Online Gift Cards Surveys Declared Successful by Hallmark Cards

After three years of conducting online surveys and gaining important information about its consumers and their needs, gift card publisher Hallmark Cards declared the approach a valuable tool. The program, called The Hallmark Idea Exchange, is a private members-only community available to certain consumers. It also serves as a research lab for Hallmark gift cards.

Tom Brailsford, Manager of Advancing Capabilities at Hallmark Cards, explained a very important reason for its success and why anyone in the gift business should consider such a research model. "You can do three traditional focus groups and hear from about 24 consumers and it'll cost you two or three weeks and $10,000. On the other hand, through Hallmark Idea Exchange we can hear regularly from 150 consumers in 36 hours on a particular issue. We have evidence from linguistic analyses that suggests that the content we get from the communities is far richer than what comes from a focus group. We're trying to get faster, better, and cheaper."