Advertising image determination device, printing system, advertising image determination method, and program

Abstract

To provide an advertising image determination device, a printing system, an advertising image determination method, and a program that enable even a small-scale company to improve product sales.SOLUTION: In a community and a distribution center, a small-scale company-A terminal 101, which serves as an advertising image determination device, includes: a product information acquisition unit 111 that acquires product information for a product sold by a plurality of companies within the community that includes the companies; a correspondence relation information reference unit 112 that references correspondence relation information between the type of the product and the types of advertising images; and an advertising image determination unit 113 that determines an advertising image to be printed on a packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other companies within the community, based on the correspondence relation information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an advertising image determination device, a printing system including the advertising image determination device and a printing device, an advertising image determination method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, in order to allow consumers to have a wider range of product choices, a product purchasing system has been proposed in which multiple product sellers operating e-commerce sites compete to offer low product prices (see, for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2023-127131 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In the above-mentioned product purchasing system, if the product prices can be lowered, more products can be sold. However, small businesses often have limited financial resources and are at a disadvantage in price competition with large businesses, making it difficult for them to increase their product sales.

[0005] Furthermore, even when small businesses sell products on their own e-commerce (electronic commerce) sites, they have less of an appeal to consumers than the e-commerce sites of large businesses, and increasing product sales is left to the individual's own efforts.

[0006] On the other hand, small businesses often increase sales by producing high-quality products such as handmade goods and health foods, or by sending products to consumers using packaging that catches the consumer's eye (for example, shape, design, printed image, etc.), and the products of small businesses often have appeal beyond price.

[0007] An object of the present invention is to provide an advertising image determination device, a printing system, an advertising image determination method, and a program that can increase product sales even for small-scale businesses. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In one aspect, the advertising image determination device includes a product information acquisition unit that acquires product information of products sold by businesses within a community that includes multiple businesses, a correspondence information reference unit that references correspondence information between the type of product and the type of advertising image, and an advertising image determination unit that determines an advertising image to be printed on packaging material that packs the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to the above aspect, even small-scale businesses can increase their product sales. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a community and a delivery center according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] 10A and 10B are explanatory diagrams illustrating printing of a seller image and an advertising image on packaging material according to an embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a matching table according to an embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a usage correspondence table according to an embodiment. [Figure 5]1 is a flowchart illustrating an advertising image determination method according to an embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configurations of a community, a delivery center, and an external terminal according to a first modified example of an embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a community and a delivery center according to a second modified example of an embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An advertising image determination device, a printing system, an advertising image determination method, and a program according to embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a community and a delivery center according to an embodiment.

[0013] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining printing of a seller image Pa and an advertising image Pb on a packaging material P. As shown in FIG.

[0014] Small business A terminal 101 (small business A), small business B terminal 102 (small business B), small business C terminal 103 (small business C), consumer A terminal 201 (consumer A), and consumer B terminal 202 (consumer B) shown in Figure 1 form a community. This community is formed by bringing together multiple businesses and multiple consumers based on a concept such as "enjoying outdoor activities." In the community, for example, discount sales, priority sales, and information exchange may be conducted.

[0015] Small business A terminal 101 includes a control unit 110, a storage unit 120, an input unit 130, a display unit 140, and an interface unit 150. Small business A terminal 101 communicates with small business B terminal 102, small business C terminal 103, consumer A terminal 201, consumer B terminal 202, print control device 300, and the like via a network. In the example of FIG. 1, small business A of small business A terminal 101 is the organizer of the community, and small business A terminal 101 functions as an example of an advertising image determination device. For example, a business that wants to form a community becomes the organizer and acquires a program on its own terminal (small business A terminal 101) to make it function as an advertising image determination device. The sender who sends this program to the organizer's terminal may receive a fee for posting advertisements from businesses in the community or a membership fee from businesses in the community.

[0016] The control unit 110 has, for example, one or more processors (e.g., CPU: Central Processing Unit) that function as an arithmetic processing device that controls the operation of each unit of the small business A terminal 101. This processor functions as a product information acquisition unit 111, a correspondence information reference unit 112, an advertising image determination unit 113, and a solicitation target determination unit 114, by reading and executing a predetermined program, for example, from the storage unit 120 or from a storage medium (non-transitory computer-readable recording medium) that is detachable from the small business A terminal 101. In this way, the control unit 110 (or the small business A terminal 101) functions as an example of a computer that executes a program.

[0017] The product information acquisition unit 111 acquires product information of products sold by businesses within the community (for example, small business A at the small business A terminal 101 itself, small business B at the small business B terminal 102, or small business C at the small business C terminal 103). For example, the product information acquisition unit 111 acquires product information when a business within the community sells a product on its own e-commerce site to a consumer within or outside the community. This product information may include information indicating the type of product, such as product type information (for example, shoes) and use information (for example, sports).

[0018] The correspondence information reference unit 112 references the correspondence information between the types of products and the types of advertisement images. This correspondence information is, for example, a matching table shown in FIG.

[0019] The matching table shown in Fig. 3 includes product type information (shoes, apparel, etc.) and product use information (sports, etc.) as types of products for sale (e.g., No. 1 and No. 2). The matching table also includes, as types of advertising images, information on the type of advertising image corresponding to the type information (images including shoes, images including apparel, etc.) and information on the type of advertising image corresponding to the use information (images belonging to the product use (sports), etc.). In the example of Fig. 3, the concept of the community is "enjoy outdoor activities," so only an example where the use information is sports is shown, but multiple use information may be associated even within one community.

[0020] The storage unit 120 or an external database described below stores one or more advertising images for each business, and these advertising images are stored together with an ID corresponding to the type of advertising image (for example, an ID including a shoe ID for an image including shoes or an apparel ID for an image including apparel, and a sports ID corresponding to an image belonging to a product use).

[0021] As shown in the use correspondence table of Figure 4, the sports ID linked to each advertising image may further include subdivided subdivision IDs (subdivision information) such as a tennis ID, baseball ID, mountain climbing ID, and running ID.

[0022] As shown in Fig. 2, the advertising image determination unit 113 shown in Fig. 1 determines the advertising image Pb to be printed on the packaging material P used to pack the sold product from among the advertising images Pb of other businesses within the community based on the above-mentioned matching table. For example, if small business B of small business B's terminal 102 sells running shoes, the running shoes correspond to the product type (shoes) and product use (sports) No. 1 shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, the advertising image determination unit 113 may extract an advertising image that satisfies at least one of the advertising image corresponding to the type information (an image including shoes) and the advertising image corresponding to the use information (an image belonging to the product use (sports)).

[0023] For example, the advertising image determination unit 113 may extract, from the advertising images stored in the memory unit 120 or an external database, an image that includes shoes (an image linked to a shoe ID) and that is linked to a subdivision ID (e.g., a mountain climbing ID) that is different from the subdivision ID (running ID) of the product being sold (running shoes) among the sports product uses (e.g., an advertising image Pb that includes mountain climbing boots and characters representing the name of the business, such as "Mountain climbing specialty store X," as shown in Figure 2).

[0024] If multiple images to be extracted are stored, the advertising image determination unit 113 may extract multiple advertising images in the same number as the number that can be printed on the packaging material P, or may extract advertising images for a business operator with a large difference between the number of times they advertise other companies and the number of times they have been advertised by other companies, or for a business operator with a large difference between the number of times they advertise the business operator of the product they sell and the number of times they have been advertised by the business operator of the product they sell. Alternatively, the advertising image determination unit 113 may extract the advertising image that is most relevant to the type of product being sold.

[0025] The advertising image Pb determined by the advertising image determination unit 113 and printed on the packaging material P is not limited to an image that exerts an advertising effect when printed on the packaging material P, but may be, for example, a two-dimensional code corresponding to a URL for displaying the advertising image on the Internet. In this case, the two-dimensional code may include information such as the company's homepage.

[0026] The solicitation target determination unit 114, for example, obtains information about consumers who are buyers from businesses within the community and determines that consumers to whom a business within the community sold a product are consumers outside the community. Alternatively, the solicitation target determination unit 114, for example, obtains information about businesses from consumers within the community and determines that businesses from which consumers within the community purchased products are businesses outside the community. The solicitation target determination unit 114 then determines consumers or businesses outside the community as targets for solicitation. The solicitation target determination unit 114 may directly solicit the consumers or businesses to be solicited to join the community by email or the like, or may notify businesses or consumers within the community to encourage solicitation.

[0027] Incidentally, for example, a small business owner A acting as a manager may decide whether or not to join a community based on the type and quality of the products sold by the business, and there may be a limit to the number of communities that a user can join. Furthermore, the solicitation target determination unit 114 may determine whether or not consumers outside the community are interested in the community, for example, based on the results of a survey conducted when a business within the community sells a product to consumers outside the community, and may determine only those consumers who are presumed to be interested as solicitation targets. Furthermore, the solicitation target determination unit 114 may determine solicitation targets at any timing, not just at the time of product sale (purchase time), by, for example, obtaining information about consumers and businesses outside the community from consumers and businesses within the community.

[0028] The storage unit 120 includes, for example, a memory such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), which is a read-only semiconductor memory in which predetermined control programs are pre-recorded, a RAM (Random Access Memory), which is a semiconductor memory that can be written and read at any time and is used as a working storage area as needed when the processor executes various control programs, a hard disk drive, etc. The storage unit 120 may also include an external storage device (database) for storing advertising images.

[0029] The input unit 130 has, for example, a touch panel, operation keys, a keyboard, a mouse, etc., and accepts input of various information.

[0030] The display unit 140 is a display that displays various types of information.

[0031] The interface unit 150 exchanges various information with external devices such as the small business B terminal 102, the small business C terminal 103, the consumer A terminal 201, the consumer B terminal 202, and the print control device 300. For example, the interface unit 150 receives product information about products sold by other business terminals, and transmits a determined advertising image to the print control device 300.

[0032] Like the small business A terminal 101, the small business B terminal 102, the small business C terminal 103, the consumer A terminal 201, and the consumer B terminal 202 may have a control unit, a memory unit, an input unit, a display unit, an interface unit, etc.

[0033] The print control device 300 and the printing device 400 are located, for example, in a distribution center. This distribution center packs products purchased from small business A terminal 101, small business B terminal 102, and small business C terminal 103 on their own e-commerce sites into packaging material P, prints advertising images Pb on the packaging material P, and so on.

[0034] The print control device 300 includes a control unit 310, a storage unit 320, an input unit 330, a display unit 340, and an interface unit 350. The print control device 300 is a device that controls the printing device 400. The print control device 300 may be a dedicated terminal for controlling printing by the printing device 400, but it may also function as a delivery management device that manages the delivery (shipping, etc.) of products. Alternatively, the printing device 400 may also function as the print control device 300.

[0035] The control unit 310 has a processor (e.g., a CPU) that functions as an arithmetic processing unit. This processor reads and executes a predetermined program from, for example, the storage unit 320 or from a storage medium (a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium) that is detachable from the print control device 300.

[0036] The storage unit 320 includes, for example, a ROM, which is a read-only semiconductor memory in which predetermined control programs are pre-recorded, and a RAM, which is a semiconductor memory that can be written and read at any time and is used as a working memory area as needed when the processor executes various control programs.

[0037] The input unit 330 includes, for example, a keyboard and a mouse, and receives input of various information from the user.

[0038] The display unit 340 is a display that displays various information.

[0039] The interface unit 350 exchanges various types of information with external devices such as the small business A terminal 101, the small business B terminal 102, the small business C terminal 103, and the printing device 400.

[0040] The printing device 400 includes a printing unit 410, a control unit 420, a storage unit 430, and an interface unit 440. A system including the advertising image determination device (small business A terminal 101) and the printing device 400 can be called a printing system.

[0041] As shown in FIG. 2, the printing unit 410 has six print heads 411 for each color, for example, black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. As an example, the printing unit 410 prints a seller image Pa (e.g., characters representing the name of the business, such as "Running Specialty Store Iroha") designated by the seller who sold the product onto the packaging material P, and an advertising image Pb (e.g., an image including hiking boots and characters representing the name of the business, such as "Mountaineering Specialty Store X"). The print heads 411 are shown with hidden dashed lines because they are located behind the printing unit 410 and not visible in FIG. 2. For example, the six print heads 411 for each color are arranged vertically at different positions in the transport direction of the packaging material P transported on the conveyor 600. Each of the multiple print heads 411 ejects ink horizontally to perform printing. This horizontal direction is a direction intersecting the vertical direction and the transport direction of the packaging material P (to the right in FIG. 2), e.g., the horizontal direction. However, the print head 411 may eject ink in other directions, such as vertically downward, when printing on the top surface of the packaging material P. The printing unit 410 may also be a printing unit 410 of a type other than an inkjet type, such as a thermal type.

[0042] The control unit 420 has, for example, a processor (e.g., a CPU) that functions as an arithmetic processing unit that controls the operation of each unit of the printing device 400. This processor reads and executes a predetermined program from, for example, the storage unit 430 or from a storage medium (non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) that is detachable from the printing device 400.

[0043] The storage unit 430 includes, for example, a ROM, which is a read-only semiconductor memory in which predetermined control programs are pre-recorded, and a RAM, which is a semiconductor memory that can be written and read at any time and is used as a working memory area as needed when the processor executes various control programs.

[0044] The interface unit 440 exchanges various types of information with external devices such as the print control device 300 .

[0045] Here, an advertising image determination method according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 5. Note that explanations of matters that overlap with the above explanation will be omitted as appropriate.

[0046] The processing shown in Figure 5 is performed by the control unit 110 of the small business A terminal 101 based on the product information sent to the small business A terminal 101 by a business within the community (for example, small business B of the small business B terminal 102) when selling a product to a consumer within or outside the community, for example on its own e-commerce site.

[0047] First, the product information acquisition unit 111 of the control unit 110 acquires product information about the product from a business selling the product (such as the small business B terminal 102) (step S1). This product information includes, for example, type information (shoes) and purpose information (sports) about the product (e.g., running shoes). Furthermore, if the small business A terminal 101 transmits not only the advertising image Pb but also delivery information such as the delivery address of the product to the print control device 300 at the delivery center, the small business A terminal 101 may also acquire the delivery information from the business selling the product.

[0048] Next, the correspondence information reference unit 112 refers to the matching table shown in FIG. 3, which is stored in the storage unit 120, for example (step S2).

[0049] Then, the advertising image determination unit 113 determines, using the above-mentioned ID, whether an advertising image of another business that corresponds to both (or at least one of) the product type information and the usage information is stored, for example, in the memory unit 120 (step S3).

[0050] If there is an advertising image of another business that corresponds to both the product type information and the use information (step S3: YES), the advertising image determination unit 113 determines this advertising image as the advertising image Pb to be printed on the packaging material P shown in Fig. 2 (step S4). Note that, if multiple images to be extracted are stored, as described above, the advertising image determination unit 113 may extract multiple advertising images in the number that can be printed on the packaging material P, or may extract advertising images for a business that has a large difference between the number of times it advertises other companies and the number of times it has been advertised by other companies, or for a business that has a large difference between the number of times it advertises the business of its products and the number of times it has been advertised by the business of its products.

[0051] On the other hand, if there is no advertising image of another business that corresponds to both (or either) the product type information and the use information (step S3: NO), the advertising image determination unit 113 determines whether a setting is made to generate an image corresponding to the type information (shoes) as an advertising image of another business (step S5). This setting may be determined for each business, or may be standardized within the community (for example, determined by the organizer). Note that the business for which an advertising image is to be generated may be determined to be, for example, an advertising image of a business that has a large difference between the number of times it advertises other companies and the number of times it has been advertised by other companies, or a business that has a large difference between the number of times it has advertised a business that sells its products and the number of times it has been advertised by a business that sells its products.

[0052] If the setting for generating an advertising image is made (step S5: YES), the advertising image determination unit 113 generates an advertising image including an image corresponding to the type (shoes) and an image of the company's name in letters, for example, using a known image generation AI, and determines the generated image as the advertising image (step S6). Alternatively, if the storage unit 120 stores multiple images corresponding to each product type, the advertising image determination unit 113 may extract an image corresponding to the company's business (for example, an image of hiking boots corresponding to segmentation information such as a hiking ID) from the multiple images, and generate an advertising image by combining the image corresponding to the type with an image of the company's name in letters. Alternatively, the advertising image determination unit 113 may notify other businesses to prepare images corresponding to multiple product types in advance.

[0053] If the setting to generate an advertising image is not made (step S5: NO), the advertising image determination unit 113 does not determine an advertising image. That is, no advertising image is printed on the packaging material P.

[0054] After the advertising image determination unit 113 determines the advertising image (steps S4 and S6), the solicitation target determination unit 114 determines whether the consumer to whom the business in the community sold a product is a consumer outside the community (step S7). The determined advertising image may be transmitted from the advertising image determination unit 113 to the print control device 300.

[0055] If the consumer is a consumer outside the community (step S7: YES), the solicitation target determination unit 114 determines that this consumer outside the community is a solicitation target (step S8). In this case, the solicitation target determination unit 114 may directly solicit the solicitation target to join the community by email or the like, or may issue a notification to businesses within the community that sell products in this flowchart, urging them to solicit. Note that, although different from the example shown in FIG. 5, if the solicitation target determination unit 114 determines that the business from which a consumer within the community purchased a product is a business outside the community, it may determine that this business outside the community is a solicitation target and, as described above, may issue a solicitation or notify consumers within the community urging them to solicit.

[0056] If the consumer is not a consumer outside the community (step S7: NO) and if the solicitation target determination unit 114 has determined the solicitation target (step S8), the processing shown in FIG. 5 ends.

[0057] 5 includes a process for determining whether to generate an image (step S5) and a process for generating an image (step S6), but these processes may be omitted. In that case, if there is no corresponding advertising image of another business (step S3: NO), the advertising image may not be printed on the packaging material P. Alternatively, all advertising images Pb printed on the packaging material P may be generated by the image generation process (step S6). In this case, the process for determining whether advertising images of other businesses are stored in the storage unit 120 (step S3) and the process for determining by extracting the stored advertising images (step S4) are unnecessary.

[0058] In addition, the flowchart shown in Figure 5 includes a process of determining whether the consumer who purchased the product is a consumer outside the community (step S7) and a process of determining the target of solicitation (step S8), but these processes may be omitted.

[0059] In the present embodiment described above, small business A terminal 101, which is an example of an advertising image determination device, includes a product information acquisition unit 111 that acquires product information on products sold by businesses within a community that includes multiple businesses, a correspondence information reference unit 112 that references a matching table that is an example of correspondence information between product types and advertising image types, and an advertising image determination unit 113 that determines, based on the matching table, an advertising image Pb to be printed on packaging material P that will be used to package the products from among advertising images of other businesses within the community.

[0060] The printing system includes the above-mentioned small business A terminal 101 (an example of an advertising image determination device) and a printing device 400. The printing device 400 prints the advertising image Pb determined by the advertising image determination unit 113 on packaging material P.

[0061] From a method perspective, the advertising image determination method is an advertising image determination method performed by a computer (e.g., the control unit 110 or small business A terminal 101), and includes obtaining product information for products sold by businesses within a community including multiple businesses (step S1), referencing a matching table which is an example of correspondence information between product types and advertising image types (step S2), and determining an advertising image Pb to be printed on packaging material P for packaging the products from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the matching table (steps S3 to S6).

[0062] From the perspective of the program, the program enables a computer (e.g., the control unit 110 or small business A terminal 101) to realize the following functions: obtain product information for products sold by businesses within a community that includes multiple businesses (step S1); refer to a matching table that is an example of correspondence information between product types and advertising image types (step S2); and determine the advertising image Pb to be printed on packaging material P for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the matching table (steps S3 to S6).

[0063] These small business A terminal 101, printing system, advertising image determination method, and program can change the advertising image Pb of other businesses within the community printed on product packaging P to a type of advertising image that corresponds to the type of product purchased. As a result, when the advertising image Pb is seen by consumers who purchase the product, it can lead to the consumer purchasing products from other businesses. For example, a consumer who purchased running shoes might see an image of hiking boots and become interested in hiking, leading to them purchasing hiking gear. Therefore, even small businesses that have little ability to attract customers to their own e-commerce site or are at a disadvantage in terms of product price competition can increase their product sales by having businesses within the community help each other by printing advertising images Pb on packaging P.

[0064] In this embodiment, the matching table, which is an example of correspondence information, includes product type information, product use information, and information on the type of advertising image corresponding to each of these.

[0065] Therefore, the advertising image determination unit 113 can determine an advertising image of a type corresponding to at least one of the product type information and the use information. Therefore, by having a consumer see an advertising image Pb of a type corresponding to at least one of the type and use of the purchased product, it is possible to more reliably lead to the consumer being induced to purchase products of other businesses.

[0066] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the community further includes a plurality of consumers, and the solicitation target determination unit 114 (a function for determining solicitation targets or determining solicitation targets) determines at least one of whether a consumer to whom a business within the community has sold a product is a consumer outside the community, and whether a business from which a consumer within the community has purchased a product is a business outside the community, and determines that the consumer or business outside the community is the solicitation target.

[0067] This allows the circle of the community to expand, and businesses within the community can help each other across a wider community by printing advertising images Pb on packaging materials P. Therefore, even small businesses can further increase their product sales.

[0068] In the above explanation, the businesses are described as small businesses such as small business A with small business A terminal 101, small business B with small business B terminal 102, and small business C with small business C terminal 103, but the business scale of the businesses is merely an example and there are no particular restrictions on the business scale of the businesses.

[0069] 3 has been used as an example of correspondence information, the correspondence information may be any information that indicates the types of products sold by businesses and the types of advertising images that correspond to those products, and the above-mentioned matching table is merely an example. Furthermore, the type of product is not limited to information that includes type information and use information, but may include either type information or use information, or may be identified by other elements.

[0070] <First Modification> FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a community, a delivery center, and an external terminal 500 in a first modified example of an embodiment.

[0071] 1, a mode has been described in which small business A terminal 101 within the community functions as the advertising image determination device, but in this first modified example, an external terminal 500 outside the community functions as the advertising image determination device. Since other matters can be the same as those described above, the following description will focus on the differences.

[0072] 6 has, for example, one or more processors (e.g., CPUs) that function as an arithmetic processing device that controls the operation of each unit of the external terminal 500. This processor functions as a product information acquisition unit 511, a correspondence relationship information reference unit 512, an advertising image determination unit 513, and a solicitation target determination unit 514 by, for example, reading and executing a predetermined program from the storage unit 520 or from a storage medium (non-transitory computer-readable recording medium) that is detachable from the external terminal 500. In this way, the control unit 510 (or the external terminal 500) functions as an example of a computer that executes a program.

[0073] The product information acquisition unit 511, correspondence information reference unit 512, advertising image determination unit 513, and solicitation target determination unit 514 may be configured in the same manner as the product information acquisition unit 111, correspondence information reference unit 112, advertising image determination unit 113, and solicitation target determination unit 114 described above.

[0074] The storage unit 520, input unit 530, display unit 540, and interface unit 550 may be configured in the same manner as the storage unit 120, input unit 130, display unit 140, and interface unit 150 described above.

[0075] The external terminal 500 may be, for example, a server device that manages product information and purchaser information to operate a mall-type e-commerce site that sells products from multiple businesses on a website. When the external terminal 500 is a server device for operating a mall-type e-commerce site, the external terminal 500 itself manages product information, so the product information acquisition unit 511 can easily acquire product information about products sold by businesses within the community. Furthermore, because the external terminal 500 manages product information and purchase information about businesses and consumers outside the community, it becomes easier for the solicitation target determination unit 514 to determine solicitation targets.

[0076] Furthermore, the external terminal 500 may determine the above-mentioned advertisement images Pb for multiple communities, regardless of whether it is a server device for operating a mall-type e-commerce site. This eliminates the need to provide a device for determining the advertisement images Pb for each community.

[0077] Since the external terminal 500 is a device different from the terminals of businesses within the community, maintenance of the device for processing the advertisement image determination is easier than when the advertisement image Pb is determined by a terminal of a small business such as the small business A terminal 101.

[0078] <Second Modification> FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a community and a delivery center according to a second modified example of an embodiment.

[0079] In this second modified example, the printing control device 300 functions as the advertising image determination device as a device outside the community, rather than the external terminal 500. Other matters can be the same as those described above, so the following description will focus on the differences.

[0080] 7 functions as a product information acquisition unit 311, a correspondence information reference unit 312, an advertising image determination unit 313, and a solicitation target determination unit 314, as a result of the processor reading and executing a predetermined program. In this way, the control unit 310 (or the print control device 300) functions as an example of a computer that executes a program.

[0081] The product information acquisition unit 311, correspondence information reference unit 312, advertising image determination unit 313, and solicitation target determination unit 314 may be configured in the same manner as the product information acquisition unit 111, correspondence information reference unit 112, advertising image determination unit 113, and solicitation target determination unit 114 described above.

[0082] As described above, the print control device 300 is placed in a distribution center that packs products purchased by small business A terminal 101 and small business B terminal 102 on their own e-commerce sites into packaging material P and prints on packaging material P. This allows the product information acquisition unit 311 to easily acquire product information about products sold by businesses within the community. Furthermore, if the print control device 300 also packs and prints on packaging material for products from businesses outside the community, it becomes easier for the solicitation target determination unit 314 to determine solicitation targets.

[0083] Furthermore, the print control device 300 may determine the above-mentioned advertisement image Pb for a plurality of communities, thereby eliminating the need to provide a device for determining the advertisement image Pb for each community.

[0084] Furthermore, since the printing control device 300 is a device different from the terminals of businesses within the community, maintenance of the device for processing the advertising image determination is easier than when the advertising image Pb is determined by a terminal of a small business such as the small business A terminal 101.

[0085] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the components can be modified and embodied in practice without departing from the spirit of the invention. Furthermore, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining multiple components disclosed in the above-described embodiments. For example, all components shown in the embodiments may be appropriately combined. Naturally, various modifications and applications are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention. Below, a portion of the invention described in the specification and drawings of this application is additionally noted.

[0086] [Appendix 1] a product information acquisition unit that acquires product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; a correspondence information reference unit that references correspondence information between the product type and the advertisement image type; an advertising image determination unit that determines an advertising image to be printed on a packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; An advertising image determination device comprising:

[0087] [Appendix 2] The type of the product includes product type information and product usage information, The correspondence information includes information on the type of the advertising image corresponding to each of the type information and the use information. 2. The advertising image determination device according to claim 1.

[0088] [Appendix 3] the community further includes a plurality of consumers; The community further includes a solicitation target determination unit that determines at least one of a consumer to whom the business operator within the community sold a product being a consumer outside the community and a business operator from whom the consumer within the community purchased a product being a business outside the community, and determines the consumer or business operator outside the community as a solicitation target. 3. The advertising image determination device according to claim 1 or 2.

[0089] [Appendix 4] A printing system including an advertising image determination device and a printing device, The advertising image determination device a product information acquisition unit that acquires product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; a correspondence information reference unit that references correspondence information between the product type and the advertisement image type; an advertising image determination unit that determines an advertising image to be printed on a packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; The printing device The advertising image determined by the advertising image determination unit is printed on the packaging material. A printing system characterized by:

[0090] [Appendix 5] An advertising image determination method performed by a computer, comprising: Obtaining product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; referencing information on the correspondence relationship between the type of product and the type of advertisement image; determining an advertising image to be printed on a packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; An advertising image determination method comprising:

[0091] [Appendix 6] A function of acquiring product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; a function of referring to information on the correspondence relationship between the type of product and the type of advertisement image; a function of determining an advertising image to be printed on packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; A program that makes the computer realize the above. [Explanation of symbols]

[0092] 101 Small business A terminal (advertising image determination device) 102 Small business operator B terminal 103 Small Business C Terminal 110 control section 111 Product Information Acquisition Department 112 Correspondence information reference section 113 Advertising Image Determination Department 114 Recruitment Target Determination Department 201 Consumer A terminal 202 Consumer b terminal 300 Printing control device (advertising image determination device) 310 Control Unit 311 Product Information Acquisition Department 312 Correspondence information reference section 313 Advertising Image Determination Department 314 Recruitment Target Determination Department 400 Printing equipment 410 Printing Department 411 Print Head 500 External terminal (advertising image determination device) 510 control section 511 Product Information Acquisition Department 512 Correspondence information reference section 513 Advertising Image Determination Unit 514 Recruitment Target Determination Department 600 Conveyor P packaging material Pa Seller Image Pb advertising image

Claims

1. a product information acquisition unit that acquires product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; a correspondence information reference unit that references correspondence information between the product type and the advertisement image type; an advertising image determination unit that determines an advertising image to be printed on a packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; An advertising image determination device comprising:

2. The type of the product includes product type information and product usage information, The correspondence information includes information on the type of the advertising image corresponding to each of the type information and the use information.

2. The advertising image determination device according to claim 1.

3. the community further includes a plurality of consumers; The community further includes a solicitation target determination unit that determines at least one of a consumer to whom the business operator within the community sold a product being a consumer outside the community and a business operator from whom the consumer within the community purchased a product being a business outside the community, and determines the consumer or business operator outside the community as a solicitation target.

3. The advertising image determination device according to claim 1 or 2.

4. A printing system including an advertising image determination device and a printing device, The advertising image determination device a product information acquisition unit that acquires product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; a correspondence information reference unit that references correspondence information between the product type and the advertisement image type; an advertising image determination unit that determines an advertising image to be printed on a packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; The printing device The advertising image determined by the advertising image determination unit is printed on the packaging material. A printing system characterized by:

5. An advertising image determination method performed by a computer, comprising: Obtaining product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; referencing information on the correspondence relationship between the type of product and the type of advertisement image; determining an advertising image to be printed on a packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; An advertising image determination method comprising:

6. A function of acquiring product information of products sold by businesses in a community including a plurality of businesses; a function of referring to information on the correspondence relationship between the type of product and the type of advertisement image; a function of determining an advertising image to be printed on packaging material for packaging the product from among advertising images of other businesses within the community based on the correspondence information; A program that makes the computer realize the above.

Images