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Retailer Face To Face
Finders Keepers
Coinciding with its recent major rebranding to John Lewis & Partners, the department store group introduced Find Keep Give, a significant new own brand gifting and curated greeting card collection. PG met up with John Lewis buyers Sara Allbright and Lisa Rutherford to find out more about this new thrust and how its introduction further elevates the role of greeting cards for the leading department store retailer. In these scary times, the rebrand of the department store group John Lewis & Partners gave an extra endorsement of appreciation to those working within the organisation, who take the rough with the smooth. There is no escaping that retailing generally has been pretty rough and rocky, even for the terrain maestro John Lewis. It’s fitting then that the adoption of the ‘& Partners’ brand extension coincided with the introduction of Find Give Keep, a breakthrough own brand gift, stationery as well as curated card and wrap collection, which has an intimacy, both in the product selection and the retail execution, that arguably has never been seen before from the retail giant. Spanning almost 300 skus, the Find Give Keep collection includes 84 greeting cards as well as wrappings, stationery, home accessories, jewellery, fragranced products and edible treats. Having debuted in September, it is being rolled out across the entire 51 store strong estate, with follow up ranges already in gestation. While distinct design themes cluster the own brand products together, the greeting cards and wrappings are either exclusive to the retailer or are from ranges that are not currently sold in John Lewis & Partners’ main greeting card department. 34
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Equally, significantly different, is how the collection is displayed instore, almost as a ‘special store within a store’, with customers discovering the products placed in arresting lifestyle arrangements on tables and drawer units that beckon shoppers to delve deeper into its wonders. This experience is heightened further still in 10 trial locations where the Find Keep Give ‘zone’ also include personalisation and giftwrapping services. Sara Allbright, buyer for gifts and candle shop (whose
Above: One of the wall displays of the Find Keep Give cards, as well as flat wrap that co-ordinates with some of the gift collections. Below: The Find Keep Give zone in John Lewis & Partners’ Oxford Street store, with the cards and wrap straddling the monogramming area. Bottom: The new Find Keep Give collection debuted to coincide with the 50 store group’s rebrand to John Lewis & Partners.
17 years experience with JL&P includes a period as its greeting card buyer) has been involved in the Find Give Keep project right from the start. However, she stresses that its successful culmination was only possible as a result of input and cooperation from other partners, including those from the greeting card and stationery team. “For us to be able to develop an own brand gifting collection that was seen as really special by our customers meant it needed to be cross category, drawing in the expertise and insights from other departments so we could put the consumer really at its heart,” explained Sara. As Sara reveals, the whole collection is structured around “four pillars - Gifts to Host, Gifts to Pause, Gifts to Covet and Gifts to Restore.” Elaborating, she explains that these four pillars are relevant whether the items are being purchased to give to someone else or as a self-purchase treat. To illustrate how the collection lends itself to ‘pause’, Sara says: “We have a table display featuring a mug, a bar of chocolate and a book which is aimed at someone who simply wants to sit down and relax. The concept has been about sourcing a range and presenting it in relation to how people are feeling. Everything is built on macro trends, an example being the importance of people’s homes along with home entertaining. Find Keep Give has led us to be more free thinking, as people are definitely being eclectic about homewares.” While the design themes of the collection