Trend Week is Here!

Every year our trends department here at Hallmark sets up a week's worth of daily, hour long presentations to keep Hallmarkers in tune with societal shifts that shape consumers’ attitudes, perceptions and behaviors. <-- I stole that last part from our intranet site. I can't come up with words like "societal" on my own, folks.

Whenever I explain something like the trends department, Trend Week or anything about my job here at Hallmark, it's hard not to come off as though I'm bragging. Sometimes I even feel like I'm describing my favorite summer camp. But no, this is where I work, and I get paid to come here every day. Sweet deal if you ask me.

Trend Week is one of my favorite perks (besides the nap room, of course) of working here. But I feel as though it's something that I could tell you about and then I'd have to end it with, "I guess you had to be there." It's an inspiring, informative experience that, as an employee of Hallmark, you don't want to miss.

Monday morning's presentation was given by our trends guru, Marita Wesely-Clough. One of the trends she talked about was a dichotomy in today’s consumer. For example, a consumer can be both a luxury shopper and a value shopper. People can be consumers of content and creators of content.

What's also cool is that at the end of the presentation we get information about the emerging and evolving trends, a list of interesting websites for 2008 and a very thorough book list. I'd love to share more with you, but I'm pretty sure all of Marita's hard work is to be kept within the walls of Hallmark. I guess you had to be there... (you should probably come and work here.)