Greeting card messages looses shine.

Festivity and Cards:

The next few weeks across the country there will be buzz around all places across the country as the season of festivity begins. Two decades back people religiously go shopping for various types of greeting cards to send it to the dear and near ones to express their greetings and convey their good wishes for the various festivals. Some major local players and national brands dominated this market. Greeting card brands offered a wide range of design with interesting creative messages at various price points. Then there was the social organization who were very aggressively marketing their cards to both the individual customers and corporates. Some of the big brands were very strong in using various media to promote their brands just few weeks before the festive season. These brands were offering personalized printing of names on bulk orders of the cards. One had to plan well in advance so that you get the design of your choice on time to catch the festive season.

Technology paves way for the cards:

Thanks to the revolution in technology it has now become easy sending greeting cards. PC’s and mobile phone have really made great inroads in this segment. The consumers find these as very simple and cheap means to send his or her good wishes to his friends. In the case of computers one can create a design of one’s own choice and send it. All one has to do is send an E-Greetings, SMS or MMS. In today’s world where time is of paramount importance people cannot set a side time to write the addresses go to post office buy stamps and post them. The inertia to send card has become low on the priority list, as there are other simpler and easy means to send good wishes and still enjoy and celebrate the festivals. The cellular operators also encourage and woo users during festivity to send good wishes messages at very attractive rates. The prices are down to earth and so tempting that even somebody who does not send social messages joins the messaging bug during festivity.


Government a big looser :

The postal department has have lost a considerable amount of revenue as purchase of stamps have dropped over a period of time. Also some of the private courier brands have to face loss in billings. Many local brands and national brands have also seen the drop in the sales of greeting cards as simpler and cheap substitute option is available to customers. Small time designers and paper companies have also been affected. Big time social organizations that earn considerable revenues marketing cards have also been affected to some extent. The revenues of press, magazines and to some extent the electronic channels have come down as marketing efforts to push greeting cards have dwindled. Although there are some corporates who still oblige these social organization a majority of them have moved away from this as it also involves considerable amount administrative machinery and expenditure to dispatch the cards on time.

Emotional connect missing :

E – Greeting cards and SMS’s has been easy means for people to send their messages. Not only is it easy but it has become cost effective for many. But what one does not realize is that sending greeting card messages through SMS’s etc is like talking to an answering machine where the emotional touch is missing. In the case of greeting card the sender invariably takes lot of trouble and planning to hand pick the right greeting card with the right choice of message before he or she sends it. By choosing the card with right message and visual gives he or she to express the emotional feelings of celebrations from the bottom of the heart. This is where greeting card brands have been very forward in their thinking by coming out with newer designs that will touch the receiver. Technology will never be able to fill this gap. Emotive expressions through a nice greeting card attach more value and touches the human chord. The chances are that with messages flowing from various well wishers one may tend to not read the messages as most of the times the message content is very boring, mundane and monotonous. That does not hold good when you receive a greeting card. You will receive different types of cards and one will make it a point to take some time to have a look at them. In some case if the card is unique and eye catching one tend to preserve it for some time.

Marketers adapt to the change:
A quick shift has taken among many players. Greeting card companies have been very forward looking in their approach and have moved to the gifting segment, which constitutes a huge market. With a growing affluent society and opening of malls and multiplexes the aspiration and desire of the Indian consumer has prompted many companies and brands to move towards gifting from the social expression card segment. Some of the companies have tied up with several international brands to bring gifting in a big way keeping in mind the nuances and the flavor of the Indian market and the Indian consumer.

New ideas have also been explored in the area of cards. Specially designed cards have been created through niche positioning to market cards for occasions such as friendship day, valentines day, father’s day, mother’s day, teacher’s day .While these may not deliver great volumes but in terms of value some of the brands will be able to reduce their revenue gap for their shortcoming through traditional and conventional greeting cards. While technology has eaten in to the greeting card brands but there will be some loyal and die hard customers who will still use the greeting card medium to express his or her wishes . These may be mostly in the smaller towns for whom emotional connect and expression is bigger then technology.