Amazing response from sharing my survey on social media- on which I requested young females on my social media and on student group pages for their feedback on our work for UK greetings. Here were the findings. I made the survey to thicken our research and find out certain information such as what these females would want on an uplifting card, what would motivate them to buy it more than competitors, and if there was a gap in the market for our idea to create greetings to send to cheer a loved one up, just a lovely positive gesture. Finding out if others that don't do art related degrees collect cards was also very interesting to tap in to.
-Majority of 44 participants would send a card to a loved one to cheer them up rather than write to them on social media
-Would be more likely bought if a percentage of proceeds went to charity
-Places cards most bought are Card Factory, Scribbler and Paperchase which are all places I visited to get an idea of what was on the market, apart from Scribbler so I need to investigate their style and approach of stock.
-Was a very close call between having a pin/patch included with the card, with the slight majority not wanting these specifically. It is important to be aware that outside the arts degree groups there may not be a desire for these. Could discuss what else to include as an addition to the card/paper/bags, although this wasnt very desirable on the next question.
-Majority tallied of what to include on the card to cheer someone up, with a huge majority being animals, were hand drawn typography (to look more sincere and heartfelt) and bright colours, to my dismay flowers being the least popular therefore need to change my objectives. This is brilliant though and shows how crucial feedback is! This also solves our worries of there being too much going on with the greetings set.
-Generally cards were kept because of the sentimental value of the message wrote inside rather than the design on the front, therefore keeping it blank inside keeps the heartfelt intention and room for a message true to the goodwill of sending such a card.
When leaving room for comment on what needs to be changed, in their opinion, with the greetings market currently these comments gave the strongest indications for our project to follow
-Most designs are too over used, like that tatty bear or old fashioned floral patterns. Feel like the card industry needs to be freshened up with some new innovative desgigns that fit our current modern demographic.
-Some more simple written quotes/wording that is easy to remember. I received a card which had 'life is full of beautiful possibilities' which i prefer over the long worded ones that span over multiple pages
-card shops like scribbler are more modern and up to date but can be quite offensive and are expensive. card factory is brilliant because it's cheap and the designs aren't too bad-Needs more options for specific kinds of cards-I feel like there should be more card designs out there for the LGBT community such as if there was a a son or a daughter with gay parents and they wanted to find a card to celebrate their anniversary or something then they should be able to have a wide variety for them to choose from :)I think there should be more variety of greeting cards available that relate to current affairs or common interests. For example; cards that have a game of thrones theme or something of similar popularity at the time. Kids cards always have Disney characters etc but you don't see enough cards with fun/memorable characters aimed at adults. I realise that copyright may have something to do with this though :)
Along with opinions that many are too expensive, offensive, stereotypical or that many are too poorly made and not intricate and heartfelt as they could be.
My indication to Nanami now is keep working on the brilliant illustrations of animal faces she has done and digitalise them so we can work on them together, scrap flowers and patterns and stick with the bright colour scheme(which still stays true to the nature of our aim, and if anything strips back too much business), and I need to experiment with the quotes we have discussed in different hand drawn approaches. When these are done, this means the designs can be easily put together and will be very versatile and adaptable to our bags, badges, wrapping papers, and other additions if we find appropriate.
Furthermore, deciding from feedback which cause to have these cards for to push their sales and awareness, setting them apart from any similar on the greetings market, the decision was between royal mail, an animal charity, or a mental health charity such as Mind.
Each of them have their amazing benefits and work hand in hand with our products aim and entire ethos, however the most appropriate would be for an animal charity as there is a huge market striving for the welfare of animals and giving them better lives. Royal Mail will be benefitted by the cards range anyway as these are sent for any ocassion or time to cheer someone up or brighten a day, and making the cards for a mental health charity donation raises amazing awareness and would further reduce the stigma between consumers, yet it is still a sensitive subject and there has to be an understanding that a person receiving the card who could be in any emotional situation could be offended by any suggestion of mental illness, if they took it that way. Therefore, finding an appropriate animal charity works with our central focus of these unconvetional adorable animals and donates to charity or promotes charities without being too daunting, in a positive notion. In line with other projects I have researched for currently, the public is desenstitized to sensitive visuals and keeping the motivation positive would benefit the consumer and the person the card is given to making them feel even better they have helped animals too.
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