The Proper Mail Company (the sibling brand to Woodmansterne) is going all out to help its retail stockists remind their customers of the merit of taking the time and thought to hand write a greeting card.
The publisher has produced a little ‘Snail mail pamphlet’ that acts as a reminder of the merits of sending cards. Its pages features poignant statements, backed up by research that highlight the benefits of sending cards.
‘A handwritten greeting card generates three times more happiness than an email’ details the findings from the 2013 MindLab research and ‘A handwritten card is preferred by four times as many mothers as tea at the Ritz’ according to a YouGov survey are just two of the messages which ram it home.
The photography depicts messages being written inside cards using a Kaweco fountain pen co-branded with The Proper Mail Company’s name.
The pamphlet and the pens will be on The Proper Mail Company’s stand at Spring Fair (Hall 3-3A stand R02) with the intention to make them available to retailers who are looking to become an exclusive stockist of brand’s products in their locality.
As Paul Woodmansterne, managing director of Woodmansterne/The Proper Mail Company pointed out: “The UK’s ‘General Post Office’ for the collection and carriage of letters between post towns was in place by 1660. The London Penny Post with a proper system for handling deliveries at a universal rate of a penny in London and Westminster was set up by 1680. It took until 1840 for that universal rate to apply to the whole of the UK. Soon after, in 1843, Henry Cole introduced the world’s first commercial Christmas card, and, as far as greeting card sending, the UK has never looked back.”
Recognising the rapid pace of change over the last decade, he went to highlight how, by contrast, It has taken only ten years since “the launch of the iPhone for today’s ‘anti-social media’ to have a grip on virtually all our social interaction.”
Accepting that ‘The Pen and Snail Mail Pamphlet’ might be seen as a piece of nostalgia Paul also urges the industry to “recognise, and speak about, the lasting value of giving someone a card. It’s time we, as publishers, broaden out the conversation to our own networks – and there’s nothing like a physical piece of paper for someone to hold and cherish.”
It is hoped that some of the retailers who do become The Proper Mail Company ‘exclusive’ stockists will make the Kaweco pen available to customers to write their cards on the premises.
