Have you seen greeting cards lately? Competing with florists, e-cards and other specialty gifts, the greeting card industry has been pushed to modernize. While some card companies like Hallmark have taken their stock online by offering subscriptions or standard purchasing options, many companies are thinking outside the box to create superior products that can do all the things that animated e-cards can do and more!

Audio greeting card choices have been around for decades, but they're starting to catch on even more now. 'We sold more cards with higher content-related costs, such as music, lights, and embellishments this year,' said American Greetings Chief Executive Zev Weiss. This past April, Hallmark released a line of audio greeting cards that combined the traditional greeting card with an embedded computer chip good for a 10-second message that can be listened to 220 times and can also be re-recorded.

The cards also play a 15-second music clip following the message. 'It's an emotional value,' said Sarah Gronberg, Hallmark publicity manager. 'We found the strongest reaction from parents. When they see this sort of thing exists, it (resonates) because if you can capture your kid's voice when they're little or when they're not around you, that's when you see the largest emotional connection.'

'One of the hottest trends in retail today is to engage the senses of a consumer. Americans have a passion for scented products. Our sense of smell is the strongest of all human senses and is directly linked to memory and emotion,' said business owner April Seals-Partner.

She first came up with the idea of creating her line of 'Scentsational' greeting cards when her clients raved about the delicious smell of her Belgian chocolate. 'I thought about how nice it would be to send them a thank you card with the same scent,' she added.

The cards are certainly a novelty, as they puff out calming and invigorating scents, like an ocean breeze, coffee, vanilla, lavender, lemon and roses. The best part is that a portion of the proceeds from each card sold will be donated to a breast cancer research foundation.

Greeting cards have been traded since the 1400s, so they're not likely to disappear entirely, despite burgeoning specialty gifts and e-card sales. Most people will confess that there is just nothing like a real letter or a real card in the mail.

'Innovative technology is allowing greeting card publishers to be much more creative and is allowing card senders to become more involved in developing exactly the card they imagined,' says Valerie Cooper, executive vice president of the Greeting Card Association. 'What hasn't changed is the special me-to-you connection of cards and their continued popularity with Americans of all ages.'

Author: Mike Selvon

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