Almost half of the UK population (41%) said that a card or a letter was the best way to say thank you, with even more people saying they would rather receive no thanks at all than a digital thank you. These findings are from a research project commissioned by Clintons after Christmas to see how our habits on sending thanks have changed. Respondents are seemingly divided on the best expression of thanks. Some 34% of respondents said that they were most happy with a call or thanks in person while 41% preferred to receive a greeting card short letter. The remaining 25% said that they’d be happy with an email or text.
Clintons’ marketing director Tim Fairs, predicts “a resurgence of the traditional Thank You note. For many people, the time and effort reflected in the Thank You itself is very important. In other words, for anything more than a quick favour, omg thx so mch, is unlikely to cut it.”
It’s a trend echoed with indie retailers as well with Emma Rogers, co-owner of Special Occasions in Castle Bromwich noticing that “we have always have a good sell through for thank you cards whatever the time of year but post-Christmas there is a higher demand for them, and this year’s pattern, thankfully, continues what has happened for many years.”
Jayne Griffiths, owner of Sentiments in Whitchurch definitely agrees with the Clintons’ research but also add that “the card companies are missing a trick by not supplying packs of thank you cards specifically referring to Christmas. That would be terrific, maybe they should encompass them into their Christmas packages.”
Publishers are also seeing an increasing demand for thank you cards with Frank Mountain, co-owner of Lola Design saying: “We saw a increase in thank you card sales to our independent customers just before Christmas, enough of an increase to make us think we will be doing more for this occasion over the months ahead.”
At Paper Salad the design team is constantly designing new thank you cards with designer Jess Hadfield saying: “There’s definitely a rise on thank you cards, we’ve noticed that people seem to stock up on them in January. Our mini thank you packs are also very popular, we’re constantly designing new ones. We’ve found that customers purchase several designs at one time, you can never have too many thank you cards. I think people are making a conscious effort to send thank you cards instead of a digital thank you, I feel like it means a lot more receiving a card.”
Helen Pallen, marketing manager at Cherry Orchard added: “We’ve found that thank you cards are still strong sellers for us, after Christmas, but also throughout the year. It’s nice to think that parents continue to encourage children to send thank you cards and it’s so lovely to see the cards in pride of place when you visit friends and relatives. The thank you card in Cherry Orchard’s Scent With Love range proved to be so popular, that when it came to putting together our 2017 Autumn Collection we decided to include two colourful text-based cards as well and two pretty wine and flowers designs from our very successful Carnival Celebrations range.”
