Customized retail package

Abstract

A customized package for marketing a prepaid service of converting a customer's photograph into an art work. The package includes product information sheets describing certain options of the art work and that are pre-selected for the particular retail establishment by cutting sections describing the desired options from more extensive printed sheets. The package also includes an order form customized to allow the customer to order those options that have been selected in accordance with the enclosed information sheets. A glassine envelope is included for the customer to enclose the photograph and a pencil may also be included within the glassine envelope. A self-addressed envelope is included to enable the customer to send the ordering components to the art work supplier. Finally the package is fully enclosed in a transparent plastic outer envelope to enable the contents of the package to be displayed to a customer.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a customized package for retail sales and, more particularly, to a customized package for use in providing a prepaid service to a customer relating to the use of a customer photograph to create a work of art.

There are certainly numerous sales packages that are provided to a consumer in order to market certain products and services. One of such sales packages is used in connection with the marketing of a work of art that is created by the artist based upon a photograph that is submitted by the customer.

In that business, the art work supplier provides a package to retailers so that the packages are displayed to be seen and purchased by the customer. With the purchase, the customer obtains a prepaid right to the services of the supplier and, as a part of the transaction, the customer selects from its own personal collection a particular photograph or photographs to be sent to the art work supplier for use in creating the art work.

As can be seen, therefore, the package must contain sufficient information for the customer to complete the transaction including the forwarding of the customer's chosen photograph to the art work supplier. Accordingly, the package must contain product information sheets that set forth the various options available to the customer, an order form that the customer can use to select the desired options explained in the product information sheets as well as a preprinted mailing envelope that the customer can use to safely transmit the photograph to the art work supplier.

As such, a problem exists in that each retailer may want a different selection of options for its customers, that is, one retailer may want different options for its customers than another retailer. It would, therefore, be advantageous to supply a different package for each retailer so that the package for any one retailer conforms to the desires of that retailer.

Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a customized retail package for the business as well as a system that facilitates the assembling of a customized retail package.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a customized retail package for use in the business of selling prepaid services to create a work of art based on a customer supplied photograph.

The retail package enables the customer to review all of the available options for the art work and to fill out an order form indicating those desired options and return the order form along with a photograph that is desired to be converted into the art work.

To do so and to minimize the cost of printing, there is at least one, and preferably a plurality of, descriptive printed product information sheets that list and describe the options available to the customer in converting the photograph into an art work. To minimize the printing cost, the product information sheets are initially printed having all of the options described with indicia, such as delineation lines, that separate the product information sheets into individual sections with each section describing a particular option.

As such, if the retailer wants only certain options to be available to its customers, the art work supplier can customize that package by simply cutting along the delineation lines in order to separate out the sections describing the options desired by that retailer and only those sections included in the retail package; the other sections not offered to those customers being discarded. Thus, there is no need to print specialized product information sheets for each retailer since the same printed product information sheets are used but customized for each retailer.

The retail package includes an order form that is customized to provide a selection of only the product information sheets illustrating options that have been selected for inclusion in the package. Since only certain product information sheets have been included in the package, the order form is printed so as to list only those available to that customer and not those options that have not been offered to the customer. The order form also has a cut off portion to be retained by the customer as a record of the order and both the customer portion and the art work supplier portion has an identification number for use in identifying that order.

A glassine envelope is also included in the retail package and which is used by the customer to enclose a photograph that the customer wants converted to a work of art. The use of glassine material for the envelope allows the customer to write on the envelope without damaging the photograph contained therein and there can be a pencil provided for that purpose contained within the glassine envelope.

A self-addressed mailing envelope is included in the package for use by the customer in sending the order form along with the glassine envelope containing the photograph to the art work supplier.

Finally, all of the contents of the package are contained within a transparent outer envelope that can be displayed at the retail location to serve as an attraction to the prospective customer.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent during the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a representation of a product information sheet showing customer options available to the customer;

FIG. 2 is a front view of an order form for use by a customer in ordering options.

FIG. 3 is a glassine envelope used with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a self-addressed mailing envelope used with the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is an outer flexible envelope for enclosing the items of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a front view of a product information sheet 10 used with the present invention. There may be, and normally will be, a plurality of product information sheets 10 and which are printed sheets that provide information as to the various options that the customer may select in obtaining the final art product from the supplier. As such, there is an indicia in the form of a delineation line 12 that is printed on the product information sheet 10 and which divides the product information sheet 10 into sections 14, 16. Each of the sections 14, 16 illustrates and describes an alternative option provided to the customer and such options can include, among others, personalized inscriptions, touch-up service, upgrades, types of canvas and frame selection.

Accordingly, the art work supplier can customize the options provided to the customer easily and inexpensively by determining the particular options that are desired to be available to the customer and then cut along the line 12 to create sections of the information sheets 10 so as to retain those sections having the desired options and separating out the sections having the unwanted options. By that method, the supplier can have all of the product information sheets 10 include all of the available options so that the information sheets can be printed uniformly and not specially printed for specific cases.

When the final package is assembled, however, as will later be explained, the supplier can simply select the desired options for the particular package and then cut out the sections that are applicable and include those sections in the final package that describe the desired options.

By this means, the options can be customized for that particular retail location without the need and expense to print individual product information sheets for each retailer. As an example, a retailer may want only certain options contained and offered within the retail package provided by that retailer and the art work supplier can simply cut the uniformly printed product information sheets along the line 12 to select only the applicable sections illustrating the options desired by that retailer. As such, all of the information sheets 10 can be printed uniformly but easily converted into individual customized packages for each retailer.

As can therefore be seen, by the use of multiple information sheets 10, a good number of options can be explained and offered to the customer and yet each package can be easily and inexpensively customized to only include the desired options.

Turning now to FIG. 2, there is shown a front view of a order form 18 that is enclosed within the overall retail package and which has a fold line 20 that can be torn or cut apart to provide a customer part 22 and an art work supplier part 24. As suggested, the customer retains the customer part 22 as a record of making the order and the art work supplier part 24 is mailed to the art work supplier. An identification number 26 is printed on each order form 18 and is located on both the customer part 22 and the art work supplier part 24 for use by the customer to identify the order to the art work supplier, if there is a need to do so, and for the art work supplier to track the progress of the order.

Along with the normal ordering information as to the identity of the customer, the order form lists the various options 28 that are available to the customer for ordering the art work. Since the order form 18 can be laser printed, each order form 18 can be customized in accordance with the information sheets 10 that are included in the package, that is, the order form 18 can specifically list only the options that have been selected as desired and provided in the retail package and not the options that were originally a part of the information sheets 10 and separated out as not applicable to the particular customer base.

Therefore, both the order form 18 and the product information sheets 10 are both customized for the individual package provided to the customer.

Turning next to FIG. 3, there is shown a front view of a glassine envelope 30 that is a part of the overall package and the glassine envelope 30 is provided for the customer to insert the particular photograph that the customer desires to be converted into an art work. The use of the glassine material allows the user to write on the exterior of the glassine envelope 30 without damaging the photograph and there may also be a pencil 32 enclosed within the glassine envelope 30 for the convenience of the customer.

Turning next to FIG. 4, there is a front view of a mailing envelope 34 that is also included within the retail package and which is used by the customer to forward all of the necessary materials to the supplier of the art work. The mailing envelope 34 can be a standard brown heavy paper envelope and there is a preprinted address 36 designating the location of the art work supplier on the mailing envelope 34. As such, the customer can forward the glassine envelope 30 containing the particular photograph as well as the order form 18 in the mailing envelope 34 to the supplier of the art work. There is preferably a heavy sheet of material, such as cardboard within the mailing envelope 30 to protect the photograph from damage during the mailing process.

Finally, turning to FIG. 5, there is a flexible plastic transparent outer envelope 38 that encloses all of the aforedescribed components and which can therefore be used not only to encase and secure all of those components in one package, but also can serve to display the information therein at the retail establishment in order to induce customers to purchase the prepaid service.

As can now be seen, using FIGS. 1-5, the retail package of the present invention has certain components that combine to make the package of the present invention a customized package for each retail location. Thus, there is contained within the outer envelope 38, at least one product information sheet 10 that describes various options available to the customers and which is customized to the particular retail establishment, an order form 18 that is customized in accordance with the particular selected options described in the product information sheet or sheets, a glassine envelope 30 to facilitate the customer sending in a photograph to the art work supplier and a mailing envelope 34 that is self-addressed to enable the customer to mail certain items back to the art work supplier. The customer thus has information on the available options for the art work and can select those desired options on the order form and cut or tear off a portion of the order form to be retained for the customer's own record.

The order form 18 and the glassine envelope 30 containing the customer's photograph are placed into the mailing envelope 34 to be mailed to the art work supplier. Thus, each package is individually customized with a minimum of printing costs and yet the overall package contains all of the product option information and ordering document necessary for the customer to send in a completed order to the art work supplier.

Those skilled in the art will readily recognize numerous adaptations and modifications which can be made to the customized package and system of the present invention which will result in an improved retail package, yet all of which will fall within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined in the following claims. Accordingly, the invention is to be limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A customized package to enable a customer to order an art painting from an art work supplier based upon a photograph, the package comprising an flexible outer envelope containing at least one product information sheet illustrating certain options of the art painting, a glassine envelope for enclosing a photograph supplied by a customer, an order form having a listing of order entries for selecting the options described in the at least one product information sheet, and a self-addressed mailing envelope for returning certain components of the package to an art work supplier.

2. The package of claim 1 wherein the order form that is separable into a customer part retained by the customer and a supplier part to be returned to the art work supplier.

3. The package of claim 2 wherein the customer part and the supplier part both have a common identification number printed thereon.

4. The package of claim 1 wherein the self-addressed envelope is dimensioned to contain the order form and the glassine envelope.

5. The package of claim 1 wherein the self-addressed envelope contains a cardboard backing to protect the contents from damage during the mailing process.

6. The package of claim 1 wherein the at least one product information sheet comprises a plurality of product information sheets.

7. The package of claim 1 wherein the package includes a pencil for writing on the glassine envelope.

8. A method of assembling a customized order package for supplying an art work based on a customer supplied photograph, the method comprising the steps of:

providing at least one product information sheet having different customer options printed thereon;

cutting the at least one product information sheet into separate sections having different customer options printed thereon;

selecting the sections having the desired options printed thereon;

printing a order form listing the selected customer options;

providing a preprinted self addressed outer mailing envelope;

providing a glassine bag; and

enclosing the sections of the at least one product information sheet, the order form, the preprinted outer mailing envelope and the glassine envelope into a flexible outer envelope.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of providing at least one product information sheet having different customer options comprises providing at least one sheet having a delineation line separating the at least one product information sheet into sections having different options printed thereon.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of providing at least one product information sheet comprises providing a plurality of product information sheets.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of cutting the at least one product information sheet comprises cutting along the delineation line to separate the product information sheet into separate sections.

12. The method of claim 8 further including the step of enclosing a pencil into the customized order package.

13. The method of claim 8 further including the step of including and enclosing a cardboard backing into the flexible outer envelope.

14. The method of claim 8 further including the step of including and enclosing a pencil into the flexible outer envelope.