Eight Special Days
ISRAEL 1DiG-Esr.
Specially compiled by TheJerusalem Post
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Businesses explore the marketing potential of Chanukah.
MELJNBA GREENBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
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Workers Threaten Strike
64i •
C
hanukah, Oh Chanukah,
Come light the menorah,
let's have a party, we'll all
buy millions of greeting
cards, wrap gifts in thousands
of feet of decorative wrapping
paper and spin dreidels made
by Hallmark."
Chanukah is no longer
eight special days of open-
ing small gifts from
Grandma, making potato
latices, spinning dreidels
and lighting the menorah.
It is now a marketable
holiday with an evergrow-
ing list of products for the oc-
casion. Indeed, a trip to any card
or gift shop will reveal a wealth
of goodies for Chanukah.
Chanukah cards are displayed
in stores alongside Christmas
items and secular catalogues
feature Chanukah trinkets.
According to figures compiled
by Hallmark Cards, Inc., since
1990 the number of Chanukah
cards given each year has been
11 million, making Chanukah
the 11th biggest card-sending
holiday each season. Christmas
is first with 2.7 billion cards.
The largest market for a Jew-
ish audience, according to Par-
ty Source magazine, a gift and
card trade publication, is the
metropolitan New York area.
An article in the May/June 1993
issue reported there are nearly
two million Jews in New York
State. California is second with
about 800,000 Jews. The Cleve-
land based American Greetings
said the East Coast comprised
its largest customer base.
The company does not break
its market research down any
further to specifics about ob-
servance of hol-
idays or synagogue affiliation.
While Chanukah is a festive
holiday in its own right, manu-
facturers and retailers alike ac-
knowledge that its proximity to
Christmas makes it a mar-
ketable event.
When Chanukah comes
around Christmas, Chanukah
sales often double because Jews
catch some of the holiday spirit
from non-Jews around them, ac-
cording to Jack Gimbelman,
president of Designer Products,
a Judaic gift and card manu-
facturer in Staten Island, N.Y.
Mr. Gimbleman noted that
when Chanukah starts and fin-
ishes before Christmas, as it
does this year, many non-affili-
ated Jews miss the holiday all
together.
"When it's
early, the Or-
thodox are
really the
only ones
who cele-
brate,"
he said.
"But when
it's close to
Christmas,
Jews who are not
really connected
with their religion
get swept up by
the Christmas
spirit around
them."
A spokesper-
son for Hall-
mark said that
market re-
search, the re-
sults of which
she would not
disclose, did
not reveal
any
in-
creased in-
terest in
Chanukah because of its
proximity to Christmas.
"From our standpoint, we
aren't seeing Chanukah become
more popular because it's near
Christmas," she said. "We've
found that people just want to
celebrate the holiday with a
number of personal interest
items and they want more to
choose from."
And manufacturers are pro-
viding more items for consumers
looking to make the festival of
lights more festive. "There's no
question there's more of a de-
mand for Chanukah products
overall," noted Leonard Zucker,
one of the owners of the M off
Card Shop, a 30-store chain in
Michigan and Ohio. Focus
groups and market research tell
companies what consumers
want. Manufacturers often pre-
test their new products on cer-
tain areas to ascertain their
popularity.
The biggest addition to the
Chanukah market comes in pa-
per goods. Store owners and
manufacturers alike are excit-
ed about new lines of gift wraps,
gift bags, tags, tissue papers, rib-
bons, etc.
"Our offerings are in direct re-
sponse to consumer feedback,"
said the spokesperson for Hall-
mark, which offers new special-
ty items like colorful partyware,
gift wraps, accessories and cal-
endars for children.
Mr. Zucker said the new gift
bags offered are particularly
popular with men, like himself,
who hate to wrap packages but
want their presents to look nice.
American Greeting, which
used to offer one design on wrap-
ping paper and accessories, has
added one or two new designs
this year. Also new is cellophane
and gift stickers with Chanukah
motifs. "You won't see hundreds
of designs for Chanukah," said
Terry Kovach, who is in charge
of Chanukah products for Amer-
ican Greetings. "But each year
we offer a few additional items
to meet the expanded needs of
retailers."
There is also more than ever
available in party goods —
plates, cups, tablecloths, nap-
DAYS page 30
Some 100,000 workers in Is-
raeli government corporations
will launch a general strike in
two weeks unless the govern-
ment changes its privatization
program.
Government corporation
work staff leaders decided on
the action last week at the end
of a stormy meeting at His-
tadrut headquarters in Tel
Aviv.
Some 350 trade union lead-
ers and workers committee
representatives attended the
meeting, including those from
Bezek, Rafael, Taas Israel In-
dustries, El Al, the Israel Elec-
tric Corp., Oil Refineries,
Mekorot, the Dead Sea Works,
the Israel Broadcasting Au-
thority, Dimona's Nuclear Re-
search Center, the Standards'
Institute, Israel Shipyards,
Ashdod and Haifa ports, Ami-
dar, and Israel Aircraft In-
dustries.
The workers charged the
government with plotting
mass dismissals camouflaged
as recovery programs, and
with planning to "sell off the
government corporations in
an auction."
PLO Position Unclear
The PLO's position on eco-
nomic relations with Israel is
still unclear, Finance Minis-
ter Avraham Shohat said last
week at the conclusion of the
first round of economic talks
with the Palestinians in Paris.
He attributed the lack of
preparation on the Palestin-
ian side to coordination prob-
lems between Tunis and the
territories, as well as financial
problems.
The Palestinians are giving
great significance to their re-
lationship with Jordan, he
said. Shohat said they re-
quested that Israel refrain
from reaching economic agree-
ments with Jordan without in-
cluding them.
Plan To Sell Agrexco
A plan to sell part of Agrexco
on the stock exchange will be
finalized within a year, Agri-
culture Minister Ya'acov Tsur
told the Knesset finance com-
mittee last week.
The ministry will also ex-
amine the option of selling a
controlling stake in the com-
pany to a private investor, he
added. Even after being pri-
vatized, Agrexco will retain
control over some sectors' ex-
ports, Mr. Tsur said.
In other sectors, however,
competition from private ex-
porters would be permitted.
Mr. Tsur said that private ex-
porting is slowly being ex-
panded. The newest addition
will be the Jordan Valley
grape growers, who are plan-
ning to export their own pro-
duce this season rather than
going through Agrexco.
Tadiran Profits Fall
Tadiran reported a fall in
its net -profit in the third quar-
ter to S6.6 million from $8.2
million during the same pe-
riod last year.
Net profit during the second
quarter this year was $10.5
million. But CEO Gurion
Meltzer said that without a
one-time gain of $2.9 million
during the third quarter last
year, Tadiran showed a 23
percent increase in its net prof-
it to $14 million from $11.3
million.
The company's net profit for
the nine-month period
dropped to nearly $45 million
from $47.3 million. Operating
profits rose to $57.7 million
from $48.1 million.
During the third quarter,
total revenue fell 2.7 percent
to $174.6 million from $179.5
million.
Since the beginning of the
year Tadiran has invested
$31.5 million in new produc-
tion lines, mostly in the civil-
ian telecommunications and
appliances sectors.
Arab Investment Company
Business people from several
Arab countries have estab-
lished the first company of its
kind to invest in the territo-
ries prior to the implementa-
tion of autonomy, Nairn
Hushai, president of the Arab
Bank in Abu Dhabi, said last
week.
The Palestine Development
and Investment Corp. will
have $200 million in capital,
half of which was already
raised when the company was
founded about a month ago.
The rest is expected to be
raised within a month, Mr.
Hushai said.