We’ve all heard the story about how if the railroads had understood they were in the transportation business rather than in the railroad business, they would have owned the airlines and the trucking companies. (Not necessarily great businesses to own, but you get my point.) How many times have you sat in a meeting discussing new products or services and had somebody seriously say, “we can’t do that it will kill off our most profitable product/service”?

Wil Durant is the only horse drawn buggy maker that transitioned to cars (General Motors). (And it’s not his fault idiots spent the last 60 years killing it.) Too often the market moves and we refuse to see it. Maybe not so with Hallmark (“When you care enough to send the very best.”)

They not only creating a capability for sending free e-cards a while back as part of their main website, they also now have a mobile greeting service to allow you to send greetings from your mobile device. Considering that most people are glued to those things 24/7, what better way to get a greeting in front of someone.

Unlike Kodak which almost completely missed the digital revolution trying to protect silver halide profits, Hallmark seems to be “with it” and moving with their market.

Mitch