I Just IM'd to Say "I Love You"

American Greetings, the 101-year-old cardmaker, uses social-networking widgets and instant messaging to reach the younger audience it desperately needs.

Fast Company, April 11, 2008 — It's the weekend before Valentine's Day and the dozen or so shoppers at the American Greetings store in midtown Manhattan are wandering through a sea of Mylar balloons, heart-shaped tchotchkes, and rows upon rows of paper greeting cards. (Valentine's Day is the second-most-popular card holiday, behind Christmas and just ahead of Mother's Day.) The vast majority of shoppers are women, and only one appears to be under 40. The manager estimates that just 10% to 15% of customers are under the age of 20, prompting the adolescent sales clerk to hammer home that the clientele is predominately "middle-age women." That is not just anecdotal evidence but acknowledged fact at American Greetings, which generated $1.7 billion in 2007 revenues. Its annual report reveals that women buy 80% of the cards in the United States, and their median age is 47. Not exactly the Facebook crowd. To gen-Yers, a snail- mail card is as antiquated as getting a $5 birthday check from grandma.