Kleenex packaging gets personal

Thanks to digital printing on an HP Indigo press, that’s exactly what Kimberly Clark is doing. Its oval-shaped paperboard cartons of facial tissue were among the highlights of the HP Specialty Printing System’s Digital Supermarket pavilion at interpack 2011. The short-run, fast-changeover capabilities inherent in digital printing make such packaging perfectly practical.

Consumers engage with this clever initiative by visiting here. There they create whatever messages or designs they like, including photos. In about three days and for about $5.00, your personalized package of facial tissue is delivered to your door.

Long-time observers of the packaging scene at interpack were impressed by this application because it takes full advantage of packaging’s potential to be a powerful marketing tool as opposed to being something that is merely an exercise in engineering.