Hallmark caps cards for 3rd year - Top Brands Part II: Consumer Survey

Discount Store News, Oct 19, 1992

Consumers seem resigned to the fact that they cannot buy Hallmark greeting cards at discount stores, and will switch to any brand offered, but still prefer Hallmark, according to the 1992 Top Brands Survey of discount store shoppers.

For the third year, consumers repeated their preference for Hallmark cards. In fact, more consumers this year than in 1991 stated a preference for Hallmark cards than other brands.

Overall, more than three-fourths (77%) of consumers in the consumer brands survey said the greeting card brand they prefer is Hallmark, compared to 76% a year ago.

Despite this, discount store shoppers in search of Hallmark cards know they will not find them. When asked how likely they were of finding the greeting card brand they want at the discount store they shopped at most, only 37% said they were certain, among the lowest confidence rates in the survey. Twenty-three percent said they were not sure. Thirty-seven percent were sure of finding the brand they want.

Answers were measured on a scale of 1 to 9--1 meaning they are uncertain and 9 meaning they are certain--of finding the preferred brand.

On the scale, card shoppers have a mean confidence of 6.89, down from 7.66 last year.

Exactly why or how consumers came to understand that Hallmark is not available through mass market outlets is uncertain. But it appears that as recently as a year ago shoppers seemed unaware that they would not find Hallmark at their local discount store.

Despite all this, discount store shoppers do buy greeting cards. Since they can't find Hallmark, they buy whatever their discounter offers.

More than two-thirds (67%) of survey respondents said they would switch brands if they couldn't find the one they were looking for, up five percentage points from 1991. Last year, 62% said they would switch brands.

This year, consumers named six greeting card labels as brands they look for. Gibson, No. 6 last year, dropped off the list completely, Forget-Me-not, an American Greetings line, moved onto the list, mentioned often enough to put it in the No. 5 spot, and Sangamon, No. 3 last year, fell to the No. 6 spot, due mostly to responses by people who called themselves frequent Wal-Mart shoppers.

Once again, American Greetings was the No. 2 choice for greeting cards, with its strongest showing at Target, where 20% of shoppers said they look for the brand, vs. 16% for Kmart shoppers and 19% for Wal-Mart shoppers.

ShoeBox Greetings, a Hallmark line, was third, followed by Ambassador, Forget-Me-Not and Sangamon. [Tabular Data Omitted]