SAY HELLO WITH A GOOD BUY; HALLMARK TOUTS NEW LINE WITH MASSIVE GIVEAWAY.Byline: Jennifer Mann Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder (IPA: /ˈrɪdɚ/) was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Newspapers Hallmark Cards Hallmark Cards, a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. Approximately 50% of greeting cards sent in the United States every year are manufactured by Hallmark. Inc. began its biggest product rollout ever recently by giving away 24 million cards from its new low-priced Warm Wishes line. To back the giveaway blitz, Hallmark is spending $50 million to tell the story of Warm Wishes, a line of 1,040 cards selling for 99 cents, designed for more casual relationships such as neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances. Eventually, Hallmark will give away 36 million Warm Wishes cards in the rollout, which will run through August. The line will be sold at 20,000 retailers that sell Hallmark products. ``Consumers told us they wanted to be able to use cards for more occasions but at a lower cost,'' said Hallmark spokeswoman Linda Odell. Odell said she didn't know how much revenue Hallmark hoped to generate from the new card line. But Hallmark conducted a seven-month test in Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. beginning late last year. What it found was that greeting card sales overall increased 12 percent during the test and ``Hallmark claimed a significant portion of this category sales growth,'' according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. information from the company. E. Gray Glass III, an analyst who follows Hallmark, said the company was unveiling the new line to stay competitive. ``They see a niche market A niche market also known as a target market is a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector. By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. ,'' Glass said. ``Or it may be that they're responding to something already in the marketplace.'' Glass said his sense is that Hallmark is performing well relative to the competition. For instance, Hallmark says its 1998 sales were $3.9 billion, up 5 percent from 1997. American Greetings American Greetings Corporation, Inc. NYSE: AM is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company. It is based in Cleveland, Ohio and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products (such as wrapping papers and decorations), and electronic , on the other hand, had a sales increase of 0.3 percent for 1998. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) no caption (Greeting cards) |
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