The K FactorHave you got it?!

BeingClintonsConference 2010

CQCLINTONs QuarTerLy

Issue 1 - Spring 2011

The magazine for everyone at Clinton Cards

What do our customers

have to say?

Getting to know...

Debbie Lewin

The quarterly magazine for everyone at Clinton Cards

Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone, isn’t time flying already?! Welcome to CQ, the brand new magazine for everyone at Clinton Cards.

It’s an exciting time for Clinton Cards as we continue to build upon and refresh our brand. As most of you will already know through the “Being Clintons” story, we are 100% committed to making sure our brand remains the top of it’s class. We have a tremendous wealth of knowledge and expertise in what we do and I am confident in what we can deliver for our customers for the next 42 years and more!!

I spoke a lot about how important everyone is in the journey that we started on 4th October 2010 at conference and I truly meant it. CQ is a great vehicle to help keep everyone on the same page (excuse the pun). A lot of your feedback at conference was around how we communicate and wanting to know where we are heading, I have no doubt that our magazine will

go a long way to meeting that thirst for knowledge! What it will also allow us to do, is learn more from you and your teams, we took literally hundreds of ideas away from conference and the story sessions and CQ represents another channel for you to have your say.

There are some great features in this issue (including my Sister likening herself to the Road Runner?!) and as CQ becomes more established, I’m looking forward to hearing more about what everyone’s up to and the great things we are doing as a business.

Just leaves me to say enjoy and I wish you, your families and teams a very happy and successful 2011!!

Designed and produced by Dan Cahill.

For all enquiries e: dan@dancahill.co.uk, w: www.dancahill.co.uk

2

issue...In this

6

12

3

CQ

03 BrandedMaking our mark on the high street

04 K FactorEmployees who care

04 MintedEnhancing the journey

05 Being ClintonsConference 2010

08 Getting to know...Debbie Lewin

08 It’s the little thingsWhat makes us happy?

09 Your ShoutWith Geoff Somes

10 CompetitionsEmployees who care

11 Other side of the counterListening to our customers

12 Boofle’s AdventuresBoofle meets HR

Clinton LewinGroup Managing Director

We’ve had so much going on over the last few months, we thought we’d pause and let you know what’s being happening.

So how did it all come about?... Well we have been the market leader for over 42 years and we intend to be the market leader for the next 42 years, but we realised we needed a bit of a makeover. The high street has changed and so have our customers, so to ensure we continue to offer the best in service, product and value we knew we had to set about refreshing the brand.

And so began the relationship with our (now) good friends at Branded, a specialist branding consultancy based in London. By their own admission they are “change-lovers” and work with a variety of businesses from start-ups to turnarounds and everything in between. Put simply they help businesses create a brand to make their competitors quake and their customers love them.

We started out by finding out as much as we could about the business through our customers and teams’ eyes. We undertook the biggest piece of customer research we have ever conducted as well as an internal survey with our people in stores and head

Making our mark on the high street

BrandedAs you’re probably aware by now, earlier this year we embarked on the largest project the business has ever seen.The objective? To make Clintons a loved brand!

office. This helped begin to create a grand master plan!

Next came the formation of the steering group, you probably know them as the “Being Clintons” Team. For the girls, Debbie Lewin, Elaine Roughley and Annette Middlebrook, and on the boys side, Paul Salador, Brett Smith and Liam McTaggart. Led by Debbie, these guys have put together a huge “to do” list of things that will make us a loved brand for both our customers and our people.

Whilst we have been busy behind the scenes for quite a while, we officially launched the branded project at our October conference “Being Clintons...the past, the present and the future”. This was another first in that we were able to invite over 200 Store Managers from right across the country. We introduced our four business values, Responsible, Family Spirited, Aspirational and Surprising, learnt about our two main customer groups, Happy Families and Social & Sorted and even watched a video of a dancing man!! But more about that later on.

You will hopefully have already seen our new creative expression in-store, all aimed at communicating better with our

customers. We have a new colour palette, orange, white, blue and aubergine.

We’ve also started looking at creating a brand new uniform. Something that shouts “loved brand” and something our teams will be proud to don. Although we’re in early stages, we’re working with several suppliers on concepts and will hopefully be able to report back very soon.

Of course, a huge part of a brand is what it looks like. For us, this is our stores, the environment and experience we create for our customers and teams alike. Work is well under way on this front too. As it’s so important to us, we’ve instructed The Yard Creative, a specialist design agency to help us create the store of the future. The team at the Yard have spent time working in our stores to really understand what our customers want, as well as what works best for our staff. We’ve seen some great ideas already and are looking forward to reaching the end of the design phase and launching several trial stores later this year.

With so much going on, obviously we can’t capture everything here, but don’t worry, we’ll keep you updated as we go along. This is only the beginning!!

3

A Royal EventFollowing the wedding announcement of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton, our Chairman Mr Don Lewin OBE commissioned a personalised engagement card which was sent to the Palace on behalf of Clinton Cards.

4

Have you got it?!The K-Factor is an “X Factor” style competition which has helped us to identify and recognise our stars! The K is for Kindness, because we believe in showing our customers we care.

We searched for individuals or teams who had used their personality and talent to deliver an amazing experience and service to our customers.

We asked you to share your stories including the special, unique and unusual things you have done, as well as what influence they had made on the team, sales and atmosphere in store.

We would like to congratulate the following stores who made the short list with their K-Factor nominations:

1. Claire and her team in Carmarthen 491 for helping their local Blind Society buy 300 large print cards and for arranging for Boofle to give one of their customers a great birthday surprise.

2. Avril and her team in Buchanan Galleries for showing our family spirit by helping a customer who fell in the store get to hospital and speaking to the centre management to make sure the lady was not charged a penalty for parking.

3. Irma from Victoria Street 719 delights her customers by offering a gift wrap service all year round.

4. Tracey and her team at Selby 540 really surprised their local Cancer Research shop by making a giant pink ribbon out of balloons and giving it to them for this year’s “pink day” and even managed to get a picture in the local paper.

5. Sue in Worthing 88 helped a couple who had set their heart on a particular Wedding invitation; they didn’t have enough in store so Sue took the time to track down further supplies from our other stores in the area.

6. Alan in Braehead 749 has made sure that his customers always know who is available to help them by designing and making customer service lanyards for the team to wear, they have also shared their success with the other stores in the Glasgow area.

7. Sophie and her team in Newquay 317 set their alarms at 5.00am to make sure the balloon bouquets they were making for a customer’s wedding looked fantastic and made the bride happy on her special day.

8. Audrey in Western Super-Mare 569 always reads the words in our cards and describes the designs to help some of our disabled customers choose the perfect card.

9. Paula and her team from Neath 257 who made a customer happy by providing a home delivery service for a balloon order they weren’t able to collect.

Our winning stars will be revealed soon. Each star will win the opportunity to revamp their store staffroom. They will be given the opportunity to choose the colour and we will decorate and accessorise it for you!

K Factor...

November saw the launch of ‘Minted’ the new customer experience programme being introduced across our stores. We kicked off with a series of ‘show and tell’ events across the country and they have really started to bring Minted to life. The sessions showcase what the experience should look like and set the standards for everyone.

Solihull is a great example of how great the customer experience is after applying ‘Minted’ guidelines. Things

have really come together so our Sociable & Sorted and Happy Families (as well as everyone else) can see what great offers we have. Once in store, the offers can be found without any hassle as the team have used merchandising plans and POS to really enhance the customer journey. It was great to see the Solihull team promoting the ‘Spend £15 and get this gorgeous bear for £4.99’ offer to their customers over Christmas.

Thanks to every team that supported the show and tell events.

It’s in MINT condition

BeingClintons

What made this year’s event extra special is that we were able to invite 200 of our Store Managers, for the first time in the conference’s history. Combined with our field retail and support teams as well people from the office, we managed to tell the story to the broadest audience possible.

The scene was set with delegates greeted in a room with various memorabilia from our past, including old tills, tons of nostalgic photos and even some old uniforms! After a short welcome video from our Chairman Mr Don Lewin OBE, he handed over to Clinton.

As Clinton finished his initial introduction, things began to take an unfamiliar turn. Clinton explained that we were about to leave the past and travel a path to our

future and he encouraged people to write something down they wanted to see or do in the future.

The teams were then led down a designated path from the main building to an awaiting marquee. On our journey, road signs indicated key dates and achievements from our history, until we finally arrived at the future... “Being Clintons”.

Once inside, we began to hear all about the story. Branded (they’re the guys featured earlier) took the stage to explain what a brand was and detailed our objective to make Clinton Cards a loved brand.

This year saw our biggest conference ever at Woolston Manor, Essex. “Clintons, the past, the present and future” was all about reflecting on what we had done over the last forty-two years and looking to the next forty-two. The theme held together our vision for the future and gave us a platform to introduce “the story”, which hopefully by now you will all be familiar with.

Continued page 6-7

5

Clintons, the past, the present and the future

“ “

6

Now that we all had an understanding about brands, it was time to learn about our customers. We watched some actual footage of them shopping in our stores. They told us what they looked for in a card and how they went about shopping.

With everyone on their feet, we split into two groups and was introduced to our two main customers groups... Happy Families and Sociable & Sorted. After getting to grips with what sort of people Happy Families and Sociable & Sorted are, it was time for a spot of lunch. We regrouped and wandered back to the main hall.

This time around, our teams were greeted by a traditional party to celebrate Clintons. Ambushed by the paparazzi as we made our way upstairs, we were greeted by Boofle, the Hug Monster and a Magician to name a few!

A quick bite, followed by a specially made Clintons celebration cake (cut by Mr Lewin), it was time for a quick stop at the Pick’n’Mix table before heading back to the future.

With everyone re-fuelled, it was time for some more activities. We started the afternoon with Clinton introducing our vision of “Leading with Kindness” and what that meant for our customers as well as our people.

Leading with Kindness led us nicely onto our four brand values. Everyone had been given a coloured card (of course it was one of our new brand colours) and it was time to find the room that matched the colour. With four groups in play, the activities began.

Those who started with Surprising were greeted by Debbie Lewin and Brett Smith who set about explaining exactly what the value meant. They explained how we always wanted to try new things and how important it was for us to be continually surprising and delighting people with great product and fantastic service.

Everyone shared surprising moments from their own lives, things we could do to surprise our customers and ways in which we would like to be surprised in the future.

One room down and it was into Responsible, with Paul Salador and Liam McTaggart on hand with the support of a few Superheroes! In this session, we discussed themes of business ownership, accountability and the responsibility we all have to do the right thing.

After sharing things we could do as both a responsible individual and a responsible brand, the group was split into teams with the task of designing a Responsible Superhero that embodied responsible features and attributes.

Aspirational was the next value to be tackled. Lead by Elaine Roughley with the support of Steve Royale from The Yard, it was all about aiming high in everything we

do. Elaine explained how fundamental it was to the business and us as individuals to set high standards that other people and brands would look up to.

The group then discussed which brands we liked and disliked, but didn’t get off that easily and had to explain why. We used these brands as a basis to discuss the things we could learn from other loved brands. They finished off by asking everyone to write down their favourite brand idea and tying it onto a balloon.

And last but by no means least, it was time to learn about our fourth value, Family Spirited. Annette Middlebrook and John Robinson took to the stage to explain exactly what it meant to care about our customers and each other. They introduced the idea, that by acting as one big family, we will become stronger.

The group was again split into small teams, where we had to come up with a family mascot to represent our family spirit. Of course, we needed a drawing as well as a name. We then had to discuss what we could do differently to make Clintons a more family spirited place.

After a short break for tea, coffee and cake it was onto the final part of the day. It was here we heard from Cliff Eteridge, from Branded. He explained all about the people that make a brand and the part we play in it. We heard about squares, circles, triangles and squiggles as well as an amusing story about monkeys and an interesting video of a hill-dancing man. But they all helped explain the journey we were about to start.

As the day drew to a close, a final word from Clinton and it was time to collect a goody bag and embark on the journey home as well as the journey that will see us make it happen, together.

7

Leading with

kindness

“

“

Spreading a little bit of Kindness“It’s the little things that make a big impression!”... That’s the sentiment behind our new PR Campaign.

It champions the idea that it’s the little things that matter and there’s no better time to harness that than during key seasons (Valentine’s Day included!). We want Clintons to be at the very heart of capturing the wonderful things people are doing and we’re sort of hoping that it will also inspire others to join in.

To launch the campaign, we enlisted the help of Speed, who surveyed 3000 people to find out exactly what little things make us happiest.

Making it to the top of the list was a simple compliment on appearance (with this in mind, we think you look great today!!). This was followed closely by being told ‘I love you’ and receiving a surprise note or card from a loved one.

We also discovered that 81% of people believe that little things can go a long way to cheering someone up and 75% of people get a sense of happiness after witnessing a random act of kindness. The survey found that “This Morning” presenter Holly Willoughby was seen as the kindest celebrity, with her co-host Phillip Schofield

Debbie Lewin Product Development Director

Describe your job in five wordsInspiring others to create great product - (Is that 6?! I never could add up!)

What job would you have done if you hadn’t become a retailer?I would have gone into PR

If you were a cartoon character which one would it be and why?Road Runner from Looney Tunes because I am always running around with no time to spare

What’s your proudest moment?Becoming a Mum

What was the last thing you purchased?Perfume for a friends birthday

What song have you sung to this week?Olly Murs - Thinking of me - (Its very catchy!)

If you could have any super power for a day, which one would it be and what would you do with it?Control the weather - so I could take away the snow for good!

Best invention?Mobile Phone!

If you could go back in time, where would you stop?When I was 21. Young, free and single with no wrinkles!

How did you celebrate your last Birthday?In Barbados on the beach!

not too far behind in fifth. He was so kind he even congratulated Holly live on the show!

We launched ‘Little Things’ on Friday 12th November (just in time for World Kindness Day UK on 13th November), and have been really pleased with how well it has been received.

Clintons has featured in The Sun and The Daily Express. We’ve also had an array of radio mentions. But that wasn’t enough, so we made a ‘vodcast’ video for the survey, which has been viewed on a number of websites including Yahoo, New!, OK! and Star Magazine.

Now in the run up to Valentine’s Day, we will be making sure everyone knows about the ‘Little Things’. We have planned a national campaign focusing on the loving messages that people like to send or receive at Valentine’s.

We’ve teamed up with Absolute Radio to offer ten listeners the chance to put their special message in one of our windows on Valentine’s Day. We’ll also choose ten additional winners from our Facebook page.

We’ve conducted another survey with a

Valentines Day theme. It asks whether modern men are happier to express their feelings. We’ll compliment the theme with a ‘Men’s Only’ Shopping Evening at one of our stores. We’re hosting a signing event in Bluewater with our kindest male celebrity Peter Andre. And for the chocoholics we’ve teamed up with the Daily Star for a free chocolate give-away on Sunday 13th and Monday 14th February.

We’re loving the reaction Little Things has had and we’re hoping that you can see how we’re starting to communicate our brand vision and values to our customers. Watch this space to see what we do next!

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9

Mindful that the greatest asset of any business is its people, the Being Clintons conference this year broke new ground with invitations made to a wide range of our teams including; Regional Managers, Area Managers, Loss Prevention Officers, Training Officers, Head Office and two hundred front line Store Managers.

The Conference programme formed part of a progressive and vigorous strategy designed to ensure that we strengthen our position as one of the UK’s leading retailers.

If somebody was to ask me “Was it a success?” – the answer is a resounding YES!

The message, was delivered with clarity, passion and humour by various speakers including Directors and Senior Staff of Clintons alongside the Marketing Consultants Branded. I took away what ‘Being Clintons’ meant and how the four new values of Surprising, Family Spirited, Responsible and

Being Clintons by Geoff Somes

Yourshout

Aspirational would help us meet the needs and wants of our customers (internal and external).

The challenging economic times that exist were acknowledged and confronted head-on and the investment in ideas for future success was clear for all to see.

The plan was to involve as many people as possible allowing the message to be spread throughout the business. In contrast to many corporate conferences it was communicated in a fun atmosphere with some light hearted but stimulating exercises based on the four core values. These were devised to draw thoughts, ideas and innovations from everybody. (And in the case of some of the more mature members, back and knee ache!)

Even individuals who were initially apprehensive could not fail to be motivated by the positive attitude of the presenters.

During the research for this article I was asked how can marketing consultants

help? This prompted recollection of a story related to me many years ago concerning a small but successful retailer who suddenly found his shop dwarfed both to the left and right by a large intimidating retailer. He was losing footfall rapidly and subsequently profit. Being a forward thinking person this individual proceeded to engage a firm of consultants to try and find a solution. The consultant arrived, listened intently to the story, sat back in his chair, stroked his chin and scratched his head before announcing “I have the solution to your challenge... re-name your shop ‘FRONT ENTRANCE’!”. Perfect.

In conclusion, I think we all appreciate that our business cannot stand still and that we need to evolve to reflect the ever changing retail environment. It will require various aspects of marketing, branding and our own expertise and teamwork to be successful, but if we can deliver the things we discussed at conference, we stand to reap the rewards!

Every issue, we want to hear from you!!! We know that you have tons to contribute and opinions on what we’re doing and perhaps what we’re not doing. So why not SHOUT about it? If you’ve got something to say, contact us at:yourshout@clintoncards.co.uk

C I S U M S S E N R E D N E T

E A S U O M Y N O N A B G C S

S D E C O H G A M E S A Z I E

I U I N P N U D N E S M F T S

M B R N I M N G S S D A A N O

O A E P E T A G E A E R F A R

R P P F R G N M T B B R L M D

P I U E E I F E A E D I S O E

S W A M R E S R L P T A E R R

Y T E U O I O E O A E G V P E

A N S D D R C E C G V E O L V

T N E M T I M M O C O T D S L

G N I V O L J J H L L D S V E

E N G A P M A H C Q U I W E W

T E U Q U O B R T C K Y U P T

Win £50 worth of gift cards for your store!Fill in the grid so each row, column and 3x3 square contains the numbers 1 to 9. Then copy the numbers in the shaded squares into an email marked SuDoku Quiz along with your name and store number and send it to competitions@clintoncards.co.uk.

Win – Me To You Personalised Love Book In the spirit of Leading with Kindness, we are encouraging you all to share your little acts of kindness! These can be something that you have done for someone else, or perhaps an occasion where someone else has been kind to you!

Send these little acts of kindness through to us at competitions@clintoncards.co.uk. Or post them on our Facebook Wall @ www.facebook.com/clintoncardsuk. We will have a look through and select a winner at random. (Remember to title your email Little Acts of Kindness)

St ValentineSurprisesRomanticMessageAnonymousChocolatesChampagneSippingLoveDateEngagementMarriageCelebrateLovingTenderness

PromiseHugDineCommitmentKissTwelve Red RosesBouquetRomeoCuddleFebDovesPoemMusicRingsGames

Win - £50 Me To You Winter BearCrack our anagram and we will give one lucky winner a £50 Me To You winter bear. Get your thinking caps on and get unscrambling those letters!

Once you think you’ve got the word we’re looking for send it to competitions@clintoncards.co.uk and winners will be picked at random.

PTNIrOsaIaaLClue: One of Four

10

6 7 9

2 68

1 3 2 4

754

4 7 8 95

372

4 3 86

9 6 1

3 6 4

A Heroes WelcomeI had the most pleasant experience whilst visiting the Argyll Street, Glasgow branch in my uniform. As a serving soldier I was informed by the assistant that on production of my ID Card I was entitled to 20% off my purchases - fantastic… I thoroughly appreciate the gesture towards the troops and will make sure that I do all my Christmas card shopping in Clintons!

At this time of year when most of the population will be buying cards, I am sure they will choose to support a company who has the moral courage to support our troops. Thank you on behalf of myself and my fellow serving soldiers.

Barbara G

A Wedding FavourMrs R phoned into Head Office to say how pleased she was with the customer service of Louise Daniels from Norwich 0672 who went out of her way to help. Mrs R said that she had 3 packs short on Wedding cards and when she checked online, the cards had been discontinued. She said Louise emailed all the branches and managed to get another 2 packs. Mrs R wanted to personally thank Louise for going that extra mile to help her out.

Mrs R

Service UP in PortaDOWNI just wish to mention one of your excellent staff members, Lyndsay, in your Portadown branch. The item I was looking for was not available, so she proceeded to check up stairs and check with other stores in Northern Ireland. She took my number and rang me when she was successful.

I was so pleased to get the item (1987 birthday CD) and am so grateful that Lyndsay didn’t give up. Credit were credit is due I say... An excellent and very pleasant member of staff and I would certainly recommend Clinton Cards as her customer service was second to none!

Valerie

I am emailing to say what great service I had at my local Clinton Cards in Thanet. I am disabled and the staff and manageress couldn’t do more for me. I had presents to buy and they helped me around the shop, I needed it wrapped and the manageress went out of her way to wrap them beautifully and with such skill. They are very nice and welcoming I enjoy shopping for gift needs there. The manageress Julie is wonderful always willing to help, her manner is very pleasant and the staff are very friendly.

I think this is the best Clinton store I have been to. I am so pleased that being disabled is not a problem with the staff and their service is fantastic.

Deborah M

No Job Too SmallOn behalf of the Members of the Society (Camarthen Area Blind Society) I should like to thank you and your staff at Carmathan, for taking the trouble to obtain 300 Christmas cards for us of the same design from other branches of your organisation.

Your assistance will make our need to put large print insert into each card in both English and Welsh so much easier. The cards that we deliver to every one of our Members in and around Carmarthen are much appreciated. Quite a few of them have just sufficient sight to read large print with a magnifying glass. We are most grateful for your co-operation and excellent service.

Eiren G

Other side of the counter

Letter of the Month

A Sign of Good ServiceI am writing to compliment you on a staff member at your Watford store. My young son has hearing impairment and wished to purchase a card for myself on his own. Whilst in the store he was helped by a young lady, unfortunately I only got her first name as Becky, she went out of her way to help him by writing what he couldn’t lip read and even manage to thank him with sign language.

Unfortunately in many places this would have been seen as an inconvenience to staff, but she was the exception to this rule and I hope by sending this message it will express my appreciation and would hope that this can be passed on to her.

Mrs J

Sharing what our customers have to say about us

All Wrapped Up

A Charm-ing StoreI am writing to compliment the staff of your Runcorn store. What a pleasure to see there attendants dressed as witches entering into the spirit of Halloween. I am sure the other customers present at the time spent a little more than they intended before entering. I certainly did. The Runcorn ‘Clintons’ is now my favourite card shop. Thanks for making my day.

Andre M

11

Boofle generously wraps the gifts

he bought for his friends in HR

As Christmas was fast approaching, Boofle decided to drop in and see his good friends in HR at Head Office.

The team were happy to see him, after some initial problems getting into the building! A true team player, he decorated the HR Team’s Christmas tree before getting stranded in the snow (much like everyone else in the country!) and even managed to get involved in Secret Santa. To round the week off, Boofle accompanied the team to their Christmas dinner at a local Italian. Having met so many of the central teams, Boofle can’t wait for his next little adventure.

If you think you can show Boofle a good time send him an invite to Boofle@clintoncards.co.uk. Tell us what you have in store for him and make the next issue of Boofle’s Lovely Little Adventures!

Follow Boofle every issue to see where he has been and what he has been up to.

This time Boofle is in… Loughton

The K Factor

Have you got it?!

BeingClintonsConference 2010

CQCLINTONS

QUARTERLY

Issue 1 - Spring 2011

The magazine for everyone at Clinton Cards

What do our customers

have to say?

Getting to know...

Debbie Lewin

Tell us what you think?Now that you have seen our brand new magazine, we want to hear what you think about it! If you have feedback or maybe something you would like to see in the next edition of CQ, drop us a line. Contact - cq@clintoncards.co.uk

The heavy snowfall didn’t

dampen Boofle’s happy

holiday feeling

CQ CLINTONs QuarTerLy

Having a head for heights, Boofle

set about decorating the office

Christmas trees.

Peter in Security instantly recognised that Boofle was a VIP