The Hindu Business Line : Archies to launch loyalty programmes

WITH free e-greetings Web sites making a dent in the greetings card industry, Archies Ltd plans to recover the lost ground by setting up a loyalty club by the end of this year.

"We are in the process of technologically integrating our exclusive stores across the country by this year-end and, in effect, will launch the loyalty club keeping in mind our associations with our regular customers," said Mr Vijayant Chabbra, Executive Director, Archies Ltd.

There are a host of activities planned for the loyalty programmes, which would include discounts and gifts over purchases made at company stores. The company is also going to roll out direct mailer programmes to correspond with its regular customers.

Though the company has recovered from the e-greetings and SMS onslaught in earlier years, it plans to aggressively play its card by increasing presence at the retail level and building customer relationship initiatives, Mr Chabbra said.Archies Ltd had grossed a turnover of Rs 67 crore in the last financial year and witnessed an increase of 15 per cent in last five months starting from April. It still commands 50 per cent market share of the Rs 150 crore organised greeting card industry.

Besides its customer initiatives, the company will also exploit the organised retail boom in the country to achieve its expansion plans. The company currently has 43 exclusive stores and around 500 franchisees and plans to set up 100 more company owned stores in shopping malls across the country, over the next four years. "Since our studies suggested that greeting cards draw a lot of crowd in any shopping mall and Archies retains its position as the most preferred brand there, we are planning to set up our outlets across shopping malls," Mr Chabbra said.

Living up to its recently acquired superbrand status, the company is also planning to augment the emotional appeal in its events calendar. Archies had pioneered in sourcing international events such as Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day to India.

The company is also scouting for industry players to encourage a few of its not-so-popular occasions such as Father's Day, Mr Chhabra said, adding that the Mother's Day celebrated in the month of May was a huge success as most jewellery companies had come out with promotional offers for this particular event.

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