KENYA · GUIDE 0875 · EDITION 4.2
Handmade greeting cards in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
gift shops and personal buyers The offer to test is: Original greeting cards with envelopes and neat finishing
Offer card ranges around an identifiable occasion and recipient tone, specifying internal message space, envelope fit, personalization options, and production cutoffs for time sensitive orders.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Print or handmake a small occasion range
The purpose of this test is to establish whether the buyer accepts the specified result, delivery arrangement and payment terms. An encouraging interview does not establish repeat demand. Ask what the buyer currently uses, what would make them change supplier and who has authority to approve the first order. Record a refusal as carefully as an enquiry so that unsuccessful offers do not disappear from the evidence.
Collect evidence specific to this offer
Track complete card dimensions, assembly steps, personalization revisions, envelope issues, buyer reactions to wording, and sales by occasion before increasing stock for a seasonal selling period.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Ask a reviewer to read the complete card and envelope pairing, checking spelling, fold alignment, message space, embellishment security, and whether the finished item fits cleanly. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Offer card ranges around an identifiable occasion and recipient tone, specifying internal message space, envelope fit, personalization options, and production cutoffs for time sensitive orders. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Show gift retailers a small occasion-organized card range, clean physical samples and transparent small-batch replenishment terms. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | Accurate text and clean fold lines |
Decide whether to continue
Review the specification with the buyer before committing to tools or stock. A trial is commercially useful only if actual costs, rejected work, time spent and cash collected can be reconciled. An attractive cover loses its purpose when an awkward fold or bulky decoration prevents the envelope closing, creating delivery difficulties that a flat design proof would miss.
If a buyer changes the required output, record a new scope and re-cost the test. Do not count a request for a different product as proof of demand for the original one. Keep personal contact details in your private records and use customer statements publicly only with permission.
Turn the example into a buyer test
Fictional stationery order: make twenty adult greeting cards with an original botanical paper collage and a buyer-approved short message. Finished closed size is A6, approximately 105 × 148 mm. Cut each base from A5 stock, approximately 148 × 210 mm, and score at 105 mm along the 210 mm dimension; match with twenty C6 envelopes, nominally 114 × 162 mm. Include one printed insert per card if the thick base cannot be printed by the chosen machine. No copyrighted illustration or customer contact list is reused without permission.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | Version the approved text so a later wording change cannot leave a mixed batch. |
| Output to inspect | Count accepted cards rather than printed sheets; remove misprints and any card whose fold or collage fails. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | Fold cracks along the outside |
Ask the buyer to describe one acceptable and one unacceptable result. Record the decision maker, price basis, quantity, handover point and payment date privately. A sample request, an encouraging conversation and an accepted order are different evidence. Keep the first commitment within your demonstrated capacity; no customer interview or successful trial is asserted here.
What a failed test should change
Check grain direction, score depth and stock surface on the trial.. If the offer cannot meet that check, revise the specification or process before promising a repeat. Keep rejected offers and reasons in the same register as positive replies so that your record does not exaggerate demand.