Its SMS, greeting cards are staid now

Chennai, Jan 14: Pushing the traditional greeting card out ofvogue, the Short Messaging Service (SMS) is holding the sway these daysin this city for extending greetings on festive and other occasions,especially among the Gen X.

Encouraged by lower Access DeficitCharge (ADC) rates, leading mobile service providers including BharatSanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), AirTel and Hutch have already announcedreduction in their STD, ISD and SMS rates for 2007.

The majority of city residents, encouraged by the reduction, werelooking forward to extended minutes of chatting with friends andrelatives residing in other states and countries, instead of sendingcards for different occasions.

The greeting card and postal industry were the biggest casualties of the recent phenomenon.

''There is no doubt that during the last five years the greetingcard sales have declined by more than 15 per cent,'' Archies GallerySales-in-Charge R Shankar told UNI ''Though brand promotions andspecial day cards still catch the attention, the SMS and e-mail havetotally taken over,'' he added.

Shelling out anywhere between Rs 25-100 for a greeting card is so much more taxing than sending a 50 paise or free SMS across.

B Ramakumar, a final year Commerce student of Loyola college enumerates the many pluses of SMS and e-mail.

''It's immediately delivered. Phones, SMS and e-mails are thehi-tech means of communication and it gels with our on-the-movelifestyle.'' ''Cards have been elbowed out by cellphones and SMSes andnow reduced STD rates will further encourage people to exchangegreetings over the phone,'' Vaishnavi, a mobile service provider said.

According to Archies Executive Director Pramod Arora last year hiscompany sold 55 million cards and the company generates 51 per cent ofits total revenue from cards and stationary.

''It is true that our card sales has come down, but if you baseour estimates on the sales logged during Valentine's Day, you will findthat the decline in cards sales has bottomed out,'' he said.

The SMS and e-cards (soft cards) are trashed immediately as theyoccupy the mailbox space, while hard cards are preserved for a muchlonger period, he said adding it should be remembered that there is noalternative to hard cards.

But the plus 40 age-group still vows by the appeal of a greeting card.

Coca-Cola Regional Manager R Kumar says, ''the value of cards andletters is that they can be stored and kept for years. The cards thatmy wife sent to me when we got engaged are still with me and areprobably my most valuable possession.'' The convenience factor thoughcan't be overlooked.

S Thiyagarajan, a software engineer in Chennai InfoSys says, ''Isend my friends and acquaintances group SMSs and e-mails, but when itcomes to a message to my girlfriend or parents, I make sure that acarefully selected greeting card is handed over to them.

There are so many personal things that can be conveyed via acard.'' ''Maintaining a balance is essential, a hi-tech lifestylenotwithstanding,'' he added.

UNI
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