2 Table of contents
03 About this Study
04 Executive Summary
04 Study Overview
05 Key Data & Trends
07 Key Takeaways
08 Study Abstract
09 Introduction: Previous Study
09 A massive industry
09 Greeting cards are meaningful
10 Direct mail is a valuable channel
11 Research Questions
12 Method of the Study
13 Results
13 Behaviors
15 Content
17 Audiences
18 Analysis & Insights
18 substantial practice
18 Relational Medium
19 Classically Informed
20 Unexhausted
22 Conclusion
23 About the Author
24 Notes & References
3 About this Study
This study was conducted independently by business professor and researcher Stephen J.
Lind, PhD (see more in About the Author). Primary data collection and analysis took place
between April and May 2021. During the design of the study, Professor Lind consulted with
professionals in the greeting card industry (via Hallmark Business Connections) to ensure that
questions were framed in a way that accurately reflected options across the greeting card
market. In support of the research, Hallmark Business Connections provided a coupon code
to survey takers. Survey takers were informed that they would receive a coupon for taking
the survey, but they were NOT told what business was providing the code so as to not impact
the data collected. Final drafting of the survey tool, data collection, and data analysis was all
conducted independently by Professor Lind with support from his university research
assistants. A portion of the research was supported by funding from Washington and Lee
University.
After reviewing the study, the Greeting Card Association partnered with Lind to publish the
results of the study as a white paper. Lind presented preliminary data from the study’s pilot
research at the 2020 Association for Business Communication annual conference of academic
researchers and then a portion of the final results at the 2022 Greeting Card Association
annual workshop and retreat.
The white paper was first published online by the Greeting Card Association in September
2022.
How to cite this study:
(MLA)
Lind, Stephen J. “What Small Businesses are Doing with Greeting Cards and Why: A
National Study” Greeting Card Association. September 2022.
4 Executive summary
STUDY OVERVIEW
A personal tradition that has flourished since Victorian times
i
continues to stay present in the mailboxes of U.S. consumers not
just through the well-wishes of friends and family, but also
through the frequent use of greeting cards (GCs) by many of
the 5.8 million
ii
small businesses
iii
(SBs) in the U.S.
This report details data from a new national study on the
frequency, preferences, and motives behind U.S. SBs’ uses of
greeting cards during the winter holiday season (WHS).
Nearly 2,000 SBs contributed to the study from a randomized
sample across the U.S. Businesses with 99 employees or less,
which accounts for 98% of U.S. businesses
iv
, shared their
practices and preferences in an April-May 2021, survey:
Types of questions asked:
Card Sending Behavior
Card Content
…including questions such as:
Did your business send
greeting cards between
November and January in
any of the last three years?
…including questions such as:
What types of content does
your business look for in a
card? (e.g., traditional,
contemporary, neutral/secular,
spiritual, etc.)
Audience Profiles
Business Traits
…including questions such as:
To whom do you send the
greeting cards? (e.g., past
customers, current customers,
potential customers, etc.)
…including questions such as:
Where is your business
located? and What industry
best describes your
business?
5 Executive summary
KEY DATA & TRENDS
The nearly 2,000 SB responses yielded significant data with a base margin of error
at only 2.9% with a 99% confidence level:
1/3
SBs send GCs
during the WHS
SBs spanning entire U.S.
send GCs
87%
GCs are physical,
not e-cards
<200 GCs
Modest sending rates
are most common
Rates to remain
constant or slightly
grow
GC-sending SBs are
face-to-face, online, and
hybrid
“Happy Holidays”
and “Merry
Christmas” are the
most preferred
greetings
“Traditional/Classic” is
more than twice as
popular with SBs than
“Modern/Contemporary”
content tone
~150 millioN GCs are thus estimated to be sent by SBs each WHS.
(SB = small business; GC = greeting card; WHS = winter holiday season)
“Christmas” remains a significant driver of
behavior and content.
• Sending time shows centrality of Christmas holiday for winter cards: Only 16%
report sending cards before Thanksgiving and 64.3% specify the few weeks
before Christmas.
v
• Greeting verbiage shows continued embrace of the holiday: Nearly half (47%)
of SBs report “Merry Christmas” as a preferred greeting/wish content.
Yet “Christmas” can have diverse meaning, both secular and sacred.
GCs are a place in which SBs are keeping the language of “Christmas” salient across
the U.S. At the same time, the majority of SBs do not see GCs as a means for overtly
expressing spiritual meaning. “Neutral/secular” content is prioritized by 31% while
“religious/spiritual-faith” content is prioritized by 14%.
vi
6 executive Summary
Relationship maintenance is at the
heart of SB use of GCs.
• Nearly all (91%) of GC-sending SBs send them to current
customers.
• “Clients with files” based SBs (e.g., insurance companies) send
GCs at significant higher levels than impromptu “walk-in”
businesses (e.g., coffee shops).
• “Relationship-building” and “showing gratitude” are the most
common reasons SBs report for why they send GCs.
Two-thirds of SBs do not send GCs. Core
themes are consistent across rationale.
While approximately one-third of SBs send GCs, that also means
that two-thirds of SBs have chosen either actively or passively to
not send GCs as part of their SB practices. SBs that do not send
GCs report four common reasons:
Time Cost Unknown
value
Customer
type
While SBs that send GCs
routinely praise the relational
benefits of the practice, the
vast majority of SBs do not
use any available methods to
track or measure the impact
their GCs have.
89%
don’t track
7 Executive Summary
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The data collected from this new nationwide study suggests four key insights
into the practices of SBs related to the WHS and the use of GCs.
For small businesses, greeting cards are…
1
Substantially USED
SB GC use is significant.
The sustained send rates, including through and
beyond a pandemic, suggest this is a business communication practice that
will continue to be a viable and important part of the commercial landscape
for the foreseeable future.
2
Relational
Commercial relationships are real relationships, even if meaningfully different
from personal ones.
This means that GCs hold real potential for generating
goodwill, loyalty, and affinity. The differences, however, also suggest that the
commercial motive, mass production, and one-way sending are challenges
that SBs must keep in mind.
3
Classically informed
Classic Americanized aesthetics continue to be relevant in holiday-oriented
commercial practices.
Continued use of “Merry Christmas” verbiage and
traditional seasonal tone suggest that any so-
called “culture war” has not
pervaded SB WHS outreach activities.
The GC medium itself is a traditional
choice, and within this commonly used medium, traditional aesthetics remain
popular, even if not
the only style of interest. This suggests that while
innovations may still hold value, modern attempts at breaking form for the
sake of breaking form should not be expected to be inherently valuable.
4
unexhausted
From increasing tracking
measures to integrating systems that allow for
efficient annual sending, SBs have lots of room to grow and refine their GC
sending practices and perspectives. There exists signific
ant room for
producers and consultants to advise in these matters. Additionally, both the
relational interest and the core concerns by non-senders offer significant
opportunity for GC suppliers and retailers to improve
and reframe their
products and services to SBs.
8 study Abstract
The greeting card industry is a multi-billion-dollar global social phenomenon with
more than a billion cards purchased in the U.S. during Christmas alone. This includes
cards purchased by small businesses seeking to capitalize on an existing or possible
relationship with their customer base. Yet, little is known about how small businesses
strategically approach the use of greeting cards. This white paper outlines how
greeting cards are a pervasive and potentially powerful business communication
artifact. It reports the results of a nationwide survey of U.S. small businesses that
collected data on the scope and content of professional greeting card use. The results
indicate that small businesses across the U.S. are meaningfully engaging greeting
cards during the winter holiday season as a business communication tool rich in
symbolic and relational potential.
9 Introduction: Previous research
A Massive Industry
Crossing the boundaries of the personal and the professional, even the sacred and
the commercial, greeting cards continue to play a prominent role in modern social
America. Each year, more than 6.5 billion cards are purchased, the sales totaling
between $7 and $8 billion. Purchasing is ubiquitous across households—nine out of
10—and generations, with millennial buyers spending more on cards than the baby
boomer generation, though baby boomers purchase more by volume. While birthday
cards make up over half of the total cards purchased, Christmas cards make up the
largest seasonal segment at upwards of 1.6 billion units purchased annually, followed
by a distant 145 million cards for Valentine’s Day.
vii
According to the US Postal
Service, while personal letter and invitation mailing has declined in recent years, total
holiday greeting card units sent have been on the rise, increasing 3.8% between
2016 and 2018.
viii
Amidst these stacks of personally sent cards are masses of cards also sent by
businesses, seeing the potential in the medium. Yet so little is known about such
professional uses of greeting cards. This study offers foundational knowledge on
greeting cards as business communication media and artifact. This white paper
presents data from a nationwide study, with analysis propelled by existing literature
on personal greeting cards and professional assessments of direct mailers.
Greeting Cards as Meaningful Objects
It is little surprise to find that greeting cards retain
deeply personal potential as a medium, given that
their very design is often based on an open space
that encourages senders to pen their own unique
message. As reported by the Greeting Card
Association, “75% of consumers who send holiday
cards say they do so because they know how good
it feels when they receive a holiday greeting.”
ix
This meaningfulness is historically situated, with
cards as objects functioning in nuanced ways in
different contexts. Current card practices draw on
various historical eras, including for example the
Victorian tradition of viewing cards as an opportunity to bring aesthetic beauty into
middle-class domestic spaces
x
or the mid-century development of exclusive licensing
agreements to adorn greeting card companies with pop culture characters.
xi
Greeting card creators are successful, Barry Shank argues, when they “speak the
emotional truth of the mainstream American culture,” allowing the sender to create
an emotional connection with the recipient.
xii
As Emily West has explained, this is
“75% of consumers who
send holiday cards say
they do so because they
know how good it feels
when they receive a holiday
greeting.”
10 Introduction: Previous research
quite the feat for the card manufacturers, given the irony of mass-producing objects
that generate idiosyncratic personal sentimental connections.
xiii
Of course, who sends
them and when is determined by a sometimes murky set of social norms, such as
whether one should or should not send a card based on whether sender A received a
card from potential recipient B the previous year, especially if potential recipient B is
higher status than A and did in fact send a card the previous year.
xiv
Direct Mail as Valuable Channel
Significant study has previously been devoted to the postal activities of businesses,
seeking to use a variety of direct mailers in order to drive increased profits. From
politics to preventative healthcare, the value of direct mail variations has garnered
interdisciplinary scholarly attention. One political study has suggested, for example,
that assessments of how much it costs to produce behavioral change via direct mail
requires keeping in mind that direct mailers may only change the behaviors of
recipients who were not already in a category of low-likelihood of action.
xv
Another
study out of the preventative healthcare field, then, demonstrates how financial
incentives embedded in a medical direct mailer can significantly increase participation
in the mailer’s proposed action.
xvi
According to the Data & Marketing Association, direct mail has been found to boast
as high as an astounding 5% response rate for a prospect list, compared to only 1%
for email or social media. The direct physical mailer number may jump as high as 9%
when directed at a particular household list.
xviii
xvii
Studies in neuroscience suggest
practitioners trust these striking figures, based on how consumers process messaging
coming in through diverse channels. According to a joint study between the Canada
Post and strategy firm True Impact Marketing, with guidance from Copenhagen
Business School’s Thomas Ramsøy, “Direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to
process than digital media (a score of 5.15 vs. 6.37), suggesting that it is both easier
to understand and more memorable.” When combined with figures on just how
crowded the average work email inbox is on a daily basis—an estimated 126 emails
received per day
xix
—scholars can understand why industry experts continue to tout
the value of direct mail, even with its significantly higher production and
dissemination costs than digital alternatives.
11 Research Questions
A Focus on Small Business Winter Holiday Cards
With all of the prior knowledge about the perceived values of greeting cards and the
proven returns of direct mailers, questions yet remain at the intersection of the two.
The questions at this intersection are perhaps even more potent when considered in
light of the lucrative $1 trillion Christmas commercial season
xx
that offers businesses
questions surrounding both cultural card norms and an aggressively competitive
commercial landscape. Because their greeting card practices likely differ from large
and conglomerate businesses, and because their margins likely make a failed
outreach investment more risky, this study is particularly interested in how the more
than 5.8 million small businesses across the U.S.
xxi
attend to this intersection.
xxii
This study then seeks to answer previously unexplored questions surrounding how
U.S. small businesses approach greeting card opportunities during the winter holiday
season. The primary guiding questions for the survey research presented here
include:
1) What percentage of U.S. small businesses send greeting cards during
the winter holiday season?
2) When sending cards, what types of card content do businesses
choose?
Answers to these questions hold the potential to provide the foundation for not only
future nuanced studies, such as targeted effectiveness studies, but this foundational
study also provides immediately valuable actional insights for consultants, retailers,
and small business practitioners who have no data on whether or not greeting cards
are a commonplace in current business practices and what the norms surrounding
them are.
12 method of study
Survey Methodology
To generate insights into small business use of seasonal greeting cards, a survey was
sent between April and May 2021, to a random sample of U.S. small businesses with
99 employees or less. While the U.S. government agency, the Small Business
Administration, categorizes any business with less than 500 employees as a small
business, this study uses the more nuanced definition that divides small business at
99 or less employees from midsize businesses beginning at 100 employees. Sub-
100 small businesses account for an estimated 98% of U.S. businesses
xxiii
. According
to the U.S. Census Bureau
xxiv
, there are more than 5.8 million in the U.S.
The sample was randomly generated from a national business database. There were
1,950 small business respondents that answered the survey. The base margin of
error on the study was thus only 2.9% at a 99% confidence level.
xxvii
xxv
Surveys were
sent entirely through email,
xxvi
with a total response rate of 10.8%. Responses
were incentivized through a retail coupon and raffle entry offer. Results were
anonymized except for when respondents voluntarily provided follow-up information.
The survey consisted of 36 total questions focused on pre-COVID (2018 and 2019)
and pandemic-era (2020) greeting card activity as well as projections post-COVID.
Questions were tested and then refined for effectiveness after an initial pre-test.
Questions were divided across four categories:
1) Greeting Card Behavior
Such as, “Did your business send greeting cards between November and
January in any of the last three years?”
2) Greeting Card Content
Such as, “What types of content does your business look for in a card?”
with a range of content options including “Traditional/classical,”
“Modern/contemporary,” “Religious/spiritual-faith,” and “Neutral/secular.”
3) Audience Information
Such as, “To whom do you send the greeting card?” with a range of multi-
selection content options including “Past customers,” “Current customers,”
and “Potential customers.”
4) Business Traits
Such as, “Where is your business located?” and “What industry best
describes your business?”
13 Results
Greeting Card Behavior
According to the survey results, greeting card use by small businesses remains strong
throughout the U.S. One third (33.9%) of U.S. small businesses reported sending
greeting cards during a winter holiday season from 2018 to 2020. Pre-COVID levels
were expectedly higher, with 20% fewer reported sending in 2020 compared to the
nearly equal levels in 2018 and 2019.
Cards sent are predominantly physical cards sent through the mail (87.6%), though
many businesses report sending e-cards as well, with a total of 29.5% reporting using
e-cards either independently or in conjunction with physical cards. Few businesses
deliver cards in-person by hand (15.3%), while the majority use the postal system
(86%).
xxviii
Card-sending small businesses spanned the entire U.S. zip code range as well as
brick-and-mortar and online store styles. Stores that are “mostly face-to-face (or
brick-and-mortar)” report sending greeting cards at a significantly
xxix
higher number
than not (23.9% vs. 18%). Nonetheless, greeting card sending was evident across
all store types, with 43.2% of card senders being mostly or entirely face-to-
face/brick-and-mortar businesses, 34.1% being mostly or entirely online, and 12.3%
of senders being roughly 50/50.
xxx
Reported social media use was higher than greeting card sending rates, with 48.7%
of small businesses reporting that they post a seasonal message on social media
during the winter holiday season.
xxxi
Despite some non-sending businesses reporting
in the “Why not” question that they instead post messages digitally, whether or not
a business posted seasonal messaging on social media did not have a statistically
significant relationship to whether or not they reported sending greeting cards.
The number of cards sent by each small business remains modest. When asked to
report the quantity of cards typically mailed, the vast majority (72.8%) reported
sending between 1 and 199 cards during the winter holiday season, and the median
number reported was 50-99. One-third of card senders (35.8%) report sending 1-49
cards, one-third (37%) report sending 50-199 cards, and one-fifth (20.6%) of card
senders sending 200-999 cards. The remaining businesses report sending 1,000-
24,999 cards.
xxxii
1/3 of small businesses report sending greeting cards
during the winter holiday season; these numbers are
projected to remain steady.
14 results
The businesses project that these numbers are likely to remain steady, if not slightly
anticipated to grow: 10.9% anticipate cutting back, 14% anticipate increasing their
card use, and 65.9% expecting their use of greeting cards to stay roughly the same
(9.1% reported that they did not know). Those who sent cards in 2020 were
statistically less likely to report anticipation of cutting back (4.2% for 2020 senders
compared to 12% and 8.3% for senders in 2018 and 2019).
xxxiii
Why Send
“Relationships” and “gratitude” terms were the
most common themes invoked when explaining
why the business sends greeting cards. This
attention to maintaining relationships and
expressive thanks for what the business already
has is consistent with the data indicating who the
businesses send cards to; Nearly all (91.3%) of
greeting card sending small businesses send
them to current customers, while only 65% send
to former and 39% to potential customers.
The rationales for why businesses send greeting cards, however, are anecdotal and
not formally assessed. The vast majority (89.6%) of small businesses do not use any
available methods to track or measure the impact their greeting cards have.
Why Not Send
While one-third of small businesses send greeting cards during the winter holiday
season, a sizable number across the U.S., two-thirds of businesses do not. Those
small businesses were asked why not. Tagged for common themes, the data collected
indicated four primary, recurrent reasons that small businesses cite for not sending
cards:
1) Time
Expecting greeting cards to require a significant time investment each year,
small businesses regularly report being too busy and not having the
bandwidth to send cards.
2) Cost
The financial expense of sending greeting cards is perceived by many small
businesses as unaffordable. Those that do not send cards regularly invoke
budgetary prioritization as a reason.
The vast majority of small
businesses do not use any
available methods to track
or measure the impact
their greeting cards have.
15 results
3) Unknown value | no value
A lack of definitive return on investment and/or an explicit belief that there
was none was regularly cited as a reason not to invest in the practice.
4) Customer Type
Some businesses reported a perceived poor fit in customer type as why
greeting cards would be inappropriate, e.g., government contract clients.
While the topics of digitization making physical messaging outdated and secularism
turning away any holiday-oriented outreach may be more common in mainstream
conversations, the data does not support this as primary concerns for small
businesses. Outdatedness and religious anxiety were infrequent in the cited rationale
of small businesses, accounting for less than two percent each of all total reasons not
to send. It is also worth noting that faith-based concerns were not monolithic,
referencing multiple vantage points, including being concerned that the business
wanted to say “Merry Christmas” but couldn’t, as well as others wanting to avoid a
Christmas-oriented practice that could alienate clientele.
Greeting Card Content
While the winter holiday season offers diverse occasions and celebrations in U.S.
culture, the majority of cards sent by U.S. small businesses are sent in clear
relationship to Christmas. This can be seen in the timing of sending (only 16% report
sending cards before Thanksgiving and 64.3% specify the few weeks before
Christmas).
xxxiv
The verbal content businesses reported as preferred (see Figure 1)
likewise confirms that small businesses commonly associate their winter holiday
greetings choices with Christmas in particular: Nearly half (47%) of small businesses
report “Merry Christmas” as a preferred greeting/wish card content that they use,
outpaced only by “Happy Holidays” at just over half (51.6%). Season’s Greetings is
the third most popular wish used (44%). Non-Christian holidays are represented
minimally in small business approaches to winter holiday greeting card use, such as
in “Happy Hanukkah” (6%) and “Happy Diwali” (1.7%) greetings.
xxxv
Small businesses also report common preferences in their cards’ tonal content (see
Figure 2). More than half (59.6%) report preferring “Traditional/classic” content,
more than twice as much as those who prefer “Modern/contemporary” content
(25.6%). While “Christmas” verbiage preferences and seasonal recognition has its
inherent roots in religious traditions, the majority of businesses do not report
explicitly looking for content that actively embraces religiosity or secularism. Only
14% prioritized “Religious/spiritual-faith” content and 31.3% prioritize
“Neutral/secular” content.
xxxvi
16 results
Figure 1: What describes the greeting/wish of the greeting card?
(Select all that apply)
Figure 2: What types of content does your business look for in a
card? (Select all that apply)
1.7%
1.9%
2.2%
2.6%
2.7%
6.0%
18.7%
23.0%
32.0%
44.0%
47.2%
51.6%
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0%
Happy Diwali
Happy Chinese New Year
Merry X-Mas
Other
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy Hanukkah
Appreciation/Thanks at the Holidays
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy New Year
Season's Greetings
Merry Christmas
Happy Holidays
59.6%
42.5%
31.2%
25.6%
14.0%
13.8%
13.7%
7.9%
Traditional/classic content
Can include my company logo
Neutral/secular content
Modern/contemporary content
Religious/spiritual-faith content
Can include a photo of my team
Humorous content
Other
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0%
17 results
Audience Information
Nearly all (91.4%) of small businesses sending greeting cards send them to current
customers. Past customers are the second largest group of recipients, receiving cards
from nearly two-thirds (65%) of small businesses, while less than half (39%) of small
businesses report sending cards to potential customers. While reported target
audience, including current/past/potential customers, did not typically result in a
statistically significant change in preferred greeting card content, businesses that
reported sending cards to “friends and family” had a significantly higher likelihood of
also indicating a preference for “religious/spiritual-faith content” over
“neutral/secular content.” By contrast, businesses reporting sending cards to
“referral sources” were more likely to indicate a non-religious content preference,
with a significantly higher likelihood to send cards with a “Happy Holidays” wish
compared to “Merry Christmas.”
Businesses that self-describe as having “clients with files,” such as an insurance
business with individual client policies, report sending greeting cards at significantly
higher levels (48.3%) than not (31.6%). Businesses with “walk-in customers,” such
as a coffee shop, do not have a statistically significant difference in sending rates
(13.5% send while 14.9% do not).
18 Analysis & Insights
A Substantial Practice
This study sought to answer two fundamental questions, beginning with quantifying
how many small businesses in the U.S. send winter seasonal greeting cards. As this
study reveals, the centuries-old tradition of sending greeting cards is alive and well
across U.S. professional culture. In an era celebrating and often necessitating the
impact of social and digital media, it is important to recognize that one-third of small
businesses in the U.S. are still embracing the tactile tradition of physical greeting
cards sent by post. The sustained sending rates, including through and beyond a
pandemic, suggest that this is a business communication practice that will continue
to be a viable and important part of the commercial landscape for the foreseeable
future.
Extrapolating from the results of this study, one can
estimate that nearly one hundred fifty million greeting
cards are sent each winter by close to two million small
businesses across the U.S. The ripple effects across
the economy are massive, from print shop demand to
postal revenue – estimated in the tens of millions of
dollars. Of course, sustainable (or lack thereof)
practices will likewise have impacts across the
environment at this scale.
A Relational Medium
Commercial relationships are real relationships, even if meaningfully different from
personal ones. This means that greeting cards, even when sent commercially, hold
real potential for generating goodwill, loyalty, and affinity. The differences, however,
also suggest that the commercial motive, mass production, and one-way sending are
challenges that small businesses must keep in mind in order to produce intended
results.
The relational value of the medium is historically rooted and idiosyncratic, as noted
by the previous research into the meaningfulness of sending and receiving greeting
cards. Social media is often a space that businesses now look to achieve bonds
through interpersonal interactions
xxxvii
. Greeting cards appear to run alongside these
efforts, not in competition with them, according to send rates identified in this study.
The broader context and activities included in a business’s relationship creation and
management should be kept in mind when assessing the likely impact of sending
seasonal cards. Greeting cards are a vehicle for crafting, evoking, and reinforcing an
emotional relationship between sender and receiver, but commercial realities,
previous relationship, cultural associations, and aesthetic tastes, among many other
factors, will influence the impact over the intention.
The ripple effects
across the economy are
massive, from print
shop demand to postal
revenue.
19 analysis & Insights
A Classically-Informed Practice with a Resilient Aesthetic
The practice of sending greeting cards is not a uniquely American tradition, but
traditionalism does drive many American business greeting card choices. As Graves
xxxviii
has demonstrated, American business direct mail can often reveal traditional
American cultural notions, such as the value of anecdotal and interpersonal
identification in persuasive messaging. If a reader personally connects with
something, it has the potential to sway their future actions and beliefs.
Greeting cards demonstrate the commercial power of traditional Americanized
iconicity to connect and move. These holiday icons, from scenes of winter
wonderlands to horse-drawn sleighs and Christmas trees, certainly have multicultural
roots but have also found their own rhythms within American business and social
culture. The tactile greeting card with a preference for traditional design sent en
masse by businesses serves as a reminder that the classic visual and verbal
sensibilities remain symbolically valuable for businesses in the winter holiday season.
This does not, of course, exclude the value of the modern and the innovative but
rather points to the resilience of the classic.
As business practices interact with broader cultural trends, this study of particular
direct mail practices offers insights into American commerce’s approach to sensitive
subjects like faith around the holidays. While only a minority of businesses reported
seeking out cards with explicit faith-based messaging, the number of businesses
purposefully seeking out explicitly secularized content was also only a minority
percentage, even if twice larger than religious messaging responses. This pushes
back against the polemical notion of a “war on Christmas” invoked annually by news
20 analysis & Insights
media and politicians.
xxxix
Perhaps even more telling from this study is the ubiquity
of pro-Christmas verbiage. “Merry Christmas” remains one of the most preferred
phrasings for greeting cards sent by small businesses. Given that 93% of Americans
report that they celebrate Christmas,
xl
the commonality of “Christmas” iconicity –
both secular and sacred – used to reach customers is perhaps consistent with general
population sentiment. The diversity of faith across the U.S. will also continue to make
broader language important in the greeting card offerings, which is consistent with
the findings in this study on “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings” popularity –
two phrases that are also not mutually exclusive with faith-based celebrations. It will
also continue to make it important for suppliers to provide options for non-Christian
faith and cultural messaging, such as culturally appropriate phrasings to celebrate
Diwali, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
An Unexhausted Landscape
From increasing tracking measures to integrating systems that allow for efficient
annual sending, small businesses and providers alike have lots of opportunity to grow
and refine their greeting card practices and perspectives. Greeting card providers,
communications consultants, and internal marketing specialists have meaningful
roles to play in developing more technological infrastructure behind these practices
so that the relational and financial returns on investment can be maximized. With
almost no businesses measuring the impact of their greeting cards, immense
opportunities exist for integrating QR codes, digital coupon links, interactive social
features, and more. Of course, small businesses should also keep in mind the tension
that too much overt technologizing can have with the traditional meaningfulness of
greeting cards.
21 analysis & Insights
Greeting card suppliers likewise have an unexhausted landscape of opportunity, from
reaching the two-thirds of the market that do not participate to offering new products
and services to existing senders. New products and services may be directed at the
primary reasons businesses choose not to send, such as creating and promoting
efficiency and cost-saving measures. They may also promote alternative sending
times during the winter holiday season. While the symbolism of greeting cards is high
during that season, there may be peripheral timeframes that could be pursued. New
products may also draw on the traditional components of the medium that have made
it powerful interpersonally, such as handwriting machinery to add the personalized
touch, affordable customizations to allow for bespoke messaging and visuals, and
stunning design innovations to promote using the card as decoration instead of
discarding it.
22 Conclusion
From its aesthetic height in the Victorian era to the modern digital age, sending
greeting cards is a practice that endures, and it is one that small businesses have
chosen to embrace. Small business use of greeting cards, especially during the winter
holiday season, comprises a substantial subsection of the greeting card and
commercial direct mail industries. The practice also has significant room to grow and
evolve. Commercial greeting card use draws heavily on the interpersonal traditions
dating back centuries, rooted in meaningful exchanges designed to build, reflect, and
enhance interpersonal relationships during the holiday seasons. Because of this,
businesses and providers could benefit from paying particular attention to protecting
critical relationship-centric elements of the practice. Because of the obvious
commercial incentives, increased attention to tracking and measurement also holds
great potential for businesses. Likewise, the data collected in this new national study
suggest great opportunities for providers to craft stronger messaging on time
efficiencies and cost reductions available. As the data here has indicated, these
evolutions are likely to aid a market already proving its staying power across personal
and commercial lines of culture.
23 About the author
Stephen J. Lind is an Associate Professor of Clinical Business
Communication at USC’s Marshall School of Business in Los
Angeles, California. He holds a PhD in “Rhetorics,
Communication, and Information Design” from Clemson
University. At USC, Lind teaches courses on strategic business
communication, pitching, business writing, and business
communication technologies. Lind is also a consultant at
BizComm Ally, LLC, where he works with local startups to
multinational corporations and government agencies on finding their story,
developing their communication skills, and implementing innovatively effective
communication products.
Lind is the author of the internationally recognized biography and behind-the-scenes
industry story of Peanuts comic strip creator, Charles M. Schulz, “A Charlie Brown
Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz.” Lind’s work has
been featured in media outlets from The Atlantic to BBC Radio to CBN to Forbes, and
he has published in numerous academic and public outlets, from the Academy of
Marketing Science Review to Entrepreneur and the Wall Street Journal.
24 Notes & references
NOTES
i
Zakreski, “The Victorian Christmas Card as Aesthetic Object.”
ii
“Number of Firms, Number of Establishments, Employment, and Annual Payroll by Small
Enterprise Employment Sizes for the United States and States, NAICS Sectors: 2017.”
iii
Defined as having less than 100 employees
iv
“Facts & Data on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.”
v
MOE 4.1% at 95% confidence level.
vi
MOE 4.1% at 95% confidence level.
vii
“Greeting Cards – Info to Know.”
viii
Mazzone and Rehman, “The Household Diary Study: Mail Use & Attitudes in FY 2018.”
ix
“Greeting Cards – Info to Know.”
x
Zakreski, “The Victorian Christmas Card as Aesthetic Object.”
xi
Lind, A Charlie Brown Religion.
xii
Shank, A Token of My Affection, 12.
xiii
West, “Expressing the Self through Greeting Card Sentiment.”
xiv
Kunz, “Social Class Difference in Response to Christmas Cards.”
xv
Miller, Reynolds, and Singer, “Mobilizing the Young Vote.”
xvi
Slater et al., “Coupling Financial Incentives With Direct Mail in Population-Based Practice.”
xvii
“ANA/DMA 2018 Response Rate Report: Performance and Cost Metrics Across Direct
Media.”
xviii
“A Bias for Action,” 17.
xix
“Email Statistics Report, 2015-2019.”
xx
Broom, “Christmas, by the Numbers: 5 Facts about Holiday Season Spending.”
xxi
“Number of Firms, Number of Establishments, Employment, and Annual Payroll by Small
Enterprise Employment Sizes for the United States and States, NAICS Sectors: 2017.”
xxii
This study relies on the quantifying of firms used by the U.S. Census Bureau. Popular
news outlets often cite the Small Business Association quantifying of 31.7 million small
businesses “2020 Small Business Profile.”, but that number uses a much larger and looser
definition than is appropriate for the study here.
xxiii
“Facts & Data on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.”
xxiv
“Number of Firms, Number of Establishments, Employment, and Annual Payroll by Small
Enterprise Employment Sizes for the United States and States, NAICS Sectors: 2017.”
xxv
This MOE is for all required questions. Respondents were allowed to skip select
questions, resulting in variable MOE. All MOE’s that diverge from the base are noted.
xxvi
Special thanks to student research assistants Emily Moran, Andrew Tartakovsky,
Shannon Wright.
xxvii
Response rate was calculated based on emails that were actually opened, as indicated
by the survey software, excluding emails that bounced back as undeliverable or that were
never opened. Total number of emails sent was 105,914. A total of 84,880 emails were
never seen because of Spam filters, were bounced as undeliverable, or were never opened
for other unspecified reasons.
xxviii
MOE for this data point is 4.1% fat 95% confidence level.
xxix
All statistical significance reported is at: p = .05 at 95% confidence level.
xxx
MOE 2.6% at 95% confidence level.
xxxi
MOE 4% at 95% confidence level.
xxxii
MOE 4.1% at 95% confidence level.
xxxiii
MOE 4.2% at 95% confidence level.
25 Notes & references
xxxiv
MOE 4.1% at 95% confidence level.
xxxv
MOE 4.1% at 95% confidence level.
xxxvi
MOE 4.1% at 95% confidence level.
xxxvii
“Do Organizational Personification and Personality Matter?”
xxxviii
“‘Dear Friend’ (?”
xxxix
Olsen and Morgan, “Happy Holidays.”
xl
Saad, “What Percentage of Americans Celebrate Christmas?”
This study was human subject research “exempt.”
Some of the icons used in this white paper were collected via the icons8
library.
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