Threat for Products due to Digital Age / On Line Marketing

ITC exits Greeting Cards Biz

       Chennai, June 26 Facing up to the reality of a digital age in which interest in greeting cards is diminishing, ITC has exited the category. Launched in the year 2000 under the brand Expressions when the category was estimated at Rs 300 crore and growing at 15-20 per cent, the move comes in the wake of the market size shrivelling to Rs 100 crore.

      ITC has also re-branded this business as the Education & Stationery Products Business (earlier known as Greeting, Gifting & Stationery) to accurately reflect its current focus on the Rs 9,000-crore market that comprises notebooks, copier and printer paper, writing instruments and ‘scholastic products’ (erasers, geometry boxes, sharpeners and the like). In the previous fiscal, greeting cards contributed only 5 per cent of the business unit’s turnover. Cheaper telephony and cell phone SMS services have proved to be a double whammy for greeting cards, while e-greetings has also contributed to the decline.