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KANSAS CITY — For more than 110 years, Hallmark Cards has been an industry leader in helping consumers live more caring and connected lives filled with meaningful moments. The company believes its products must enrich peoples lives. And innovation is a key element of every product strategy — the company is always iterating insight-led concepts and new ways to connect and care.
Hallmark is powered by trends
“Cultural and creative trends are foundational to Hallmark’s process. Hallmark knows it’s imperative that we evolve to meet the diverse needs of today’s consumers. We aim to create cards that get to the heart of what shoppers want to say, while authentically reflecting their lives and relationships,” said Amy McAnarney, vice president and general manager of strategic accounts and business development.
“We have been proactively developing new creative strategies to meet the needs of multicultural and multigenerational consumers,” she added.
These strategies include:
• Multicultural relevance includes themes around the importance of faith, family and home.
• Timely/topical content is an expectation, especially for African American and Hispanic-American shoppers who see themselves as early adopters of trends.
• Younger generations are looking for messages that reflect their own values — kindness, generosity, inclusiveness, the importance of making a difference and putting good out into the world, sustainability.
• Younger generations are often pop culture enthusiasts, and appreciate Hallmark’s extensive portfolio of licensed properties, which they grew up with or have grown to love. “Hallmark is leaning into cards and collections that help people connect based on characters, stories, interests and identities they have in common through pop culture. We’re incorporating trending characters and shows, like ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘Ted Lasso.’ We are also building off of popular “new, -stalgic” licenses that are seeing a resurgence, like ‘Friends,’ ‘‘The Office’ and ‘Golden Girls,’ ” McAnarney pointed out.
She added that humor is a popular style that connects across generations. Hallmark Shoebox, the No. 1 humor brand, is introducing new, timely designs and subject matter, including infographics, fresh lettering, meme-inspired photos, 3D papercraft, and more.
Product innovation
McAnarney said one of the fastest-growing segments of the greeting card category is cards that lend themselves to becoming a keepsake, such as Hallmark’s highly designed, premium cards and the 3Dl pop-up paper craft cards that feature intricate designs and details — Hallmark Paper Wonder and Signature Paper Wonder.
“Hallmark continues to build on the popularity of these two card lines by innovating with new materials and formats across the collections. We are demonstrating category and brand leadership in the growing papercraft market by offering a range of impactful, unique and displayable three-dimensional papercraft cards. Each intricately crafted card unfolds, pops and expands to reveal a distinctive surprise,” she said.
“Celebrating moments big and small is at the heart of what we do at Hallmark. And making the most of birthdays, holidays and everyday celebrations will be easier than ever with the launch of Hallmark’s new party essentials and decor collection. Hallmark’s all-new Celebrate! collection makes it easy for party planners and hosts to create events that are totally them with mix-and-match plates, napkins, candles and decor in on-trend colors and designs.”
Purpose driven
“For more than 100 years, family-owned Hallmark Cards Inc. has been dedicated to creating a more emotionally connected world. Our promise is to help people live caring, connected lives, full of meaningful moments. We are here to help people care for each other, connect more deeply and celebrate life together. Our creative expertise shapes our understanding of consumers, drives innovation, differentiates us in the marketplace, and gives Hallmark and our partners an unparalleled advantage,” she concluded.
