with the back wall. The base wall being is configured to support the device on the flat surface. The holder further includes direction indicator for indicating at least one direction information connected to the device at the first front wall or the second front wall.
Other advantages will be apparent from the description that follows, including the drawings and claims.
The invention is best understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is emphasized that, according to common practice, the various features of the drawings are not to-scale. On the contrary, the dimensions of the various features are arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. Included in the drawings are the following figures:
Before the subject devices, systems and methods are described, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to particular embodiments described, as such may, of course, vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting, since the scope of the present invention will be limited only by the appended claims.
The present invention will now be described in detail by way of the following description of exemplary embodiments and variations of the systems and methods of the present invention.
Referring now to
With particular reference to
With particular reference to
As seen in the figures, the first front wall 30 is shorter than the back wall 22. The first front wall 30 typically rises a quarter to two-thirds of the way up from the first bottom 28 with respect to the back wall 22 such that the promotional material 18 in the first receiving portion 12 is not covered by the first front wall 30. This is particularly advantageous when non-transparent material is used to construct the first front wall 30. If transparent material is employed for the first front wall 30, the first front wall 30 can be designed to rise higher with respect to the back wall 22. As seen in
In one variation, the direction indicator 16 provides the direction of at least one cardinal compass direction such as “north,” “south,” “east” and “west” with respect to the display device 10. In one variation, the direction indicator 16 is a magnetic compass 36 that is inserted through an opening 38 in a flange 40 that extends outwardly from the first front wall 30 as shown in
Furthermore, the direction indicator is not limited to showing the cardinal compass directions, but any direction information can be indicated by the direction indicator. One example of a direction information is a sunny or southern exposure direction of the relevant structure that is indicated by the color yellow or graphic depiction of a sun for example. Another example of a direction information is a dark side and the color blue or black or a graphic depiction of a moon to indicate a dark side on a dial or other formatted structure of the direction indicator. Other examples of direction informations are the direction of the nearest city, largest city, downtown, the ocean, lake, grocery store, water feature, street, airport, sitting direction and facing direction of the home. Any direction information conveyed via the direction indicator is within the scope of the present invention and, of course, any distance or other information associated with a direction information may also be included on the direction indicator.
In one variation of the invention, there is no second promotional material receiving portion 14. In another variation as shown in
In one variation, the display device 10 includes a support 54 as visible in
The preceding merely illustrates the principles of the invention. It will be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples and conditional language recited herein are principally intended to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventors to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents and equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure. The scope of the present invention, therefore, is not intended to be limited to the exemplary embodiments shown and described herein. Rather, the scope and spirit of present invention is embodied by the appended claims.
