Connecting a younger target audience to Hallmark Cards

Abstract

Hallmark Cards has a long tradition as a global brand and has designed and sold a countless amount of greeting cards. However Hallmark is also under pressure, because the greeting card industry is declining and the younger target group is using more and more social media to send quick messages and to congratulate each other. Therefore, Hallmark should look for new ways to connect the younger target group to its brand.
During this master thesis a product proposal and roadmap will be created to connect a younger target group to Hallmark in the following years.
Hallmark is a creative company with a warm atmosphere. However, they are currently in a dilemma between its retail and online department. Where online sales grow by 5% per year, retail sales decline by 8%. However, retail is still responsible for 80% of the company's turnover. Hallmark doesn’t have a clear strategy what its internal focus should be. Furthermore, Hallmark is already looking for ways to innovate, but these innovations are mainly variations on the current greeting card and not something completely new or different.
However, this is necessary, since the current industries in which Hallmark is active are not the most ideally in the long term. The retail greeting card industry is declining rapidly and the online industry faces a strong competition for both greeting cards and gifts. During this project, routine innovation will be conducted to explore a new industry.
This new industry should connect to the younger target group, who experience problems with relationships. They are insecure and have to deal with a lot of stress. Furthermore, they have not much close friends and this is partly due to social media. There is therefore a need to strengthen relationships. Research shows that this is done best by enjoying experiences together and based on validated models, a new experience model has been developed. This experiences model will be the basis for the new product proposal. In addition to this model, experiences must be easy to consume and fit the target group.
However, Hallmark must also be able to offer experiences, without expensive investments. Therefore, Surprise Night has been developed. Suprise Night is a monthly subscription to a date box, which contains all elements for a surprising date night. The concept is targeted at couples who have been together for a longer period and are in need of new, original dates.
Hallmark is able to immediately start offering these boxes, but because the concept can easily be implemented by other parties, it is important to quickly expand to other target groups. Finally, a roadmap is provided, which enables Hallmark to grow into the activities industry, which should become a separate department within the company.