Cardplai has been busy.
Clearly they took on board many comments from newsagents and consumers and have sent me a list of what they have done:
Removed all logos from front of cards
Increased stock quality and weight in line with greeting card industry standards.
Improved colour and graphics on cards.
Focused on birthday cards (including 18th & 21st Milestone cards)
Copy on all new cards links to music as a gift
'Thumbprint' graphics on back of all cards to help consumers understand how cards can be used as gifts (eg. 'Blondie' card highlights extensive back catalogue)
Graphics on back of card help newsagents understand they scan this code only after they have scanned code on inside of card.
Code has been reduced from 16 to 12 digits
We are also supplying a 'thinking of you' caption card to replace the 'sympathy' caption card (confusion between 'sympathy' and 'condolences')
We have also updated to the point of sale posters with the following amendments:
Colours are more dramatic and will stand out in busy retail environment
Messages focus on price point and gift
Posters include artist IP & new card designs
We are also supply 10 pocket size Cardplai 'how to' cards for newsagents to hand out to staff (we have identified that much of the information supplied to newsagents has not been read or passed on to staff, creating a situation when customers come into store and ask for the product the person behind the counter often doesn't know anything about the product).
The B2B site will be up in the next 72 hours and will act as a resource centres for participating newsagents
We will begin sending out new product, POS and training material next Tuesday.
We are currently developing a 3 minute online training video to help improve product knowledge.
The next issue of Jmag has editorial and a full page ad on Cardplai
We are also working on an instore promotion with a major instore prize per participating site.
We are also waiting on approval of a national promotion with News Ltd for late March.
