GCA council members applaud solidarity and cohesion as they look to future
Collective strength is the corner stone of the greeting card industry, with GCA council members convinced the #Cardmitment campaign and solidarity against stamp price rises is paving the way for a better future.
“There is a definite growing swell of cohesion within the greeting card industry at the moment, which is quite heart-warming!” said new council recruit Wendy Jones-Blackett, founder of the eponymous publisher.
And GCA president Darren Cave, UK Greetings’ customer and channel director, added: “The recent PR campaigns have been in overdrive and #Cardmitment has seen the whole industry pull together to share the joy of card sending.
“In 2024, I’d like to see us build on this success with a continued focus on the consumer. Let’s keep banging the drum to remind the British public of the importance of sending a card.”
The council members were sharing their views on the industry’s challenges, as well as opportunities and wishes for the new year following on from Darren’s inaugural presidential speech at the association’s recent conference and AGM.
“Despite the challenges and tribulations for many associated with trading in the cost-of-living crisis, our industry continues to remain robust,” he said. “Greeting cards continue to play an important role in helping people to make connections and maintain connections, to show you care, to improve the way that someone is feeling, to share joy and to celebrate.”
And Darren is convinced that maintaining relevance to younger consumers, the shoppers of the future, “is crucial”, with the GCA’s Schools Project a key way to get more focus by engaging with primary schools to encourage card-sending initiatives with children, aka the consumers of tomorrow.”
He added: “Clearly, the cost-of-living crisis has been significant. It has impacted consumer spending as people have tightened their belts, but the greeting card industry remains robust. With inflation coming down, consumer confidence is returning.
“My wishlist for 2024 is a committed and strong Royal Mail that’s supportive of our industry and keeps a handle on price. I hope inflation continues to fall and consumer spending increases.”
Publishers and retailers joining together to celebrate and encourage card sending has heartened Wendy, who is keen to see this grow and hoping social media will be the catalyst for spreading the word further.
“Imagine if a retailer asked every customer for a week why they were buying that particular card,” Wendy said, “who it was for and what their relationship was or how long they’d known each other, or how they’d met? I’m sure there are some amazing individual stories out there to be heard which would highlight how brilliant cards are.
“Wouldn’t it be great if Royal Mail got behind Festive Friday next year and had special half-price second class stamps just for Christmas cards posted on 1 December!”
Stormy Knight founder Sarah Jackson loves that greeting cards are “something special” and “generate a positivity of feeling”, and she said: “It has to be a plus that, as a publisher, my biggest competitors are also my best friends, with an extraordinary level of support and camaraderie.
“The GCA is brilliant for facilitating and fostering relationships in the industry, between publishers, suppliers and retailers and I personally see lots of opportunities for growth in the future, despite difficult trading conditions. If you can be creative and unique as well as commercially appealing, there is still a strong demand for all of our products.”
“Royal Mail’s stamp price increases are a real challenge. People still love giving and receiving cards – we know this is true, but the stamp increases are creating barriers for people to send as many cards through the post as they may have done previously. While affecting birthdays and occasions, when it comes to Christmas it does now feel harder to send 20 to 30 cards or more if stamp prices keep increasing. We need to further lobby our government to fight this, and cap price increases.”
As the owner of AfroTouch Design, Georgina Fihosy is concerned with the impact of economic uncertainty on consumer spending behaviour “reducing discretionary spending on items like greeting cards”, and she’s working with the council to ensure the industry continues to improve on reflecting diversity and inclusivity.
Diversity is also high on the agenda for Ohh Deer md Mark Callaby who organised the GCA’s first ever participation at Pride In London, and has already applied for this year’s event with the aim of expanding to other marches such as Manchester Price.
He agreed the industry feels “more united” than it’s ever been, with everyone getting behind the #Cardmitment campaign, adding: “We really need to ride this, move it into the new year and continue to shout about the importance of greeting cards all year round.”
With a general election expected this year, Mark wants to ensure candidates standing for election are happy to fight with the industry on issues such as rising stamp costs and threats to the postal service in general.
“Ideally, we’d have a Royal Mail which understands that, if you reduce the cost of the stamps more people would use the service – that’s really evident when you actually speak to our customers and ask the reasons why they’re not sending as many cards as before. When you try to fix problems by increasing your prices instead of properly looking at streamlining your operations and find cost savings, you’re always going to struggle.”
Investing in brand and product awareness is how Cardology director David Falkner sees the industry growing in 2024 to give the category “renewed relevancy in the eyes of consumers” and he wants to focus on the “softer messaging which links our products back to human values and aspirational goals”.
And he had some interesting thoughts on the sector’s current challenges: “Royal Mail’s seemingly kamikaze pricing/QoS mission, the continued cost-of-living crisis, the squeeze on our independents on the High Street for starters!
“I can’t think of a single one that doesn’t become a far more surmountable proposition if we had confidence that customers will be knocking down our retailers’ doors, completely secure in the knowledge sending their first card of 2024 will immediately transform their life for the better. This has to start with us.”
For David Byk, ceo of Ling Design and GBCC, the focus will be on the GCA’s work with Royal Mail as he’s ready to ride into battle in his “best suit of armour” determined to help the postie who “wants to do a good job both for the card sender and also the community”.
Determined to get the best deal, David said: “We will use everything we have to pressurise RM to deliver cards nationally, reliably, at the right price, six days a week.
“I’d like a serious competitor for RM to be able to deliver the last mile, and that we only read positive stuff about how important greeting cards are and the joy they bring as opposed to a rubbish text – I’m up for Scouts, drones, robots or even DPD doing it!”
Alongside continued dialogue with Royal Mail and the government around capping stamp price increases and maintaining the six-day delivery service, Brainbox Candy co-founder Mark Williams has been looking at the issue of falling retailer numbers at trade shows.
“More needs to be done to attract buyers and get them to stay over as more and more are attending for one day only due to the cost of hotels, travel costs, etc,” Mark explained. “I think many publishers might be willing to contribute to the cost of hotel vouchers, sharing the cost with the show organisers.
“Publishers need bums on seats at shows to make them worthwhile but are constantly being told by a growing number of retailers that they’re doing the entire show in one day, which leads to considerably fewer orders. Publishers invest weeks of their time and a ton of money for a show so, if this doesn’t happen, the shows will continue to shrink and eventually disappear.”
He’s also determined to get more indie retailers on board with phasing out cellowrapping on cards, which is on the 2024 wishlist for Danilo md Daniel Prince, who chairs the GCA sustainability committee.
“My key wish would be to make all cards plastic-free,” Daniel said, “so, for indies and any other retailers who are still asking publishers to cellowrap cards, now is the time to go naked!”
But his other wish is something that even Father Christmas would find impossible: “I want Spurs to win a trophy – I can dream…”
These comments are taken from an Industry Issue article in the January 2024 edition of Progressive Greetings magazine and can be read in full here. More comments from other GCA Council members will appear in the February edition of PG, which will be published shortly.
