Tech cards spark niche - greeting cards

Discount Store News, Sept 5, 1994 by Ela Schwartz

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT -- High-tech greeting cards are taking a "byte" out of the traditional paper card.

The high-tech versions got their start a couple of years ago with the unanticipated popularity of the card-creating kiosk, where customers design and print out customized greeting cards.

Encouraged by the reception to the computer-based programs, vendors are now introducing recordable cards, which contain a voice chip, and phone debit cards.

The voice chip version permits users to record and rerecord their own 10-second messages; the phone-debit cards entitle the recipient to 10 minutes of free long-distance phone time. The phone cards are included inside a traditional greeting card and have instructions for use on the back cover.

Technology-based greetings are so hot now that retailers and suppliers are investigating opportunities beyond current offerings. American Greetings, Cleveland, for example, created an Interactive Marketing Division to explore purchasing possibilities along the information superhighway.

American Greetings' Interactive Marketing Division aims to market greeting cards and social expression products on the evolving information superhighway. Dean Trilling, vp of the new division, explained that the company already did a test with Prodigy in which users could send an electronic greeting card with animation and audio to other subscribers.

"We're now talking with technology companies and service providers who are producing programming through personal computers or interactive television," he said.

Rather than competing with mass merchandisers, Trilling believes interactive marketing could actually stimulate retail sales.

"We are confident there will be a synergy between interactive marketing and retail sales of greeting cards and plan to explore means of using this developing channel to drive traffic to retail," he said. Trilling explained this could include computer-generated coupons to be redeemed at retail or a birthday reminder service via computer.

For retailers, the introduction to technology-based greeting cards coincided with the arrival of the card-creating kiosk--reportedly performing beyond expectation--opening the door to recordable and phone-debit cards.

Both Hills Stores and Jamesway carry American Greetings' Creatacard. Larry Fine, senior vp of merchandising at Jamesway, called the cards "good gimmicks with value," and noted that Jamesway is looking at recordable cards and phone debit cards.

Nora Cline, greeting cards buyer at Hills, said she will be testing phone-debit and voice-chip cards in the near future. "The success of creating your own card has demonstrated there is a |high-tech' greeting card customer who can be drawn into the department if these cards are properly merchandised, positioned and signed," she said.

Kmart stationery buyer Kathy Krul said both American Greetings' CreataCard and Ambassador's Touch Screen Greetings offer something different for the consumer that is fun, includes interaction and is exciting.

Venture features kiosks in 97% of its stores, said spokesperson Kim Phillips. She said that the chain is looking at phone-debit and voice cards as "alternative and interesting modes of social expression."

Gibson has revamped its Creation Station kiosk, said Karen Durand, director of marketing, everyday product for Gibson Greetings, and will roll out a line of everyday phone-debit cards this fall. Tom Tisdale, senior vp, sales and marketing at Sangamon, said the company will introduce a card kiosk this fall as well as phone-debit cards in some of its everyday lines.

Durand and Tisdale noted that phone debit cards have already gained a following in Europe, where they often feature photos or designs and have become collectors' items, a trend vendors hope will catch on in the United States.

Don French, director of seasonal marketing at Gibson, said the company may feature phone cards in seasonal promotions as well as on displays positioned in the video department,

American Greetings is offering phone cards on a promotional basis. And Ambassador is testing recordable cards in three everyday themes, with seasonal themes available later in the year, after evaluating the popularity of Hallmark's line.

Despite the advance of products, the high-tech card game is not without some drawbacks. French said Gibson tested a line of recordable cards and found that enabling consumers to sample the cards also gives them the means to record offensive messages, leaving a little surprise for the next unsuspecting shopper.

Tisdale has spotted another catch. The greeting cards industry may start getting away from what it does so well, Put into words and images what consumers are unable to express themselves. He added, "I see high-tech cards as an extension product. While the market for these cards is there, I see the bulk of the growth in alternative and ethnic cards."