Marketing Tactics

MINNEAPOLIS — Target announced that this fall it is investing more than $50 million in education. The donation will fund programs such as Target School Library Makeovers, Take Charge of Education and a series of education grants and awards that will provide the resources needed to help students and teachers excel, the company reported.

NEW YORK — One-in-six Americans (15%) uses an e-reader device, a new study from Harris Interactive found. This is up from less than 1-in-10 (8%) last year. 

Legendary crooner Tony Bennett must live by the proverb if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. He just observed his 85th birthday, has an exclusive deluxe edition of his album “Duets II” hitting Target stores today and is scheduled to perform throughout the United States during the remainder of the year. The new album is the second time Bennett has offered an exclusive mix of songs at Target with the first being the 2006 release of “Duets An American Classic.”

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax announced the fifth anniversary of its A Day Made Better program to support teachers. Through the program, OfficeMax will surprise 1,000 teachers on Oct. 4 with $1,000 each worth of school supplies. 

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe’s is replacing its “Never Stop Improving” tagline with a new one, “Never Stop Improving” as part of its new brand strategy.

As part of the program, the chain is launching a new advertising campaign Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. Also, Lowe’s will soon be launching MyLowes, a online tool to help customers manage their homes and home improvement projects through every stage.

Widespread reports surrounding the launch of the Missoni for Target brand last week had surging demand causing the company’s website to crash and stores disappointing customers because they prematurely ran out of merchandise. The unexpected run on Missoni even prompted the company to take the unusual step of issuing a public statement.

Keurig brewed up a powerful incentive at Target this week with an ad on the cover of its weekly circular touting a $30 gift card for those who purchase the B60 Special Edition single-serve brewer from Keurig for $149.99. The offer appeared quite alluring at first because $30 would help soften the blow of purchasing a coffee maker that is fairly expensive.

The beautiful people were out in force Saturday night in Southern California to party and support the fundraising efforts of the Motion Picture and Television Fund. The organization hosts an annual “Evening Before” event that precedes the Emmy Awards, which were held Sunday night and is modeled after the “Night Before” fundraiser, which precedes the Academy Awards.