Clean Paper, located in Lucca, Italy, is a company where ideas make the difference. The team is comprised of 25 people and captained by the two founding partners, Giorgio Bartoloni S.Omer and Federigo Faina, who in 1996 introduced a new vision/philosophy for the pocket handkerchiefs market.
Maura Leonardi
A product’s success depends on how widespread is the need for it perceived by consumers. If in Japan tissue handkerchiefs have for 30 years constituted a publicity vehicle par excellence, in Europe this idea is just beginning to take shape. Distributed free of charge in large cities to passers-by or at the exit of train and bus stations, in the land of the Rising Sun pocket handkerchiefs have assumed an important role in conveying the name of a company or launching a new product. An innovative approach that people consider much more pleasant than the usual advertisement sheets that regularly fill mail boxes. Just FYI, the first entity to adopt the pocket handkerchief as an instrument of communication was a bank that decided to offer them instead of the free matches they had used until that moment. Today, we estimate that over two and a half billion packs are distributed: certainly interesting numbers that are food for thought regarding this product’s potential.
THE HANDKERCHIEF MARKET, WHERE IDEAS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE, IS WORTH 702,651 MILLION EURO1 and in the tissue products category, handkerchiefs are responsible for 7% of consumption. And it was indeed an innovative idea that led Clean Paper to undertake an activity aimed at satisfying the needs of a very specific market niche, offering its customers personalized pocket handkerchiefs. Flexibility is their password, just like offering a turnkey product, catering to all the phases of its creation: from the graphic aspect of the handkerchief’s personalization to its packaging or just the packaging. The formats offered are: 5-handkerchief pack, mini and the classic standard. With three purpose converting lines – one for the production of the 5-kerchief format, the other for the mini and one for the standard pack – the company today proposes its Promo and Consumer product lines.
While the Consumer line satisfies daily consumption needs (white, mini, ultra-flat, classic white, decorated and decorated ultra-flat), within the Promo range we find the brands Logo, a pack comprised of eight 4-ply handkerchiefs, and Logo +, a pack of ten 4-ply handkerchiefs. Both these lines are personalized and allow conferring the aspect of promotional gadget to the handkerchief. A communication vehicle available to companies to promote an advertisement campaign, publicize a specific product, convey their name or a small informative brochure that can be added inside the pack.
THE NEW VISION OF THE PAPER HANDKERCHIEF AND FACIAL TISSUE AS A MARKETING INSTRUMENT IS A WINNING IDEA that has led Clean Paper to attain an annual production of 170,000,000 packs of handkerchiefs.
Dragon Ball, the Winx, the Gormiti characters, soccer teams, the Flinstones, Looney Tunes and lots of other Warner Bros. characters are just some of the personalized items produced by Clean Paper and offered in the consumer range of products. These likeable handkerchiefs have already conquered both adults and children, who can thus have their favorite characters “just a pocket away”. Thanks to the purchase of a new converting line that began operation in June of this year, Clean Paper proposes also facial tissues printed and packaged in line, guaranteeing a better quality of the finished product due to centering of the print, and reaching an estimated 2008 production of 10,000 packs per year exported to France, Germany and Spain. Certainly modest figures with respect to those of the huge giants, but for this small entity they represent a record, conferring it a leadership position in this niche on the Italian market. To complete the product range there are also moistened towels that can be personalized according to the specific needs of companies.
If in Japan a pocket handkerchief replaces the bothersome advertisement flyers that make mailboxes overflow, we can only hope that in Europe, too, this marketing trend will become popular and the pocket handkerchief will become a pleasant and useful promotional gadget! •