MxMIndia

Tag: Archies

  • To work on corporate reputation and awareness

    Media Mantra wins PR mandate for brand Archies

    By Our Staff

     

    Archies Ltd, retailers of greeting cards and gifts, has roped in the services of Media Mantra for its PR mandate aimed at driving the corporate communications strategy in the country. Media Mantra will work on Archies’ corporate reputation and awareness, amplifying its visibility, strategic communication counsel, and overall public relations and media relations.

     

    Udit Pathak, Founder Director of Media Mantra, said: “It’s a matter of great pride for Media Mantra to partner with a legacy brand like Archies. Acting on our role as strategic advisers, we intend to apply our vast knowledge and expertise to execute innovative, disruptive and high-impact PR campaigns that will create a positive impact on Archies’ business in India.”

     

    Added Varun Moolchandani, Executive Director of Archies: “From a firm that just sold cards, Archies has come a long way to establish itself as a full-fledged social expressions enterprise. We’ve been the trailblazers of India’s gifting ecosystem for 44 years on the back of our ability to keep innovating and improving our offerings. Building on the same vision, we’ve roped in the services of Media Mantra to help us reposition our brand and amplify our presence in the country. We look forward to a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship with them.”

     

  • Spend some money on content & design, not a new logo, Anil Thakraney urges Archies as he's surprised that people still buy the cheesy trash in card shops.

    Anil Thakraney: To Archies. With love

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Makers of Archies greeting cards have made a sensational announcement: They have a brand new logo! Wow! Can’t wait to hit their store! Am sure there’s a stampede out there!!

     

    Just kidding, of course. If there’s one product category that continues to disappoint me, it’s these festive cards, a category in which Archies is the market leader. These cards have got stuck in time, the design is the same old boring eighties stuff, and the messages seem to be written by juvenile delinquents and/or a group of really bored housewives. Each time I’ve dropped by at the Archies outlet, I have struggled very, very hard to find one single witty and sparkling card. It’s always the same rubbish: ‘Dear Husband, you mean the world to me, I will love you for the rest of my life.’ ‘Dear Mother, you are the best mom in the world, you make me happy.’ And this nonsense relentlessly goes on.

     

    Isn’t it amazing that people continue to buy this cheesy trash? Especially in these days of e-cards and social media? Why does it happen? The answer is quite simple, and it’s this human quirk that has helped Archies thrive despite years of staggering mediocrity. People, especially women, like the personal touch of a hard copy card, they don’t much care for the e-card. They appreciate the fact that someone they love made the effort and spent the time to buy them a special card. So what if the card itself sucks, that’s not really important. The gesture is.

     

    And it is this human quirk which has helped the card maker amass a lot of money without ever ploughing some back into improving the product. Thing is, I wonder how long this affection for a hard copy card last. As the generation changes, many Indians would smoothly switch to the internet for greeting each other, and be quite happy using that medium. And that would mean a quiet death for Archies cards.

     

    Dear Archies, there are enough very talented designers and writers in this nation. Please loosen your purse strings and spend some money on content and design. That alone will assure a future for you. A cosmetic logo change certainly won’t.

     

    * * *

     

    PS: Don’t we often land up on a page that does not exist? When that damned ‘404 ERROR’ warning springs up? Well, some designers have decided to sex up that dull and un-inviting page. And the results are great fun. So much better to spend energies on this than indulge in fake ads to win awards.

    Link: http://www.topdesignmag.com/30-awesome-404-error-page-designs/

     

     

  • Little wonder, the Feb 1-14 period accounts for 16-18 per cent of the company's annual turnover

    Love sees a new high for Archies on V-Day

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    Valentine’s Day celebrations in India would be incomplete without that ubiquitous Archies card declaring undying love and probably most, when at the store, one adds some gifts too from a wide selection of red and pink love tokens. So there is no room for doubt when the company declared that Valentine’s month, as it considers the period from February 1-14, accounts for 16-18 per cent of their annual turnover.

     

    “We have seen that 3-4 days before V-Day, the sales across our stores increase from anything between 6-10 times as compared to an average day. In fact, a day before (Feb 13), the stores witness chaos and we have to arrange for all the helping hands available to cater to this rush in many of our company-operated stores,” informed Youhan Aria, Head Corporate Communications at Archies.

     

    In the last few years, Valentine’s Day has become a money spinner for businesses of all sorts. While few years back, this day was restricted to college-goers or youngsters, now the craze has engulfed many across the cross-section. Mutalik and Shiv Sena notwithstanding, the day is being celebrated and the phenomenon has caught on so much that even if one might not go for a high priced gift, a greeting card or maybe flowers and chocolates do figure on the gifting list.

     

    Aria shares the example of a beat constable in Vasant Vihar in New Delhi, who did not understand the concept behind V-Day, but still walked in one of the Archies store to pick up a card. That speaks volumes on the V-Day equation and the formula of gifting.

     

    For Archies, V-Day is bigger than any other gifting occasion which sees spikes in sales, be it Diwali, Friendship Day or Rakhi. Across its 240 stores in 66 cities, the display, too, is done keeping in mind the spirit of the day where red and pink rules.

     

    In terms of top picks for gifting are the usual cards, soft toys, chocolates and fashion jewellery. Also, it seems, when splurging on V-Day, money is not much of a concern and people go for cards that are high on embellishments – higher the number of inserts, better it is. Also there are not too many takers for lesser-priced cards

     

    “Over the years, the change that we have seen on the V-Day gifting is that our TG has expanded.Whereas, earlier it was restricted to only teens and young professionals, now one sees people even in their late 40s coming over to pick something. Seeing this trend, we have expanded our portfolio of gifts to cater to a wider range for different TGs,” said Mr Aria.

     

    Also one thing that Archies has seen over the years is that sales come more easily from tier II and III cities as the number of options available in these towns are limited. Mr Aria added: “For us, competition comes from anyone, be it a coffee joint or a retail store. In fact, even laptops, jewellery brands and shops as well as restaurants are competing with us. I would call these category killers. However, an Archies store is a social expression as it fulfills its customer’s gifting needs. Even gifting a gadget is never complete on V-Day without the greeting cards, and that’s where we step in.”

     

    Archies has seen exponential growth in the demand for their merchandise and cards on V-Day in the last few years and have been extremely satisfied with the sales during this period. While the country celebrates V-Day on February 14, for Archies, their season for this celebration has almost ended and they now start analyzing the sales and trends and get ready to celebrate the day of love for the next year. In fact work for the next year’s V-Day design of cards, based on the feedback they get every year, begins in the month of April itself.