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General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize (Read 7985 times)
Mindy
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General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Apr 29th, 2010, 4:02pm
 
There is often confusion regarding what makes a specific card vs a general card particularly when navigating through the maze of categories and trying to abide by the guidelines.
 
Here are a few points to shed some light on the topic.
 
Since GCU offers many specific cards like relationship, age, zodiac sign, 1st holiday, holiday birthday, etc. (this is where we really excel over traditional greeting card companies) we have organized categories in a way to allow shoppers to shop for what they want and not have to view page after page after page of what they do not want.  
 
With that in mind the basic guideline is that a card that speaks to a specific recipient (relationship, age, zodiac sign) can only be in the specific related category.  An exception here is it can also be in a fitting Collections category.
 
Here are some examples that will hopefully make this more clear.
 
Father's Day and Mother's Day:  
For Dad or For Mom cards are not considered General cards.  We have Father's Day cards for Uncle, Cousin, Step Dad, Nephew, Son as well as Dad and the list goes on and on.  And Mother's Day cards for Grandma, Sister in Law, Best Friend, Niece as well as Mom and the list goes on and on as well.  
 
These are all Relationship Specific cards, not General.  A General Father's Day or Mother's Day card is one that does NOT specify a relationship and could be given on Father's Day to anyone who is a father and on Mother's Day to anyone who is a mother.
 
So... they go in their relationship specific subcategory but NOWHERE else under that Holiday:
Holidays >> Father's Day >> For Uncle
NOT also here:
Holidays >> Father's Day >> Sports Specific  (if it's a golf theme)
BUT CAN also go here:
Collections >> Sports / Fitness >> Golf
 
This is typically not a big problem outside of Mother's Day and Father's Day.  For example St. Patrick's Day cards are not implied to a specific relationship (Mom or Dad) and if a general card can in fact go a second fitting subcategory w/in the same category in addition to General.
 
For example:
1. This relationship specific "Happy St. Patrick's Day to Sister" card would only go in:
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> For Sister
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/-St+Pattys+Day+Kid+-+For+Sister-greeting+car d-578490?pid=578490
 
2. BUT this general "Happy St. Patrick's Day Green Beer" card would go in:
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> General  
AND  
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> Beer
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/-St+Patricks+Day+-+Green+Beer-greeting+card- 145265?pid=145265
 
3. Now this one general "A Wee Irish Wish" card is fitting for 3 categories:
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> Beer
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> General  
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> Animals / Pets >> Dogs
 
and is best served by >> Beer and >> Dogs since General has 783 cards and Beer 44 and Dogs 108 cards so it will likely get a better chance to shine among the smaller and more specific groups.
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/-Tis+A+Wee+Irish+Wish+For+You-greeting+card- 153296?pid=153296
 
Again, we do this not to be difficult and not to limit your cards' exposure but to benefit the shoppers - make their experience a good one and help them shop in a category that is pure and exactly what they are looking for.
 
Hope this helps!  Let us know if you have any questions.   Smiley
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Rosanne_132497
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #1 - Apr 29th, 2010, 4:12pm
 
Excellent clarification, Mindy! Thank you.
 
Cheers,
 
 
Rosanne
 
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Amy_137576
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #2 - Apr 29th, 2010, 4:48pm
 
This is extremely frustrating. I have had cards rejected and been told that if a card is in the "general" subcategory it CANNOT be in any other subcategory. Now you are giving me totally different instructions.  And I see I will have the same problem as Betty did with her father's day cat cards only mine are dogs. So since they say "mom" and "dad" they cannot be in the dog category --.  That's the pits.  
 
I don't think you realize just how frustrating this process REALLY is for at least some of us. When I go to GCU as JQShopper if I want a father's day card for my dad with a dog on it I WILL definitely look under "Father's Day>Animals>Dogs" to find more appropriate cards than "Father's Day>Dad" where there will be a zillion cards that have nothing to do with dogs.  I get that you intend to be well organized, but it is set up so close-minded and rigid there is no room for anyone who doesn't think and shop exactly like the person who is making the rules.  So, for instance, I have a card pending that says the word "Dad" on it, but the picture is of a dog and the inside verse sounds like it's from a dog, and you are telling me it can't go in either the "Dog" category or the "from your pet" category just because it says "Dad".  Great. Glad I wasted that afternoon... cry
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Pamela_135500
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #3 - Apr 29th, 2010, 5:16pm
 
Amy,
Don't forget the power of your keywords. Smiley  
A shopper can just as easily type 'Father's day card dad golden retriever' into the home page search box or click on Father's day and then search the category rather than read through the categories list.
It has been my experience that cards I sell are often the result of a direct search on the site for a specific event or content.  
Using the search to narrow down one's choices is pretty standard on any shopping site.
As long as you have the right keywords your cards will be found.
 
Pamela
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Kathleen_137290
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #4 - Apr 29th, 2010, 5:39pm
 
Hi Amy,
 
I hear your frustration.  One way to work with this is to make your main card (like the one you mentioned with dog and dad), and list in dad category
 
Then... remove word dad from front and list in general dog category
 
Then... put verse in card from pet and list in from pet category
 
Now you have three listings with more chances of selling the card you used the afternoon to create.  These little changes usually don't take much time after you have designed the basic card.
 
Your black Lab photos and paintings are delightful!
Kati
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Betty_136243
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #5 - Apr 29th, 2010, 5:41pm
 
Hello Mindy,  Thank you for the in depth explanation on card categorization.
I tried an experiment by being a shopper looking for Father's Day cards with cats on them. I clicked on Father's Day in the menu then scrolled down the left hand menu under Father's Day until I got to Animals/pets, I clicked on that selection and under that is a list of animals, I clicked on Cats and a selection of 53 Father's Day cards all with cats comes up, but only one of my older Father's Day cards is there.  How do I get my most recent Father's Day Cat cards in this grouping?  I feel I would have a better chance of them being seen in a group of only 53 other designs.  I was told to change my submissions to Holidays>Father's Day>For Father/Dad  versus Father's Day>animals/pets>cats.  
Thank you for your help, but I'm still not quite sure how to get in that group of 53 Father's Day cat cards.
Best Regards,
Betty
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Mindy
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #6 - Apr 29th, 2010, 5:47pm
 
Quote from Amy_137576 on Apr 29th, 2010, 4:48pm:
This is extremely frustrating. I have had cards rejected and been told that if a card is in the "general" subcategory it CANNOT be in any other subcategory. Now you are giving me totally different instructions.  And I see I will have the same problem as Betty did with her father's day cat cards only mine are dogs. So since they say "mom" and "dad" they cannot be in the dog category --.  That's the pits.

I don't think you realize just how frustrating this process REALLY is for at least some of us. When I go to GCU as JQShopper if I want a father's day card for my dad with a dog on it I WILL definitely look under "Father's Day>Animals>Dogs" to find more appropriate cards than "Father's Day>Dad" where there will be a zillion cards that have nothing to do with dogs.  I get that you intend to be well organized, but it is set up so close-minded and rigid there is no room for anyone who doesn't think and shop exactly like the person who is making the rules.  So, for instance, I have a card pending that says the word "Dad" on it, but the picture is of a dog and the inside verse sounds like it's from a dog, and you are telling me it can't go in either the "Dog" category or the "from your pet" category just because it says "Dad".  Great. Glad I wasted that afternoon... cry

 
The concern is if we allow all relation cards into other categories under Father's Day (Animals / Pets for example) that are not GENERAL then the shopper will have to sort through so many pages of unrelated cards - For Uncle with Dogs, For Son with Dogs, For Cousin twice Removed with Dogs that they will likely give up.  
 
As for your For Dad card from Pet Dog...I'd need to see it but this collection is allowed in these 2 categories:
Holidays » Father's Day » From Pet  
Holidays » Father's Day » Animals / Pets » Dogs  
 
See existing cards here:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/Holidays-Fathers+Day-From+Pet?cid=1860
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Kathleen_137290
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #7 - Apr 29th, 2010, 6:03pm
 
Thanks Mindy,
 
Really appreciate you taking the time to explain more fully how to categorize general vs specific cards.  It really makes sense.
 
Happy Day!
Kati
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Janet_134086
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #8 - Apr 29th, 2010, 6:10pm
 
Thank You Mindy!
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Doreen_137017
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #9 - Apr 29th, 2010, 6:25pm
 
Just thought I would throw in some food for thought here...
 
On the emails we receive to inform us of a sale, it tells you the path the shopper took to find your card (in a general sense).  In other words, I think you'll find that a large portion of your sales will say something to the effect of  
 
The source of this order was a Google search for: cards for veterinarian graduation  or  The source of this order was an onsite search for: 'will you be my godmother cards'
 
Just offering this as an added tidbit.  The cards are found through searches, both onsite and via the www and if you do as Kathleen suggested and make a card for each of the categories that you want to found in, you'll benefit from all these methods.
 
 
 
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Kathleen_137290
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #10 - Apr 29th, 2010, 7:03pm
 
Just an interesting comment to add to Doreen's "food for thought."
 
In April a customer purchased one of my halloween black cat cards for husband in an order of 11 cards based on source of customer browsing the category: birthday>animals/pets>cats.
 
You never know when your cards may be found as a treasure!  Key words are one of the keys.
Kati
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Monica_138175
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #11 - Apr 29th, 2010, 11:37pm
 
I agree with Amy that all this is REALLY frustrating! By the way, I had the same problem, just Mother's Day and cats. And hoping that the cards are still being found by keywords does not always help, as sometimes they are removed by the reviewers. I have a card with flowers and text "Happy Mother's Day", but in addition to category "General" I was told not to put it in "for Mom/Mother", but in "Collections - Flowers & Garden". Well, I doubt that someone who looks for a card in the "Collections - Flowers & Garden" category would pick a card that says "Happy Mother's Day", but someone who wants to send a Mother's Day card to their mom might very well pick it. However, that keyword was removed. I wonder if customers should be instructed only to look in certain categories (like for mom, from son, or whatever), if it's really important for them that this word actually shows up on the card...
 
Moni
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #12 - Apr 30th, 2010, 7:04am
 
Thanks, Mindy, for bringing up this topic. I find the category issue very frustrating, too.  Some categories are well defined, but others are not. For example, I just had a card returned for re-edit to change a category.  It's a money-enclosed graduation congratulations card, name-specific. This is the message I got: "As this card is a name specific card it can only be placed in that category. Please remove Occasions - Congratulations - Money Enclosed."  While, I understand that people looking for congratulations - money enclosed -- don't want to wade through all of the name-specific cards, I feel that the name-specific customers are not being well served.  Key words don't always bring up what you're looking for, and in some cases the customer might not even know that a name-specific, congratulations, money-enclosed card exists and not know to look for it. Such cards are what GCU excels at, but these cards can often be orphans.
 
I've submitted birth month flower birthday cards for different family members.  There is no way to put the card in both birth month and also relationship-specific.  If I put a card in mother, for example, the fact that it is the May birth flower is lost.  It will be lost in the collections category "flowers."  I realize it gets tedious making more and more sub-sets, particularly when people who are submitting cards must further refine each category. Still, maybe there could be a subset for birth month flower such as relationship-specific.    Thanks!!!!!   Grin
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Amy_137576
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #13 - Apr 30th, 2010, 7:36am
 
Moni - That was the same type of situation I had when I was told if a card was in the sub-category "General" it could not be in any other sub-category except one under "Collections".
 
Thank you all for your suggestions. I do not feel very confident in my choices of keywords, but you have given me new ideas how to approach that.
 
Kathleen - I guess I will need to be making more renditions of each card with minor tweaks as you suggested.  Personally, I do not like to see a shop (or search) filled with basically the same card - especially when shoppers can change the inside text themselves.  But that is what GCU seems to want.  When I am shopping online and I see that I go elsewhere  undecided.  But, it's already clear that I do not shop the way GCU thinks I should.
 
I went through all of my sales (only 30 including 4 of my own). 11 had no info on source (that included my 4 and my 2 biggest sales), 2 were people looking for me by name, 7 were google searches, 5 were GCU searches and 5 were category browsers.  For the 5 category browsers 1 was looking in <Birthday> and bought Christmas cards from me, 1 in <Birthday - Family - Sister-in-law> and bought Christmas and thank you cards from me, 1 in <Holidays - St. Pats - for granddaughter> and bought a general missing you type of card and the other 2 were appropriate matches to the categories they were browsing (several of the Google and GCU searches also had nothing to do with the card they ended up buying).  So, for all of the frustration it seems the categories are not doing much for my sales anyway.  I DO try to get them right, bur rarely have a card pass on the first round and it takes a long time just to get rejected.  I will try to be more general with future cards and just go for general categories, then work on keywords and titles.  Perhaps that will improve the process for me as well as my sales.
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Amy_137576
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #14 - Apr 30th, 2010, 8:01am
 
Mindy - my cards are still under review, but here are 2 of the 4 I referred to: #614815 and #614810.
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Mary__137064
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #15 - Apr 30th, 2010, 8:09am
 
I think one card cannot go through two major categories, except for adding to Collections, and Customized cards.
 
Is that right?
 
Bright
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #16 - Apr 30th, 2010, 9:34am
 
Though I don't share most of the frustration, perhaps because I am a very organized person so the folders on my computer tend to have the same level of detail that the GCU categories do, but I just had a thought...
 
The number of categories frustrate me, because there are so many added seemingly everyday, it is becoming impossible to find the right category. If GCU could put together an advanced search like many art sites have where the customer can type in or choose the basic category, the occasion, the recipient, as well as add a keyword or two like cats, roses, or blue then people would more likely get very specific selections of what they are actually looking for.
 
Just a thought for the future  Grin
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Mindy
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #17 - May 18th, 2010, 2:01pm
 
Quote from Doreen_137017 on Apr 30th, 2010, 9:34am:
Though I don't share most of the frustration, perhaps because I am a very organized person so the folders on my computer tend to have the same level of detail that the GCU categories do, but I just had a thought...

The number of categories frustrate me, because there are so many added seemingly everyday, it is becoming impossible to find the right category. If GCU could put together an advanced search like many art sites have where the customer can type in or choose the basic category, the occasion, the recipient, as well as add a keyword or two like cats, roses, or blue then people would more likely get very specific selections of what they are actually looking for.

Just a thought for the future  Grin

 
You are right!  This has long been on our wish list   cry
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #18 - Sep 14th, 2010, 12:25am
 
thanks Mindy for such a clear explanation..... Smiley
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #19 - Sep 21st, 2010, 9:19pm
 
This is really helpful thank you very much.
 
Just a thought, since almost all of the confusion regarding categories seems to centre round Mothers Day and Fathers Day wouldn't it just be easier to add more subcategories under Animals/Pets to allow relationship specific cards?
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Re: General vs Specific Cards - how to categorize
Reply #20 - Oct 21st, 2010, 11:58pm
 
Quote from Mindy on Apr 29th, 2010, 4:02pm:
There is often confusion regarding what makes a specific card vs a general card particularly when navigating through the maze of categories and trying to abide by the guidelines.

Here are a few points to shed some light on the topic.

Since GCU offers many specific cards like relationship, age, zodiac sign, 1st holiday, holiday birthday, etc. (this is where we really excel over traditional greeting card companies) we have organized categories in a way to allow shoppers to shop for what they want and not have to view page after page after page of what they do not want.  

With that in mind the basic guideline is that a card that speaks to a specific recipient (relationship, age, zodiac sign) can only be in the specific related category.  An exception here is it can also be in a fitting Collections category.

Here are some examples that will hopefully make this more clear.

Father's Day and Mother's Day:
For Dad or For Mom cards are not considered General cards.  We have Father's Day cards for Uncle, Cousin, Step Dad, Nephew, Son as well as Dad and the list goes on and on.  And Mother's Day cards for Grandma, Sister in Law, Best Friend, Niece as well as Mom and the list goes on and on as well.  

These are all Relationship Specific cards, not General.  A General Father's Day or Mother's Day card is one that does NOT specify a relationship and could be given on Father's Day to anyone who is a father and on Mother's Day to anyone who is a mother.

So... they go in their relationship specific subcategory but NOWHERE else under that Holiday:
Holidays >> Father's Day >> For Uncle
NOT also here:
Holidays >> Father's Day >> Sports Specific  (if it's a golf theme)
BUT CAN also go here:
Collections >> Sports / Fitness >> Golf

This is typically not a big problem outside of Mother's Day and Father's Day.  For example St. Patrick's Day cards are not implied to a specific relationship (Mom or Dad) and if a general card can in fact go a second fitting subcategory w/in the same category in addition to General.

For example:
1. This relationship specific "Happy St. Patrick's Day to Sister" card would only go in:
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> For Sister

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/-St+Pattys+Day+Kid+-+For+Sister-greeting+car d-578490?pid=578490

2. BUT this general "Happy St. Patrick's Day Green Beer" card would go in:
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> General
AND
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> Beer

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/-St+Patricks+Day+-+Green+Beer-greeting+card- 145265?pid=145265

3. Now this one general "A Wee Irish Wish" card is fitting for 3 categories:
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> Beer
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> General
Holidays >> St. Patrick's Day >> Animals / Pets >> Dogs

and is best served by >> Beer and >> Dogs since General has 783 cards and Beer 44 and Dogs 108 cards so it will likely get a better chance to shine among the smaller and more specific groups.

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/-Tis+A+Wee+Irish+Wish+For+You-greeting+card- 153296?pid=153296

Again, we do this not to be difficult and not to limit your cards' exposure but to benefit the shoppers - make their experience a good one and help them shop in a category that is pure and exactly what they are looking for.

Hope this helps!  Let us know if you have any questions.   Smiley

It is helpful! Smiley However it happens that on occasion some of may cards are rejected as they look t"oo similar" (it was a flag of the United States) yet I see many cards of the exact same design all around in different colors. So sometimes it can be confusing still! But  I'm still happy with GCU!
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