New lines spice greeting cards; vendors create non-seasonal card selections for summer

New Lines Spice Greeting Cards

Major greeting card vendors continue to create and expand new categories of cards in efforts to bridge the gaps between seasonal card promotions, such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day and Christmas.

Ambassador Cards, Kansas City, Mo., for example, has introduced 12 new categories intended to fill in the sales doldrums extending from Father's Day until Halloween and Thanksgiving.

The 12 categories, which Ambassador will start rolling out May 1, are: working mothers; senior citizens; sophisticated humor; religious-Charlie Brown; Charlie Brown-friendship; sports and leisure; cats and dogs; love; bears; humor; humorous cards that carry wearable buttons; and floral, sentimental designs.

To support the new categories, Ambassador developed a merchandising system it calls "Power Graphics."

'Couples' Cards Introduced

Meanwhile, Cleveland-based American Greetings hopes car buyers will extend Valentine's Day sentiments year-round by purchasing its new "Couples" line of humorous cards based on romance.

"Couples is the first line of non-occasion cards ever to address the four very personal, very romantic stages of a relationship," said Tom Wilson, American Greetings vice president, in a release.

American Greetings segments its Couples line into four sub-categories: Falling in Love, In Love, Intimacies and Still in Love. The envolopes of all four bear a common logo, two entwined hearts.

American Greetings hopes the line will appeal to couples from 18 through 80. Suggested retails are: $1.15, $1.35 and $1.65.

To display the line, American Greetings developed a merchandising option it calls a "beam displayer." The display features nine "beams" that shoppers can flip to view another selection of cards on the reverse. The beam displayer shows the entire 90-card line full face, American Greetings said.

As another indicator of the trend toward non-seasonal card lines, Gibson Greetings, Cincinnati, has expanded its religious card line offerings by 40 percent, the company announced. Called "Treasures of the Spirit," the lines features biblical quotations on about 75 percent of the cards.

Sangamon, Taylorville, Ill., is targeting the "maturing consumer," in its 1989 introduction of non-seasonal cards. Entitled "The Best of Times," the new line Sangamon will introduce next month is designed for persons 55 years and older and their special sending situations.

In another non-seasonal development, Sangamon has designed a special line of cards based on themes relating to women and working women. Called "Listen Honey," the line features cards for what Sangamon calls woman-to-woman and woman-to-man sending situations.

Ambassador's new "merchandising system consists of cardboard displays that fit over existing card racks, said Kathy Claeys, an Ambassador spokeswoman. The eye-catching graphics of the display break up the rows of cards into special sections.

Despite the space that the graphics occupies, the "Power Graphics" system actually will display as many cards as existing racks, but more effectively, Claeys said.

The 12 card promotions over the season are intended to help discounters develop sales during the months between seasonal card sales, Claeys said.

Customers include Wal-Mart, Target and 207 of the 2,240 K mart Stores, said Kristin Rich, account manager for K mart and its new hypermarket, American Fare.

For American Fare, which opened its first hypermarket in January in Atlanta, Ambassador developed a separate card shop.

Called "A Fare of the Heart," the card shop occupies one of 12 leased shop spaces in the Atlanta hypermarket, Rich said, but American Fare actually operates the 1,550-square-foot shop. Ambassador rack service employees are on hand from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.

Train Rack Display for Kids

Ambassador developed the name, A Fare of the Heart, along with a special merchandising rack for children's products. Shaped like a train, the 18-foot-long display features an animated face. When children push its nose, a choo-choo train sound rewards them, she said. The train rack displays birthday cards, Crayolas, party goods and gift wrap, Rich said.

Another attraction of the card shop is a bow-making machine, Rich said. For now, American Fare customers get a small star bow free, but the machine can be coin-operated, and American Fare eventually will charge 10 cents a bow, she said.

For cross-merchandising, Ambassador designed a 32-foot-long display of cards for the hypermarket's floral shop and nursery. The card selection is weighted toward get-well and sympathy cards, Rich said.

Through FTD, American Fare can ship flowers and plants all over the country.

Card of the Month Display

Endcaps in the shop feature a five-foot-high blowup of a card of the month and a supply of the card, Rich said. For February, the card was a valentine, selling for 88 cents, compared with Ambassador's suggested list price of $1, and the March feature was an Easter card at 99 cents, against suggested list price of $1.25.

Rich said she doesn't know whether the K mart stores that carry Ambassador cards offer them at the same American Fare price. Ambassador began serving K mart in 1987 as its fourth greeting card vendor, she said.

Late in 1989, American Fare will open a second, though smaller, hypermarket in Charlotte, N.C. The second unit will encompass 160,000 square feet, compared with 244,000 square feet at the Atlanta hypermarket.

American Fare has yet to decide on a separate card shop for Charlotte, Rich said.

In units, the greeting card market is growing at the rate of 1 percent to 1.5 percent a year, said Claeys, although other industry estimates put the growth rate at 0.7 percent. Dollar volume, however, is growing at the rate of 6 percent to 7 percent, Claeys said, indicating an increase in unit prices.

Ambassador sales hit $300 million last year, she said.

In another card development, Hallmark added Garfield the cartoon cat to its list of licensed characters which includes the Peanuts gang. Both Hallmark and Ambassador will feature Garfield on greeting cards, partyware, gift wrap and gift bags and boxes, Hallmark announced.

PHOTO : Left: Ambassador Cards has designed 'A Fare of the Heart,' a separate 1,550-square-foot card shop in Atlanta's American Fare and operated by the hypermarket.

Photo : Below: American Greetings has developed a merchandising display for its new 'Couples' line of humorous yet romantic greeting cards. Arranged in rows of 'beams,' the display enables shoppers to see each of the line's 90 cards full face.

PHOTO : Designed to draw customers to the greeting card department, Ambassador Cards' new merchandise display employs 'power graphics' to spotlight the themes and graphics in each card category in an eye-catching manner.

COPYRIGHT 1989 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group