Greeting Cards In Nigeria: Why You Need Them

An individual holding up a greeting card. Image Credit: Canva.com

If you were born from the 80s downwards, chances are that you know a lot about greeting cards, and probably even used them at least once in your lifetime. Greeting cards are decorative cards sent to individuals to convey well wishes or commiserate with them. 

Henry Cole, the British icon is credited with creating the first commercial greeting cards after he contracted artist John Horsley to create a greeting card that he could distribute to friends and family. After the prototype was created, Henry Cole went on to print about 2050 copies of the cards which were sold for about 6 pence per card. Today, top greeting card companies like Hallmark generate the highest sales during the Christmas season, with Valentine’s Day a close second.

Greeting cards were very popular in Nigeria from the 1960s to the 1990s but began to see a steady decline in the 2000s largely due to the introduction of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and the proliferation of smart mobile devices. With the proliferation of the GSM phones, people saw the possibility of sending well wishes to family and friends through text via the Small Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

Ultimately as technology saw unrivalled growth between the 2010s to the present day; people in Nigeria have generally found it easier to use technology to send well wishes and commemoration messages thereby relegating the one-time favourite medium of greeting cards to the back burner.

However, as grim as things were for the greeting cards industry in the early and mid-2000s, things seem to have taken a new turn as Millenials and young people turn back the hands of time to embrace greeting cards. According to NPR, the greeting cards industry was expected to generate a revenue of $933 million for valentine’s day sales alone in 2019! 

Locally in Nigeria, the story has also been the same with millennials starting to see greeting cards as a classy touch that carries much more emotional value than a text message via SMS or WhatsApp. So what is behind the change in fortune?

One of the driving factors behind the change in fortune of the greeting card industry has been the willingness of card makers to incorporate technology into their card making service rather than run away from it. Here at Loowie’s Ideas for example; we embrace the use of technology to allow our customers to customize their cards with pictures, images and text to fit their individual needs. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach; rather, we prefer to put the power in the hands of our customers and this has worked wonders for us.

Why Do You Need A Greeting Card?

It Shows That You Are Classy

With the proliferation of smartphones, people now have access to communication tools more than ever before. From phone calls to text messaging, chatting and emailing; people can now send messages through multiple channels. As a result, people tend to share well wishes and commemoration messages with their friends and family through these communication channels. However, if you want to stand out from the crowd, take advantage of greeting cards to show your class. What’s even more? Customised greeting cards can help demonstrate to your loved ones that you took the time to think of them.

It Helps You Connect With People Emotionally

A woman reading a greeting card and smiling. Image Credit: Canva.com

Royal Mail carried out research in collaboration with Mindlab an independent scientific research company where people were monitored to see which medium between text messaging and greeting cards has more effect on mothers. In the end, the mothers sampled showed two times the emotional happiness they displayed when given greetings cards than when they received well wishes via text messages. This demonstrates that people connect more emotionally with greeting cards than they do with text messages. So, if you are looking to connect with people emotionally, getting a greeting card might be the best option for you.

People Prefer It

According to a 2016 study by the Royal Mail; a British postal and courier service, 76 per cent of the people surveyed said that they prefer greeting cards to online messages, and only a paltry 12 per cent said that they prefer to be texted than sent cards. This goes a long way to show that the majority of people still prefer to be sent greeting cards, so why shouldn’t you send them?

They Are Typically Inexpensive

People sometimes shun greeting cards in favour of other gift items because they think that personalized greeting cards are somewhat expensive and while that might be true for some cardmakers, for us at Loowie Ideas, our customised and personalized cards are typically inexpensive.

Conclusion

Greeting cards are a great way to celebrate or commiserate with your friends, colleagues and loved ones. There was a period when people turned to text messaging to convey their good wishes and commiserations, but with innovative solutions like personalisation and customization, people-Millenials in particular have embraced greeting cards for a number of reasons. Looking to get customized cards and other personalized gifts for an upcoming occasion? Click here to personalize and get it delivered to your doorsteps.