This time 30 years ago, a pint of beer in a pub cost the princely sum of £1.37, Sting was top of the album charts with The Soul Cages, British scientist Tim Berners Lee had just launched the worldwide web – and the very first edition of Progressive Greetings magazine, under Max Publishing ownership, was published.
With a nod to the past, but with his eyes very much focused on the future, Mark Callaby, co-founder and managing director of Ohh Deer shares what he feels have been the major industry changes from a greeting card publisher’s and online player’s perspective, as well as his predications for the future.
An historic perspective…
What has the past taught you?
“To worry less. I’ve definitely learnt that worrying before something happens only increases my anxiety and I’ve been trying to train myself into only worrying about something if it happens (then I’m only worrying once if at all).”
What do you view as having been the main industry changes?
“It’s got to be the rise of the internet. It’s changing everything about the industry which will be really difficult for many to adapt to and will benefit others really well.”
What have been the highlights and lowlights for Ohh Deer?
“This one is actually quite difficult to answer as there have been many highlights and we tend to treat lowlights as learning opportunities. 2020 was difficult for obvious reasons – the fear of the unknown and making the decision to furlough most of our staff wasn’t easy. However, it gave us a unique opportunity to review nearly every aspect of the business and form a stronger management team of whom we’re immensely proud. 2020 actually brought back memories of the early days of Ohh Deer and helped bring back that same energy of being able to do anything, whether that’s bringing out a new product quickly or finding new markets to tap into.
It’s very rare for Jamie Mitchell, (Mark’s partner) and myself to stop and look at what we’ve achieved and feel content – we’re completely driven by what else we can do or improve.”
The Future…
How do you foresee greeting card publishing changing over the short, medium and long term?
“I think the pandemic has sped up a lot of the changes that have been inevitable. I don’t see the High Street disappearing but it’s going to continue to evolve – potentially it’s going to benefit shops that aren’t in big cities, places that can really knuckle down and work on customer loyalty and look at how they can manage local deliveries and tying up with other industries like florists etc.
I think publishers will need to think about their online presence, not only for selling direct to customers, but for selling to retailers as well. Technology will only continue to improve, and fast, and it’s already difficult to keep up with, but the younger generations are increasingly buying anything they want on their phone or via something like Alexa and we need to try and keep up with that.
I don’t want to see specialist retailers depart from the High Street but it’s already happening. I remember venturing into Ipswich (my hometown) when I was a teenager to check out what Topman had to offer almost weekly, but fashion is really easy to buy online now so with a business like ASOS buying them out seemed almost obvious.”
What have you done to help futureproof your business?
“From the beginning, we knew it was important to focus on direct to customer as well as wholesale. We’ve always done well within both of these markets and we have invested heavily in them. When wholesale struggles (like recently) we see a big increase online and we’ve put much more investment into this side of the business recently. We’ve expanded our B2C team and hired people with more skills in e-commerce than our growth-hacking mindset could manage.
We learnt early on not to rely on a few good wholesale customers as they will drop you very quickly without caring what that might do to your own finances (especially when you have no idea that it’s going to happen) and it’s often because they’re constantly seeking new, new, new (what they actually want, and many buyers fail to realise, are best sellers!). Selling direct to our customers, while crazy difficult to do, is essential for our future.”
If you had a magic wand for the future what would you use it for?
“(I’m guessing this means for the industry because that magic wand could be used for so much, including a decent haircut at the moment!). I think I’d like to improve how exposed publishers are to the bigger retailers – sale or return agreements just seem to be a loophole for poor data analysis and long credit terms for large amounts of money (which are often not kept to) are damaging for cashflow and without cash it’s really difficult for some publishers to keep on innovating to keep up with the demand of new, new, new…
I’m also passionate about making sure the industry continues to strive for inclusivity – this takes work from each of us (not just within our industry). Please find me that magic wand!”
Top: The Ohh Deer gang at the company’s 2019 summer BBQ.
