Word: hallmark
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...True Hallmark...
...looked by the light of the fireplace in his Georgian mansion set on a 700-acre farm outside Kansas City. Some time soon, Christmas 1960 will go to press, and next year every American will get at least one greeting card the original of which is back at Hallmark bearing a curt...
Born in David City, Neb., Hallmark's Hall started work at the age of nine selling lemon-extract perfume to help support his mother, worked on through high school selling postcards and helping in a bookstore. By 1912, he was in Kansas City, determined to make a go of greeting cards. The venture almost died as soon as it started; Hall was $17,000 in debt when a flash fire wiped out his printing plant. Luckily, he was able to sweet-talk a local bank into an unsecured $25,000 loan, and he has not taken a step back...
...idea of cards for every sentiment, every event, now does 50% of his annual business outside of the big holidays. He went after such writers as Ogden Nash and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, brought in such artists as Saul Steinberg, Grandma Moses, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, sponsored touring Hallmark art exhibits across the U.S. He was told time and again that Sir Winston Churchill would never agree to have his paintings on greeting cards. Churchill was delighted, and Hallmark sold 4.5 million Churchill cards the very first year, about half the number of Hallmark's alltime bestseller-a cart...
...sales success: the first nine points are distribution. To get his cards into the stores and keep them there, he set up a sales system that replaced the helter-skelter collection of boxes under the counter with a long display rack that put the selection out in the open. Hallmark sells the display racks to retailers at cost, also assumes responsibility for keeping the store's stock-both from Hallmark and from competitors-up-to-date, re-ordering when the cards get low. All the retailer has to do is ring the cash register. While others in the industry...