Multiple Compartment Package

Abstract

The present invention relates to multiple compartment bags, and in particular to such bags in which one of the compartments is hermetically sealed. The present invention relates to a dual compartment package in which one hermetically sealed compartment is for packaging a personal care product, more particularly a cosmetic product, and one accessible compartment is for packaging a sample and optionally a leaflet of said personal care product, or of other products of the same product line of said first personal-care product.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to multiple compartment bags, and in particular to such bags in which one of the compartments is hermetically sealed. [0003] 2. Summary of the Related Art [0004] Promoting and selling a new retail product is always a challenge because of the effort it takes to get consumers to first learn about the new product, and then decide to either try or purchase the product. Manufacturers continually work to entice customers to try their product. Examples include, but are not limited to: car dealers offer customers a test drive; food manufacturers put up tasting counters at supermarkets; personal care manufacturers offer free samples given to customers when purchasing other products at a store; and software manufacturers offer a trial period for running a software, after which the software stops working, or works only partially, unless the customer pays for the full version. [0005] Whereas in mos...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides a package for retail products that includes a hermetically sealed compartment and an accessible compartment. The retail product can be packaged in the hermetically sealed compartment and a sample or trial version of the product can be packaged in the accessible compartment. The package can also contain additional marketing or promotional materials. The package allows consumers to try the retail product and return it untouched within a predefined time limit for a refund or credit. The invention provides a new method for selling retail products and allows manufacturers and retail stores to offer a strong guarantee of the quality of the retail product while still allowing consumers to try samples and return them untouched."

Problems solved by technology

Promoting and selling a new retail product is always a challenge because of the effort it takes to get consumers to first learn about the new product, and then decide to either try or purchase the product.

Whereas in most industries, such as the food industry or car industry, a single trial is usually sufficient to give consumers a fairly good appreciation about the product's characteristics, the personal-care industry is challenged by the fact that consumers usually require a longer period of usage and several trials until a customer can form an opinion about the benefits or how suitable is a personal-care product.

Offering free product samples alone, while being an excellent way to introduce a new product to customers, has its limitations.

Customers may try a sample and throw away its package, and by the next time they are at the store they may not remember the exact brand or product they have tested.

The consequence is that the first store that introduced the sample does not benefit from the ensuing sale.

The result of the above is that it is a problem for manufacturers, and even more so for specific stores, to create a strong link between trying a sample of a product and making a purchase of that same product.

If the leaflet is placed inside a sealed package of the product, said product may no longer be suitable for distribution in another country, unless it is accompanied by a multi-lingual leaflet that may be long, bulkier, or more expensive to produce.

If for example, a manufacturer produces an inventory for a product with an English version, but suddenly there is a great demand for the product in Germany, the existing English version in stock is not suitable for the sale of the product in Germany.

Stripping the English packaging and replacing it with a German package may be a cumbersome and expensive project to carry out.

Manufacturers and distributors can hardly afford to devote marketing and advertising budgets to retail stores.

Advertising is usually expensive and manufacturers and distributors prefer to spend most of it on the product itself.

The container of JP 2003321064 is not adapted for testing the product over an extended period of time as the package or container is opened with scissors and thus cannot be sealed after usage.

Such a package does not allow independent usage of the sample product nor does it allow the insertion of additional promotional material to the package.

Such a package is expensive to manufacture and is not fitted to multiple usage over time, due to the fragility of the rigid package.

Such a package is easily damaged when being shipped or used, making it less attractive for being offered for sale.

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