Preserve memories. Connect with loved ones. Show someone you care. These aren't the first phrases that come to mind when describing the novelty biz, but that's our function. It just isn't put in such a greeting-card kind of way.
Adult greeting cards, however, bridge this gap. They allow your demographic to "say it with a card" how they really mean it. For you, they yield a high profit margin, shape your business as more of a gift destination, are a great cash wrap add-on and can increase customer loyalty.
What are greeting cards?
The Greeting Card Association presents a compelling case for putting a stamp on that envelope or slipping a personalized message in with a gift: They boost emotional well-being. "That special bright-colored or handwritten envelope stands out among our piles of bills and magazines and serves as a reminder that someone has taken the time from their day to reach out to us and show us they care," the association writes on its website. According to the Greeting Card Association's research, in an increasingly stressful world, greeting cards are simple pleasures that people often treasure for a lifetime.
Ron Miller, president of Village Lighthouse, which has several lines of adult greeting cards (including a forthcoming Playgirl line) agrees. "There's a huge market for adult greeting cards," he says. "They make people laugh. They're a sentiment-driven, feel-good product that's cheap and affordable."
So what are greeting cards? On a human level, they're a cost-effective, easy way to strengthen a connection with another person. It's a highly appreciated gesture that ranges from everyday greetings to holiday greetings (the two major card categories). "With our greeting-card lines, we try to make all brands able to be sold to anybody of any orientation," Miller says. "It's the person who complete the cards, finishes the salutation. They make the card gay or straight. They're designed to be great graphically, great in sentiment."
As a retailer, stocking greeting cards is a way to facilitate feel-good actions-above and beyond the functions of your core inventory.
Adult greeting cards and you
There is a compelling synergy between adult greeting cards and novelty stores. Vash Designs co-founder and designer Michael Vash thought he was making cards for guys like him, straight with a cheeky, inappropriate (not X-rated) sense of humor that is often body- and sex-based. He couldn't find what he wanted in stores, so the former Disney illustrator started making them himself.
As it turns out, he couldn't find them in stores for a reason: They were too racy for the mainstream. For example, one Vash birthday card features an illustration of a boy blowing out his birthday candles with a fart. Because the boy's cartoon bottom is bare, mainstream rejections abounded.
"We quickly found out who our customer was: stores in places where people know that that's the place to go, like smoke shops, gay shops," Vash co-founder Doug Perlstadt says. "Our cards do extremely well at adult shops. Places that aren't worried about mothers complaining. Our cards are cartoon humor, not X-rated. We don't think we're that out-there, but this is America."
One can infer that making a store known as a purveyor of edgier-than-mainstream gift items may draw extra customers and make shopping easier for flocks of women prepping gift baskets for brides-to-be.
"With the adult market, I see more and more DVD retailers now becoming more general gift stores like Hustler, stores that follow this format," Miller says. "The impulse-gift business is great for these retailers. It's evergreen, like real estate."
Alicia Sinclair of the adult novelty and greeting card manufacturer Pipedream Products agrees. "You're not going to find a ‘I hope you enjoy your toy tonight' card [in mainstream stores]," she says.
Sentimental profit
In a business sense, adult greeting cards yield a high profit margin, often are impulse purchases, and, as Debra Peterson of Fairvilla Megastores reports, can solidify a store's image as a go-to place for all things novelty.
"The product lines we carry add something sexy and humorous to our stores and are things you can't find anywhere else," she says. "They're a perfect add-on to a purchase, especially for milestone birthdays and bachelorette parties or to gift bags. I love to see customers shopping for greeting cards [and] their enthusiastic reactions. Our customers look forward to seeing the new cards we bring in."
People who buy greeting cards usually buy three at a time, and the main driver for sales is humor, Village Lighthouse says. According to the Greeting Card Association, 62 percent of people who receive a card feel inspired to send one, and "Happy Birthday" is the most popular card theme. So, ideally, a well-stocked, meticulously maintained spinning rack will stand near the cash wrap, ready to have funny, sexy cards plucked from its frame.
"There's a 50 to 60 percent gross margin profit for adult cards," Miller notes. "They take up little space and are a small investment. They look fresh and put adult stores into the gift business. For us, now working with Playgirl, we're filling the bachelorette niche and growing.
"We're looking to movie studios and different types of content. We stand by our business and our product. If a certain style is not doing well, we swap it out. In some cases, sales reps re-stock spinners, mostly with the retailers in the Los Angeles area (where the company is based). We look at retailers as business partners. "
Internet sales
Offering adult greeting cards online is another great way to boost profits. Otis Richardson, owner and creator of Lavender Pop, has cards aimed at African-American gays and lesbians and is looking to branch out in the ethnic market. "People can order [my cards] online," he says. "It seems to work for people in small towns or somewhere where they don't have a store near them."
For customers who are hesitant to cross the threshold of a brick-and-mortar adult store, it's the perfect way to anonymously order a racy card. This suggestion is substantiated by Village Lighthouse's experience with its recently launched OutGreetings.com division, which features online cards and e-vites for gays and lesbians. Adult constitutes a larger percent of the company's monthly sales.
But don't worry. E-cards do not pose a threat to the market, according to Miller. "E-vites and e-cards haven't stopped paper-card sales at all," he says. "They've even made them better. People look at an e-card as a convenience. Taking the time to put a personal message [on a physical card] is the best gift ever."
Who makes XXX cards?
Just as there are mainstream animators who supposedly slip explicit bits into kiddie films, there is a motley crew of greeting-card manufacturers who identified an adult-shaped hole in the sentiment market.
American Mockery, Comstock Cards, Lavender Pop, Pipedream Products, Vash Designs and Village Lighthouse are adult greeting-card manufacturers, large and small in scale.
Vash produces "inappropriately funny" illustrated cards, and Lavender Pop caters to the black gay and lesbian community.
Here's a rundown of the other companies' product lines:
American Mockery focuses on "adult humor for a hardcore world," depicting racy, inappropriate, body- and sex-based humor in photos.
Comstock Cards' lines run the gamut of funny, suggestive, photographic images to "very, very explicit," funny photographic cards to explicit cartoon cards.
Pipedream Product's cards are created by owner Nick Orlandino and fit right into the distributor's cards, games and themed wrapping paper categories. To go along with the company's Ron Jeremy toy line, the adult star is featured in a card with a pop-up penis, in the same playful tone as the novelty items' packaging.
Village Lighthouse has several paper card lines under its umbrella: Big Daddy (a line featuring male stars from Raging Stallion and, beginning this fall, Playgirl for both men and women), 10 Percent (a gay and lesbian line), Paper Dolls ("ambiguous, sweet, hand-drawn, anime-ish cards that do very well in the mainstream and with young, straight college students"), and Nick and Friends (a sentiment-driven gay and lesbian card line).
By all accounts, adult greeting cards are low-investment, high-profit items that bring customers' smiles that will last as long as their memories of your customer service helping them find that perfect fisting toy.
