PUT IT IN WRITING...Valentines Day the Perfect Opportunity
By: Christine Lollar
Topics: Valentine, Valentine's day, note, handwritten, marketing
Posted by CALOLLAR Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:03:59 PST
Viewed 990 times
0 responses 1 comment
With the holidays behind us, I was quite happy to put away the Christmas tree and snowmen and get back to our “normal” day-to-day schedule. However, I sure will miss my daily jaunt to the mailbox to find greeting cards with handwritten notes. I would pass right over the wintry scene or fat, jolly Santa on the front and go straight for the inside of the card to read the scrolled insides. I lived for those messages. With the increasing use of Internet communication, those scratches of the pen are precious! Now, I have valentine cards to look forward to…be still my heart!
According to the Greeting Card Association, each year nearly one billion valentine cards are sent, making up 25% of all greeting cards bought (i.e. birthday cards) and nine out of 10 Americans say they look forward to receiving valentines because of the personal and tangible connection they make. Get out! Me too! Margaret Shepherd, author of The Art of the Handwritten Note: a Guide to Reclaiming Civilized Communication says, “Writing by hand makes you look good on paper and feel good inside. It says to the reader “You matter to me, I thought of you.” It is worth the time. Apparently others agree. The National Retail Federation estimates that more than 60 percent of consumers plan to purchase at least one valentine this year.
Why do we send valentine cards? Well! The Housewives of Orange County have nothing over the drama of the ancient legend of Valentines Day. During the heyday of the Roman Empire Lupercian Festival, held each February to honor the Faunas, the Goddess of Fertility and the Earth, Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage fearing men would refuse their duty to fight. Young couples, who wished to marry, took up their cause with Catholic Bishop Valentine who secretly performed their weddings. Scandalous! When Claudius found out Valentine was arrested and ordered put to death. While awaiting his demise, Valentine fell in love with his jailer’s daughter and they began exchanging letters. The day of his beheading, he signed his last note: ‘From Your Valentine.’ Que romantico! In 496 A.D. with Christianity overtaking Rome, Pope Gelasius outlawed the pagen Lupercian Festival replacing it with a day to honor St. Valentine and even though the Catholic Church removed the day from its official holiday calendar in 1969, the day is still celebrated.
While valentine cards are the number one gift overall for the holiday, more people send e-cards on Valentine’s Day than any other holiday. Admittedly consumers enjoy the instantaneous connection, but don’t be swayed. The joys of a handwritten note are priceless! According to the American Greetings company an estimated 10 million e-valentines will be sent this year via their websites, as many as 500,000 sent per hour. I’d like to say this saves a lot of space in landfills, but you know as well as I do that many of those 500,000 people would not send a single thing if e-valentines weren’t a convenience. Where someone might mail one or two cards, avid e-card senders will shoot off as many as 25 or more…because they can. That’s okay…but I want my grandchildren to know my penmanship and my husband to see my love note and “feel the love!” Emailing is good, but a personal note is better.
And personal notes are a successful approach not only on Valentines Day. John Janstch, author of Duct Tape Marketing says: “There's something almost mystical or spiritual about the connection of pen on paper. When you take the time to send a client or prospect a thoughtfully hand written note you stand out from the crowd of nearly 10 million business in the U.S. alone. You have the ability to make the person who receives the note feel special.” Janstch adds, “If you can’t figure out why that’s a good marketing thing, I can’t help you. And while you’re at it, send a note to your wife.” Enough said.
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Sat Feb 2, 2008 05:58:19 PST
Love your post on the art of the handwriten note...great info! Thanks for sharing!
Colleen
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