Sales of greeting cards during the New Year period managed to show growth of 3-5 per cent from last year, despite the burgeoning popularity of electronic channels, particularly Internet-based social networking, said card-makers.
Phoemsin Lertrathanakarn, managing director of Cordial Creative, said sending a greeting card conveyed the thoughtfulness and emotion of the card sender in a way that an e-card might not.
The revolution in technology has made sending e-cards easy. Producers of physical cards say they are sold to educated people who think sending a card is an art, reflecting their good taste.
Telephones, fax machines, mobile phones, the Internet and social networking are all fine. But paper cards survive because sender and receiver both know the card has sentimental value.
Phoemsin said he expected sales of paper greeting cards to continue growing by 3 to 5 per cent over the next two years, from Bt500 million last year. He said an expansion of education into the provinces would help boost sales.
Thais buy only one greeting card per person per year, compared with 50 such cards in the United Kingdom. So paper greeting cards in Thailand have room to grow, he added.
Suwan Amornthien, managing director of Grace Greeting, another major greeting-card publisher, said paper greeting cards were regarded as luxury goods of the kind consumers cut down on in hard economic times.
Suwan believes sales of paper cards this year will be flat because the economy has not fully recovered. He said e-cards might affect the sale of paper cards but not by much because businesses prefer to send physical cards.
Suwan agreed with Phoemsin that paper cards showed the "carefulness" of the sender, and were suitable for officials.
Natcha Chuemchorat, marketing executive at Cards&Things, said sales of paper cards were in line with the economic situation, except during the festive season around the end of each year.
She said e-cards might have a smaller effect on sales of paper cards than the state of the economy.
During the slowdown in 2008 to 2009, sales of paper cards suffered because they are considered luxuries, she added.
