Writing down the words on a Valentine’s Day card seems like it’s a piece of cake for professionals, but writers said it’s actually not that simple.
“We create about a thousand or more new Valentine’s Day cards every year, so there’s a lot of work that goes into that development process” said Kelly Ricker, vice president of the creative department at American Greetings.
Anne McEvoy is a senior writer at the card company’s headquarters in Brookpark, who’s been writing Valentine’s Day cards for almost 30 years. She said the end product of a card often differs from the initial idea.
“The idea in and of itself probably isn’t enough” she said. “Writing the actual piece of copy is just one step in a great big process because we do want a lot of people to have their eyes on that piece of copy.”
Editors, illustrators and a whole team of marketers must decide on the right theme and feel they want writers to convey before it goes to print.
Ricker said it’s their job to understand consumers.
“They will say this is how it should be laid out, this is the kind of look this card should have and you hope for that perfect marriage between the visual and the words,” McEvoy explained.
Both women explained the most important thing is making sure the cards are up-to-date with the current trends.
McEvoy said, “we really have to have our fingers on the cultural pulse all the time. What are people excited about right now, what are some of the buzzwords around relationships.”
Ricker added, “it depends on the type of card, I think Whip and Nae Nae you could see come up in like a funny card or technology card.”
There's even a whole department dedicated to thinking and developing new card innovations.
When it's all said and done multiple people have put their two cents in, on that 99 cent card.
“Our goal is to make sure that we have something for everyone and we’ve got a full assortment that’s really reflective of where we’re at now” Ricker said.
All their processing and planning takes place now, a whole year ahead of schedule. That way they can always stay one step ahead of consumers.
