Hallmark: When you care enough to send the very best offer, but a bit late

Fail: Timing 

This holiday mailer arrived from Hallmark in the mail on Saturday, November 7. It offers some special deals and discounts, but only Nov 7 & 8. That means that by the time it arrived in-house, half of the sale period had passed.

A similar timing error often takes place with e-mail. Many merchants believe that e-mail should arrive on the first morning of a 1 or 2-day special to encourage impulse buying, but that fails to discount the brick & mortar aspect of retail. A customer still needs to drive to a store and therefore must plan time to drive to the store.

Learning: If you are going to communicate a short-term offer or sale at a store, time it so it arrives in home at least a full day before the sale starts. With e-mail, you can be precise with timing but it is not as easy with snail mail.

Also, Hallmark doesn’t get a fail but a C- for offering an opt-out option using black ink over a red background on an inside page.  The text cannot get any more difficult to notice or read