Greeting card buyers wooed early for holidays

Discount Store News, August 18, 1997 by Mike Troy

The grass is still green, the weather's warm, the kids are starting school and Christmas is the farthest thing from most shoppers' minds. There's September and October to get through, but soon, holiday colors of red, green, gold and white in retailers' greeting card departments will herald the official arrival of the holiday season.

Retailers are committing 100% to the category the day after Halloween," said American Greetings seasonal product manager Michael Woos. And for good reason. Holiday cards account for 80% of the unit volume and 50% of the dollar volume of all seasonal greeting card sales, according to Hallmark.

As soon as holiday cards show up in November, retailers experience a spike in sales, said Don French, Gibson Greetings seasonal business unit manager. An even more important reason for merchandising the category earlier is that the purchase of holiday cards, unlike some other seasonal cards, is a planned activity. That fact favors discount stores because consumers are likely to purchase their holiday cards in conjunction with shopping for other needs at a retailer offering one-stop shopping. Conversely, holidays such as Mother's Day or Valentine's Day are more likely to include a last-minute purchase. If a card is the only item someone needs, convenience becomes a more important criterion to the purchaser. Such last-minute purchases are also more likely to be hand-delivered, whereas senders of holiday cards mail their cards.

"In many respects, we are finding sales trends for certain seasons to become even more last minute," said Stan Lewis, marketing vice president, Hallmark," "and that is particularly true with seasons males are involved with. That's not as applicable at Christmas."

Even so, retailers want to encourage sales of greeting cards as early in the season as possible or risk losing potential consumers to the parties, gift shopping and other demands the holidays place on peoples'time.

The holiday season is such a busy time of year, and consumers have so many activities to tend to that the closer it gets to Christmas and they start to experience more stress, things get crossed off their list of things to do," Lewis said.

Retailers don't want one of the things getting crossed off the list to be the sending of high-margin holiday cards. That's one of the reasons retailers are heeding the advice of card vendors and taking advantage of floor stands and special promotions that encourage consumers to buy the cards early.

American Greetings is pursuing that objective with a program that rewards purchasers of three Forget Me Not counter cards with the offer of a high-quality, free snowman pin. The pins are merchandised in the card section with special signage explaining the offer.

"Our goal is to get people to shop early, and the pin is a reward for shopping early," Woos said.

Another way consumers will be reminded to shop early is with checkstand spinner racks and outpost displays. Outposting the category targets the latent demand shoppers have for cards, Woos said. Such displays are useful not just for the sales they generate, but also because they remind shoppers to visit the card department where they can find an even larger selection.

Circular advertising this holiday season will also play an important role in reminding consumers to buy their cards early. This season, Hallmark will emphasize account-specific promotions that remind consumers to send cards.

"Almost all the retailers are advertising boxed cards in their circulars," Lewis said.

With increased outposting, cards in stores in early November and reminder ads in circulars, consumers seemingly have no reason for not buying cards early.

On top of the retailer and vendor efforts, the U.S. Postal Service can always be counted on for its campaign and public relations effort encouraging people to mail cards and ship gifts early.

Part of the sender's motivation for getting cards out early has to do with the keepsake nature of holiday cards. Recipients enjoy displaying them moreso than other seasonal cards. What they will be displaying this year is an array of product. Vendors report many different trends have influenced this year's designs. The new millennium has created a renewed sense of spirituality, French said. Angels continue to be a hot holiday theme as well as religious-themed cards. "[Religious cards] are a growing segment in all our channels as there is a growing number of people who want to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas," said Hallmark Christmas program manager Deb Ronan. Vendors are expecting Hanukkah merchandise to sell well this year because the holiday coincides closely with Christmas. This year Hanukkah begins on Dec. 23, compared to last year when the holiday began on Dec. 2.

Licensing will be seen this year as Hallmark is offering for the first time a 15-card Grinch line and 15 Disney cards featuring Mickey and friends. Humor is also an important trend, as demonstrated by cards such as American Greetings 78th Street line. Even religious cards in the line feature humor, with one showing three wise men and Frankenstein with a caption that reads, "You idiot! I said go and get frankincense." Cards of different shapes, textures, and bolder colors are also seen as a trend this year. And of course, Santa Claus remains a holiday staple, according to vendors.