Send Out Cards Case Summary

After the consumer makes his selection from the landing page, a transition to the shopping cart and checkout page is simply the next step to complete the transaction. In a business-to-business e-mail marketing campaign the e-mail is only a part of the marketing. The e-mail to a business must contain contact information for offline communications, and an attachment for downloading catalog or price list information. The e-mail is followed up by sales representatives who will also forward quotes and snail-mail an information packet (Weil, 2002).

By 1906 Sears was operating the largest mail order plant in the world, but that necessitated that the company’s focus shift from design dominance to products and process. Sears has entered the transitional stage of the Abernathy - Utterback Model. Sears is tasked with the need to handle mass orders economically and efficiently, and develops the ‘time scheduling system’, which brings chaos to the mail order industry and defines a significant core competence (Sears Archive, 2012). Around the same time, Sears’s customers are shifting their focus to quality, which drives the need to replace the fancy Sears catalog with a factual based catalog. Sears’s core competencies are innovation, mail order process, quality products, perceived value, and factual based advertisement (catalog).

The technological environment changes rapidly, and provides a strong tool for, marketers, consumers, and manufacturers. This age of information makes it possible for almost anyone to receive, or send information quickly according to Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, (2011). This information is not limited to text, and it may include pictures, graphics, purchase options, and the ability to provide custom selections for a host of products. For the savvy marketers at the Hershey Company this opens the door to a wide variety of consumers.

The mail order catalogs empowered consumers to buy status purchases such as, things for their homes that shape their environments. Thus, history changed forever, especially in the west, society evolved from a culture of need to a culture of desire. The desire to capture the consumer’s attention became more competitive and brands felt the pressure to distinguish themselves from their competition. This lead to the development of unique selling position (USP) and like the pitchmen 100 years earlier made unscrupulous claims.

Various organizations operate in an increasingly complicated industry - more than a few different products, ample of business process and clients ranging from retailers to small business, service providers, exporters, and independent shops. The organization has identified increasingly the evolving trend in consumers and responds

Robert states, "Our competitors are the people who sell chocolates, flowers, and greeting cards. We target the last minute shopper who wants almost instant delivery," (Wheelen & Hunger, 2004). She also made the comment, "…we are in the gift and personal communications business. Our competition isn't the German toy manufacturer Steiff, it is 1-800 Flowers," (Wheelen & Hunger, 2004).

As part of an industry with generous profit margins and high barriers to entry, American th Greetings had spent decades in a comfortable position. Beginning at the turn of the 20 century, it had helped to create a mass market for the greeting card and had presided over its growth into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Because the manufacturing of cards—especially those with special designs or attachments—could be complex, and because customers were used to choosing from a large selection of cards, it was difficult for new players to offer the big, established card companies any serious competition. By the end of

Competition within the US Greeting Card Publishing Market is great. The two major companies in the market are Hallmark, the largest privately held company, and American Greetings, the largest publicly held company (“Greeting cards (SIC 2771)”). Smaller companies include CSS Industries Inc, Healthy Planet Products, Paraiso Publishers, Inc, Sellers Publishers, Inc, and a large number of privately-held publishers. The Greeting Card Association states that there are over 3000 Greeting Card Publishers in the United States (“The Greeting Card: General Facts”).

Friendly Cards, Inc. (first named Beaumont Greeting Card Co.) is a greeting card company started in 1978, in New York City by Wendy Beaumont. The company has experienced rapid growth, acquiring like companies and expanding its market base. The company became public through a stock offering at $3 per share. From an operational viewpoint, Friendly cards performed all production at its plant in Reading, Connecticut. Company sales include nearly 30% from Christmas sales, 25% from Valentines sales and about 45% from average every day and spring holiday sales. The company reports low returns expense, as packages sold to stores were not returnable. Overall operations are well monitored under a tiered

2. Unique business model – expanding on the self-service trend with a unique twist and custom pricing options will be appealing to all consumers.

Over the last several years the process of reaching out to customers has been continually changing. Part of reason for this is because more people are turning to the Internet as a way to be able to promote their products and communicate to a larger audience. A good example of this can be seen with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, with him using this medium as a way to gain support and funding for his campaign. This allowed him to utilize this new technology to effectively connect with and inform voters about key issues. Over the course of time this helped his campaign to gain momentum. Once this occurred is when he was able to stand out against his rivals through effectively utilizing these tools. (Miller, 2008)

It may be that you will only be competing directly against some of these because you will be targeting a particular segment of the market or offering services which are hard to find elsewhere”( Market Research- Estimating Demand, 2012).

We have evaluated different segment options based on relevant attributes such as growth potential, accessibility, loyalty, and other criteria (Exhibit 1). For example, even though the segment of customers who are buying flowers for weddings/funerals has huge revenue potential, it is not easy for C&C to convince that segment to place a mail

Amy McConville, a friend and financial consultant of Wendy Beaumont, the president of Friendly Cards Inc., needs to come up with some suggestions concerning the financing of Friendly's expansion. Amy has been doing research on the firm and money is tight right now. The cost of financing growth right now is high and Friendly Card's is projecting 20% growth in sales next year and even more the following year. The company has never been without financing problems. The business is capital intensive and has had to rely on its good relations with its banks and suppliers to achieve success. Friendly's bankers have begun to feel uneasy about how much the company is relying on debt capital

XYZ analyzed available market research data to identify target segments that would be profitable and fit with our strategy. As a result, we identified three initial target markets – the Cost Cutter, Workhorse, and Traveler. Use patterns and demand data for these customer segments are shown in Appendix A.