Karnataka - Bangalore   

Cards for those who care

— Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

LOOKING FOR RIGHT WORDS: Youth busy selecting season’s greeting cards at a shop in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: Greeting cards have been gathering dust with people preferring e-cards and SMS. But recent trends show greeting cards have not just survived, but are flourishing.

What is drawing people to the cards is the poster appealing to his conscience, posters declare: Your card can give them a right to childhood… your card can protect wildlife or … your card can help change a life.

“After 2005, there has been a surge in the sale of greeting cards, Christmas and New Year being our peak season. NGO cards are definitely the most popular,” says Nithin Naik, executive-director, Hallmark, which has a tie-up with Cancer Patients Aid Association.

Card shops, in tune with this trend, have separate counters for charity-linked greeting cards. “I prefer buying cards with social messages because they are personal, endearing and help change somebody else’s life. I love animals, so I prefer WWF cards,” says Nidhi Kumar, who was shopping for her cards at Gangaram’s.

And then, there are those who have discovered that the jazziest of special effects that pop up on your browser cannot replace the simplistic joy of ripping open those colourful envelopes. “I missed receiving cards and decided that e-cards do not replace that experience, so I am back card shopping,” says Divya Raja.

Cards with social messages do well with corporates who see it as a way of conveying a sense of social responsibility. Almost all major greeting card companies have linked up with NGOs. While Archies is associated with Child Relief and You and Helpage India, Hallmark works with the Cancer Patients Aid Association and Expressions is associated with the SOS Village of India.

Since companies and individuals prefer to buy cards which are endorsed by NGOs, it makes great business sense for these card companies to walk hand-in-hand with them. So, not only can they build their brand by seeming conscientious, they can also attract customers to revert to the good old card shop.

“All the profit we make from these cards is given to NGOs. Out of our seasonal sale of Rs. 80 lakh, Rs. 18 lakh is accounted for by sale of these products,” says Sumant Kannur, area-executive, ITC greetings. Companies such as Wipro, Infosys and Airtel buy greeting cards in bulk from ITC Greetings. “Charity cards are not commercially priced. The sales figures for the past three years show that people prefer cards which aid some charitable cause,” says Kirit Mirani, regional head of Archies Greetings and Gifts Ltd.

NGOs used to sell their cards before, but these tie-ups with card majors mean that card companies take care of everything from designing, manufacturing to marketing.

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