Mills Gives Meijer Plenty of 'Box Tops' for BTS

Meijer kicked off back-to-school season with a series of promotions leveraging General Mills' evergreen "Box Tops for Education" cause program.A July 24 circular feature offered 60 bonus "Box Tops" credits through the retailer's mPerks custom coupon program to shoppers who purchased 10 products from Mills and its outside brand partners through July 31. Meijer ran the same incentive as part of its 2013 back-to-school campaign. (See "Meijer Has a Superlative …" in Related Articles.)The following week the deal dropped to 50 bonus credits offered through Aug. 31. A manufacturer showcase on meijer.com touts the incentive and hosts an informational video about the Box Tops program along with recipes incorporating Chex, Hamburger Helper, Old El Paso, Pillsbury and other Mills brands. An ad in an Aug. 4 email to members of the cause program linked to the website. In stores, pallet displays from SC Johnson's Ziploc promote the brand's participation in the program.Mills also gave Meijer an exclusive sweepstakes awarding a grand prize of 10,000 eBoxTops credits, plus 100 eBoxTops to 400 runners-up. Shoppers who bought five eligible products from Aug. 1-14 received a receipt code to use for entry on a promotional website (meijerboxtopssweeps.com).In other seasonal activity, Meijer is selling some 100 school supplies for $1 through September. Stanchion signs positioned near checkout tout the prices for Hallmark Cards' Crayola crayons along with store brand paper and pencils. In-line headers in the seasonal department promote supplies such as calculators and index cards, while themed national displays from brands including Henkel Corp.'s Dial and Hewlett-Packard's HP enjoy secondary space.The retailer also is reprising its annual "Back to School Bucks" offer from Aug. 15-16, delivering coupons for roughly 20% off the purchase of a single general merchandise, apparel or health & beauty item ranging in price from $14.99 to $99.99 through a two-page newspaper insert and mPerks.In digital activity, a home page carousel ad on meijer.com and an Aug. 10 Facebook update linked to an interactive applet that lets users drag and drop a mix of generic, private-label and national-brand products into a shopping list that can be printed or emailed. Prices presented in the applet are valid from Aug. 3-16. The same sales window applies to prices in the 24-page "Back to Campus" and "Back to School" guides the retailer is distributing in stores and online. Both publicatons plug the retailer's dedicated "Meijer Style" website. (See "Marketing at Meijer.")Elsewhere, Meijer partnered with the National School Supply Lists Directory to produce a promotional page on the retailer's website where consumers can search for what items their children need. A college-focused 30-second TV spot rounds out the marketing effort. (See below.)

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