“We had made the decision to offer gift cards to help increase business and give more flexibility to gift buyers,” explains Michael Aaron, Sherry-Lehmann chairman. But the merchant needed the right design to appeal to its high-end wine customers.
The answer came in colorful “DigiSmart” gift cards from AGI Media Packaging, a division of MeadWestvaco’s Consumer Packaging Group. “The gift cards have been successful beyond our wildest dreams, nearly tripling our sale of gift purchases,” Aaron says.
Each gift card comes in a folded, four-panel paperboard package bearing custom graphics. A square die-cut in the front panel offers a framed view of the gift card, which rests inside a PVC tray in the third panel.
The graphic design is based on paintings of 19th Century bohemian artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The design “echoes the spirit and emotion evoked by Lautrec of the Belle époque, or the ‘beautiful era’ in Paris—familiar, classy, and perfect for the clientele of Sherry-Lehmann,” explains Richard Roth, AGI Media Packaging vice president of sales and marketing.
The gift cards display the same design approach used on the packaging. Wine enthusiasts and high-end gift buyers at the store prefer them to traditional paper gift certificates, Aaron says. Gift card denominations range from $50 to $1ꯠ, but the store has also sold a custom-designed gift card with a value of $15ꯠ, he adds.
