Countdown to V-day
February 14th is right around the corner. The signs for Valentine’s Day are everywhere - magazine covers, store displays, restaurant menus, etc. Buying a card is a “must do” for most Valentine’s Day celebrants. Buying the right card is another problem entirely.
Years ago, a funny Budweiser beer commercial highlighted the difference between the genders’ purchasing habits all too well. A young woman spends time in a card shop opening up various cards, reading their inside greetings, and agonizing over which is most appropriate for the status of her relationship and most reflective of her feelings towards her beau. In the next scene, her boyfriend is buying a 6-pack of Bud, sees a small countertop rack of greeting cards, picks one at random, and buys it with his beer. The final scene shows the young woman, eyes misting over as she reads the card, exclaiming “it’s just perfect.”
Even though over 3/4 of all greeting cards are purchased by women, it amazes me how greeting card stores are still merchandised in a way that assumes us shoppers want to take the time to open up and read every single card which catches our eye. Of course, the current slotting system allows the manufacturers and retail stores to display as many cards as possible. But, at busy times in busy locations (for example: 5:30pm on Feb. 14th, at Papyrus’ wall of Valentine’s Day cards in Grand Central Terminal), I wonder why the greeting card industry is still merchandising its cards in an old fashioned way. For a lot of us, the purchase of a greeting card is impatient and painstaking. We want to get the right card but we don’t want to take any more time than necessary. So, why do we have to pick up and open up “potentially desirable” cards to see the punchline? Isn’t there a way to provide a preview of the inside of all cards without having to handle each card?
Less time spent shopping at the card store might actually mean more time spent thinking of what to write inside the card. After all, isn’t it the thought that counts?
