How does Clinton's Market their products?
Bobbie Atkinson January 2016
This blog post is going to be written in first person, as I am currently a member of staff at a Clinton's store. This will give me the opportunity to share my own experiences and thoughts.
Clinton's is seen as a more expensive choice when deciding where to purchase cards. However, it has been said by many you can tell the difference - and the quality is worth paying the price. When consumers are making the decision of which product to buy, higher priced brands may seem a better option than a cheaper brand. At Clinton's this is clear to see. Jolie Papier, Ala Mode and Art Deco are the three more expensive brands of cards and familiar names which customers recognise and also associate with higher quality and excellent reputation. Therefore, if consumers are wanting to be seen as people who go for the more familiar and higher quality brands, they will be willing to pay the price as whoever they are purchasing the card for will see the brand and instantly know they have paid more than the standard price of a card.
This blog post is going to be written in first person, as I am currently a member of staff at a Clinton's store. This will give me the opportunity to share my own experiences and thoughts.
Clinton's is seen as a more expensive choice when deciding where to purchase cards. However, it has been said by many you can tell the difference - and the quality is worth paying the price. When consumers are making the decision of which product to buy, higher priced brands may seem a better option than a cheaper brand. At Clinton's this is clear to see. Jolie Papier, Ala Mode and Art Deco are the three more expensive brands of cards and familiar names which customers recognise and also associate with higher quality and excellent reputation. Therefore, if consumers are wanting to be seen as people who go for the more familiar and higher quality brands, they will be willing to pay the price as whoever they are purchasing the card for will see the brand and instantly know they have paid more than the standard price of a card.
This not only works with Clinton's more expensive brands, but as Clinton's as a whole. It is very easy to tell the difference between a card bought from Clinton's and a card bought from a less expensive card shop such as Card Factory. Although people may not like to admit it, they will not always go for a higher quality brand for the reasons you may think. As shown in 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs,' one of the stages is belongingness; people like to feel part of something and accepted. It boosts their ego and makes them feel better about themselves. This may possibly be a reason why some people go for the more well known, expensive brands. If you receive a very expensive card for your birthday, are you really going to feel good about yourself returning the favour with an 89p card from your corner shop?
'Covariation' is a theory that benefits Clinton's greatly as a company, as many of the products within store might be used differently by different people. For example many of the products such as Yankee Candles, Boofle bears and photo frames could be bought as a gift or for personal use. Therefore, almost everything sold in store (apart from cards) can be bought for various different reasons. This also gives staff the opportunity to deliver excellent customer service and get to know their customers on a personal level by asking questions about the use of the product - which often results in add ons being sold and the customers returning back to the store.
Sales in store are a fantastic way of appealing to an audience's schema and self concept. As we all know, everyone likes to make a New Year's resolution in hope of becoming their ideal self and this may end up in their schema changing. At the start of a New Year some people may want to start being more organised and prepared throughout the year. This process will likely be starting at the same time as the January sales. It is well known by regular customers at Clinton's that all Christmas cards, gift wrap and gifts will go on sale starting on boxing day therefore all those people wanting to start being more organised will be attracted to the sales and use it as an opportunity to get stocked up on Christmas cards and gifts ready for next year. This will make the consumer feel more organised and instantly boost their ego, as they will feel like they are making good progress with their New Year's resolution.
Many marketing techniques are used within store unintentionally but are very successful, for example Yankee candles are a very popular item which many people will come in store just to buy. This products links with sensory marketing as the scent of the candles fills the store and attracts consumers to look at the product. The candles also create a wonderful atmosphere within the store as the different scents are extremely pleasant. Many people like to touch a product before they purchase, all candles can be held and smelt before buying, just like many other products around the store. To add to the atmosphere, music is played which can be heard in any part of the store and is at a suitable volume for all customer demographics.
Cognitive, habitual and affective decision making takes place around the store every day and is the reason for many sales. Most sales are cognitive as birthdays and different occasions are usually planned ahead, therefore consumers will come in to store to purchase products for occasions that are coming up. Despite consumers coming into the store with the intentions of buying something that was planned, they may then make affective decisions which are emotional and quick decisions when looking around if they see something else that catches their attention. Finally, habitual decisions are also made often, as consumers get used to certain products - such as the aforementioned Yankee candles - and will refuse to buy them from anywhere else.
Marketing techniques are not only used by promotions and products, staff also have their own ways of marketing within the store. A monetary risk that many customers consider is not being able to safely afford a product. This is why, when staff members are helping a consumer and interacting with them, they will wait until the customer is more emotionally invested before announcing the price. This way the customer is still more likely to want to purchase the item. However when a customer asks for the price of a product before being given any other information, the sale might not be made. Moreover, customers will have evoked sets and consideration sets of thoughts when making a decision: the evoked set is products consumers have already considered and the consideration set is new alternatives the consumer is thinking about. Each staff member's job is to turn consideration sets of products into evoked sets by revealing information about the products, in order to make the consumer want to make a purchase, whilst leaving other products into the evoked set to ensure repeat custom.
Clinton's as a company is very successful when deciding how to market a product. Personally, since working at Clinton's, I have learned more about how to market products and interact with consumers without even realising. The only possible negative when consumers are making decisions in Clinton's could be that there are too many choices, as the decisions are therefore more difficult to make. Other than that, Clinton's as a whole (and the staff working there) have a great understanding of their customers and know how to market products to each individual. I find when working at Clinton's there is so much opportunity to get to know the customers that come in to the store that it becomes second nature to know what they want and how they want it offered to them, and it is an excellent feeling knowing you have represented the company in a great way whilst exceeding the customers expectations.
This rating has been chosen as the only negative found was too much choice, which cannot be eliminated as certain products need to be sold. Clinton's deserved five stars as they have a great team of people constantly finding new ways to market the products and exceed consumers expectations.
