Greeting cards move far beyond birthdays and holidays

When Hallmark Cards launched its line of “encouragement” cards addressing the topic of job loss, it did so in response to what consumers were saying they wanted.

At least that’s the official line from the nation’s largest greeting card company about a product whose touchy subject has stirred a lot of conversation recently.

On a much smaller scale, but with a greater emotional investment, entrepreneur Journey Light says she also is responding to a need with cards she has created about sensitive topics that include domestic violence, drug abuse, coming out and eating disorders.

Light says her Midnight Sunset line of cards address issues prevalent in her social services work with children, teens, families and others who are hurting or struggling, or have someone in their lives in such a predicament, but don’t know what to say or do.

Where Hallmark’s job-loss cards are meant to provide encouragement and support, Light says her cards go beyond words.

“My cards are a step to action,” says Light, 44, a one-woman shop who has spent the past two years laying the groundwork and investing about $10,000 to start her company and market its products. “People can buy them and say, ‘I am going to take this step for myself.’”

Still, for both Midnight Sunset, based in Anaheim, Calif., and Hallmark, the bottom-line question remains the same: Do people really want to buy or receive cards that deal with such personal issues?

A CARD FOR EVERY SITUATION

The Hallmark job-loss cards have been on store shelves since 2009. Why all the sudden attention? Someone from the media finally noticed. “A Dallas Morning News reporter saw the cards in a Hallmark Gold Crown Store and contacted me for a story,” says Jaci Twidwell, publicity manager for Hallmark Cards Inc. “Her story was picked up nationally and has blown up since.”

Twidwell says the company had not done any initial publicity or marketing around the cards, but had to respond when pundits, and the public, started debating whether sending a greeting card to someone who has been laid off would be a welcomed act of support or viewed as a tacky, $2 way to show empathy.

“We did have to post a media statement in our newsroom on Sept. 28 just to keep up with all of the requests and to get the right information out there,” Twidwell said.

The company is pretty sensitive about criticism that it creates card-sending situations, says Emily West, a professor at the University of Massachusetts who has researched and written about the greeting card industry.

“They like to say they are following demand,” she says, “especially if (the subject) is something negative or difficult.”

Hallmark’s first attempt in the late 1950s to sell cards for people going through divorce failed. They also bombed in the early ’70s, according to West. But by the 1980s, when divorce was more common, they began to sell. “Now,” West says, “there’s tons of divorce cards.”

Twidwell says consumer response to the job-loss cards has been “extremely” positive: “People in times of need always look for ways to connect. These job-loss cards are meant to meet a relevant and niche consumer need.”

SIMPLE FORMAT, COMPLEX THOUGHTS

West says Light’s Midnight Sunset cards remind her a little of a Hallmark product line called “Between You and Me.” The cards were conversational and dealt with difficulties in relationships, such as older child to parent or friend to friend. Still, after viewing Light’s cards online, she called them unusual.

“They are almost on the line between actual greeting cards and a script or a format for intervention,” West says. “I’m sure there will be some market for them, but I wouldn’t say it would be huge. You have to be very motivated to purchase these.”

Light used to perform spoken-word pieces at open-mike nights in Los Angeles and Atlanta, where she lived previously, and says her cards are an outgrowth of those experiences. People would come up afterward and ask if she had written versions of certain parts of her performances that they could share with someone because she articulated what they couldn’t say themselves.

Friends also asked her to write specific messages they could send when dealing with difficult issues in their lives.

“I said, I think there is something to this,” Light says. “There is a need for a different type of card.”

The Midnight Sunset cards are simple in format: no images, only a short opening statement on the cover and then several paragraphs of text inside.

A card aimed at healing the emotional wounds of absentee parenting begins, “I may be your mother, but I haven’t been your mom. Sorry.” Another meant for someone suffering from an eating disorder starts, “I’m afraid for your life …” and ends, “Please, let’s seek help before it’s too late.”

Light, who is on leave from her job at a school in Los Angeles, works at a computer in the bedroom of her apartment. She researches where to try to sell them and makes cold calls. Her focus for now is on church bookstores, women’s health centers, and mom-and-pop shops and pharmacies.

“To me, it’s not about selling this huge, gigantic thing like Hallmark,” she says. “It’s just making sure people have tools in their lives — tools to get through the next day or to improve a relationship.”