In practice, a tissue manufacturer would place an advertisement for the availability of customized facial tissue products in a topical medium, such as a magazine. The advertisement would identify a website which the reader of the magazine could access via computer in order to design and place an order for their customized facial tissue products.
The website would provide a variety of product choices as described above, particularly including packaging graphics choices relating to the topic of the magazine, which the consumer can select. Advantageously, the website could also provide other topical choices as well as the topic related to the particular magazine being read by the consumer. This would enable a consumer/reader having other interests to select from many different topical choices. Preferably the website would also have the capability to preview and display a picture or three-dimensional image of the tissue carton or package with the consumer's graphics choice(s) so the consumer can more readily visualize what the selected graphics will look like on the carton or package. As previously mentioned, the website can optionally offer choices for scents and tissue basesheet types, which may include lotions, virucides, softeners or embossing patterns. Another option may include print patterns for the tissue itself which also coordinate with the topic of the magazine.
Once the consumer has selected the customized product design, he/she places an order on the website for an amount of facial tissue product. As a practical matter, orders will likely have to exceed a certain minimum quantity, such as 24 cartons, for example. The order and the selected image can automatically be directed electronically to the tissue manufacturer or its designated vendor, which would likely be a company with a relatively small-scale, but flexible, converting capability that can handle small custom orders efficiently. In that situation, the tissue manufacturer could provide the vendor with a supply of parent rolls of tissue basesheet.
If the tissue basesheet is to be customized, the selected “generic” tissue basesheet would be unwound and passed through an optional printing station, most likely a digital printer. Digital printers have the capability to provide detailed images from electronic format and are particularly suited for slow speed/narrow width operations where there is time to clean any build-up of tissue dust/lint from the print heads. The basesheet may also be passed through a gravure printing station or a spray station to apply any desired lotion or scents. The tissue basesheet would then be folded and cut into appropriate clips for subsequent insertion into the selected packaging. If the tissue basesheet is not to be customized, it is simply passed to the folding and cutting operations.
If the tissue product involves a poly wrapper, the selected graphics can be printed on the poly wrapper using a digital printer and the printed wrapper is directed to the packaging operation.
If the tissue product involves a carton, a carton blank is printed with the selected graphics using a digital printer and the carton is directed to the packaging operation.
Once the assembly of the products is completed, the products are shipped directly to the consumer or to some other destination designated by the consumer. The specifics of the order can be maintained in a database by the tissue manufacturer so the consumer can re-order from time to time as desired or modify the existing design for future purchases.
It will be appreciated that the foregoing description, given for purposes of illustration, is not to be construed as limiting the scope of this invention, which is defined by the following claims and all equivalents thereto.