Update: Clinton Cards outlines marketing strategy

The retailer has appointed former Dixons marketer Tim Fairs as its first marketing director to steer an overhaul of its brand strategy and product range.

Fairs told Marketing Week that Clinton Cards plans to introduce a “unique digital greetings” platform and an app that can keep track of birthday and anniversary dates and automatically send greetings cards.

It is also planning to invest in SEO and search marketing to boost traffic to its online platform.

“Clinton is a well known brand that’s seen in a positive light, but it hasn’t invested in stores or marketing efforts so it isn’t what it should be. We’ve been a bit behind on the digital piece.”

“Online should be our biggest store delivering a significant proportion of our sales but it’s not at the moment. We also recognise that physical cards might not be everyone’s first choice for greetings,” he says.

Clinton Cards, which also recently appointed Starbucks UK managing director Darcy Willson-Rymer as its first CEO from outside the Clinton family, hopes to overhaul its brand strategy and update its store estate in a bid to address a “lack of focus about the core purpose of the business”.

Fairs hopes to overhaul the range and price strategy by introducing a “good, better, best” tiered hierarchy similar to that of supermarkets to offer both high end and value choices.

He also believes that there is scope for Clinton Cards to “own occasions” such as birthdays and anniversaries by introducing an expanded range of services such as kids parties and experience packages to compliment greetings cards and gifts.

Clinton Cards has previously stated its aims to introduce a loyalty scheme to build up an emotional engagement with customers and rewards its “most valuable customers”.

Clinton is also looking to review its agency relationships as part of the broader strategy to modernise the business.