Loyalty Marketing

As part of its efforts to generate traffic this back-to-school season, Office Depot is offering teachers in Florida a 20% discount off qualifying purchases during its Office Depot Rewards and MaxPerks Teacher Appreciation Events.

The events will be held at Office Depot and OfficeMax stores across Florida during select weeks this summer. In Florida, they’ll be taking place from August 2 through August 5.

Grand Rapids, Mich. - Meijer is running an omnichannel back-to-school promotion offering Back-to-School Bucks, which are available through print and the Meijer digital coupon program, mPerks. Furthermore, customers can customize their own sale and save more than $35 on general merchandise and health and beauty care products the weekend of Aug. 15-16.

Walmart kicked off its back-to-school promotional effort the way it does every seasonal selling initiative – with a big emphasis on low prices – but added a stronger digital component this year.

The retailer sought to bring a bit of Black Friday and Cyber Monday magic to its back-to-school efforts with a series of price cuts and limited duration offerings designed to generate sales and drive traffic to its stores and Web site.

Austin, Texas – Whole Foods plans to expand its loyalty, marketing and home delivery programs. In a conference call with investors, co-CEO Walter Robb said Whole Foods will launch its first national marketing campaign in fall 2014, with a focus on how the retailer is better and different than its competitors.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. - Dollar General, in partnership with Coupons.com, completed the successful rollout of its new DG Digital Coupons program to its more than 11,300 stores across the 40 states the retailer serves. To use the DG Digital Coupon Program, customers may sign up either online or in stores using a numeric identification number, which is typically their telephone number.

New York – Old Navy is launching a back-to-school promotion on the YouTube video platform. The retailer is releasing a video of a new back-to-school anthem, “Unlimited,” featuring cameos by stars of the youth multichannel network AwesomenessTV.

Fingerprinting and DNA sampling are on back-to-school lists at Sam’s Club this year where the warehouse club operator is using the allure of free services to expose would-be members to its value proposition.

On Saturday, August 9 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at clubs nationwide Sam’s is offering DNA testing and fingerprint kits as part of an annual free children’s health screening program. The screenings, which combine health and child safety information are available at the 596 Sam’s locations with a pharmacy.

Foothill Ranch, Calif. – The Wet Seal Inc. has named Iris Mobile as its mobile messaging agency. Iris Mobile will support the brand's mobile marketing programs with Rich Media Messaging (RMM) to help the retailer strengthen its presence and connect more personally with its mobile customers.