The average person receives more than 20 cards per year, about one-third of which are birthday cards. The most popular recipients of seasonal cards are parents, who receive about one out of every five seasonal cards. The most popular recipients of everyday cards are friends, who receive about one out of every three everyday cards. In keeping with casual Fridays and a more relaxed lifestyle, Americans are using casual, conversational cards for communicating with friends, neighbors and work associates in addition to using more traditional cards to recognize milestone occasions and special relationships. A strong majority of consumers acknowledged they enjoy sending greeting cards and that greeting card sending is a valued family tradition.
Greeting cards have sentimental value as keepsakes.
The proliferation of these new modes of communication is expected to, over time, increase the number of interpersonal relationships people are able to maintain, as well as increase the intimacy of those relationships. Increasing these consumers' involvement in communicating with friends and loved ones has the potential to increase their familiarity with the benefits of card sending . Growing Internet Usage Boosts the Greeting Card Industry Just as the VCR has not been the death of the movie house, so too the Internet will not be the death knell of the paper greeting card industry. As a matter of fact, it may be just the opposite, reveals a recent sociological study by Dr. Barry Wellman, professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Keith Hampton, professor of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Furthermore, the ease of computer-mediated communication only enhances the intimacy of those relationships.