Hallmark Connecticut

Hallmark is the #1 producer of “warm fuzzies”. It manufactures and distributes greeting cards and related personal expression products in over 43,000 U.S. retail stores as well as publishing products in more than 30 languages and distributes them in more than 100. Hallmark is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri and employs about 16,000 people. Hallmark Cards is the Goliath of greeting cards and sells under brand names such as Hallmark, Shoebox, and Ambassador. Hallmark also offers electronic greeting cards, gifts, and flowers through its website, www.hallmark.com. In addition to greeting cards, the company owns crayon manufacturer Crayola, a controlling stake in cable broadcaster Crown Media, and Kansas City's Crown Center real estate development. Members of the founding Hall family own two-thirds of Hallmark.

The company has grown from two shoeboxes of postcards into a $4.1 billion company. Most of the stores that offer Hallmark products are independently owned by local entrepreneurs, who care about their communities as much as Hallmark cares about its own neighborhood. For nearly 100 years, Hallmark Cards has helped people connect with one another and give voice to their feelings, whether happy or sad. The employees are personally passionate about caring, creativity, quality and innovation, values that have guided the company from the start. Customer satisfaction is the main goal for Hallmark and the great success and long history of the company speaks for itself.

Hallmark is much more than what it is mainly known for, greeting cards. Products include partyware, gifts and gift-wrap, ornaments and decorative items for the home, memory-keeping picture frames, albums and scrapbooks, e-cards, flowers, a magazine publication, even a cable television channel. Hallmark is there for its customers throughout the year, holidays and any-days, at important milestones and unexpected occasions, when a good laugh wants to be shared and where comfort is sought. Hallmark is privately and family-owned and has no intention of changing this status as it enters the 21st century with third-generation family leadership.

Creativity, innovation, quality and caring have guided Hallmark’s decisions and earned the trust of employees, those who buy its products and live in the communities that Hallmark liked to call home. Caring about others is deeply embedded in Hallmark's culture and this is clearly evident in its products but is also clear in the countless ways in which the company and its employees bring caring commitment to the community.

Good corporate citizenship is a value established by Hallmark founder, Joyce Clyde Hall, and embraced by the family leaders who have followed. At Hallmark, philanthropy encompasses three broad areas: National programs that reach out to people across the country and world, financial donations and charitable giving to enrich lives in communities where Hallmark has major facilities and supporting volunteer services in caring causes that matter most to its employees.

Hallmark allows consumers to care for others through programs that allow shoppers' dollars to make a difference, in partnership with such organizations as (RED), UNICEF and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In addition, many independently owned Hallmark Gold Crown stores nationwide support community projects important to their customers.

It is not always smooth sailing for the company, as changes in the ways that people interact and communicate have created new challenges for the company. Sales have been stagnant the past few years, leading Hallmark to review its operations in an effort to remake itself for a new generation of potential customers.

Product development has been key for its traditional card business. Hallmark had success with a pilot program of musical cards in mid-2006, seeing sales increase nearly 10%. In response to the positive news, the company introduced sound to more cards for the Christmas card rush. The cards are more expansive than regular non-musical cards, and the sound lasts about two years.

Its Crayola business, meanwhile, continues to enjoy success and rising sales thanks in part to such new products Color Wonder Sprayer and Color Explosion Spinner. The subsidiary was recast under its famous brand name in 2007.

Another of its makeover effort has been an initiative to update its Gold Crown stores. The company hopes a new design and layout will reflect a homier image and differentiate the outlets from other retail shops. Hallmark also launched a women's lifestyle periodical called Hallmark Magazine and acquired the assets of Paramount Cards, a Rhode Island-based card manufacturer.

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