Family Series Mini Folios
Mother, Father, Grandfather and Grandmother will all be pleasantly surprised by the warm thoughtfulness of these special greeting cards. Click here for the Family Series Mini Folios.

Memory Series Mini Folios
True Friend, Memories, Honoring Memories and Goodbye, Farewell all help us preserve and strengthen our precious relationships. Click here for the Memory Series Mini Folios.

Healing Series Mini Folios
Hope Blooms, Trust, True Love and It's Time To Tell My Truth all help to express your feelings at times that may be difficult for the sender or the receiver. Click here for the Healing Series Mini Folios.

Farewell Series Mini Folios
Pen a thought, insert a small photo in the matching photo frame and tenderly place in a loved one's burial casket. Children and adults alike will be helped in the healing process through this feeling card. Click here for Farewell Mini Folios.

"The $14.2 billion greeting card and stationery market is undergoing a transformation that picked up steam after 9-11," says luxury marketing expert Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Why People Buy Things They Don't Need. "Consumers' primary motivation for sending a greeting card is to make an emotional connection with another. But after 9-11 people who 'care enough to send the very best' often turn to more specialized, exclusive cards and personalized stationery. The trend in greeting cards is clearly away from 'mass' toward 'class.'"

For the last 10 years, the major card brands have pursued mass distribution strategies, placing their cards in as many outlets as possible to be everywhere and anywhere consumers are likely to think about buying a card. So today, Hallmark, once considered the most exclusive card brand, can be found in 42,000 retail outlets including chain drug stores, grocery stores, major discounters and mass merchants.

"The result of this mass distribution strategy is market saturation. By being everywhere, they have lost their 'specialness.' The strategy has backfired and in 2003 the company reports that their greeting card, stationery, gift wrap, ornament, party ware and gifts business is down 1% from the previous year," Danziger explains.

"Today the big opportunity in greeting cards and stationery is toward luxury, targeting the passionate consumer who wants to connect through special, exclusive cards and personalize greetings," Danziger predicts. "The luxury segment accounts for about 10% of the total greeting card and stationery market and is growing. With more exclusive cards priced in the $3-to-$5 range, it's hardly an extravagant purchase."

The Schurman Fine Papers company has innovated the luxury segment through their franchised PAPYRUS store chain, today numbering about 125 stores nationwide. Located in upscale malls and shopping environments, PAPYRUS is positioned directly against the mass brands by offering "exclusive greeting cards that cannot be found at the corner drug store or the local supermarket."

Crane & Company, the paper company that provides the U.S. Mint with currency paper, is getting into the luxury business too. Starting in 1994 by opening company-owned stores, today Crane has about 20 stores across the country, also located in upscale malls like Short Hill, NJ, Chicago's Water Towers Place, and McLean, VA's Tyson Galleria.

Unity Marketing is currently updating its Greeting Card & Stationery Report: The Market, The Competitors, The Future Trends as a business planning tool that provides marketers and retailers with the facts and figures about the industry and market they need to build a vibrant business now and into the future. The new edition will contain the latest consumer survey data on their purchase behavior and motivation in buying greeting cards and stationery. For more information, visit www.unitymarketingonline.com.

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About Unity Marketing

Founded in 1992 , Unity Marketing is a market research and consulting firm that specializes in consumer insights for luxury marketers. Using its proprietary 'why people buy' research strategy, Pam Danziger, company founder and author of Why People Buy Things They Don't Need (Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market Publishing, 2002) uncovers the motivations, desires and emotional needs that drive consumers to buy. Unity also publishes market research studies on the luxury market, art, jewelry, garden, home furnishings, gifts and collectibles, personal care and cosmetics markets, as well as the Luxury Business newsletter. Ms. Danziger is currently working on her new book, Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses (as well as the Classes), to be published in early 2004.