Loyalty Marketing

American Express added Walmart’s U.S. network of 4,100 stores as locations where customers can participate in the card issuers prepaid Serve offering.

Austin, Texas -- Whole Foods Market claimed the honor for best brand on Pinterest at the Shorty (the Shorties) Awards on April 7. The Shorties are an annual awards event that honors the best short-form content creators on Twitter and on other social media sites.

Whole Foods Market joined Pinterest in 2011, and currently has 180,000 followers.

Chobani Greek Yogurt is a young brand that has enjoyed tremendous success and to keep the momentum going the company is employing a classic CPG strategy of promoting consumption during different day parts and inspiring new usage occasions.

In essence, Chobani wants Americans to eat more yogurt and recently announced six new products to launch in July that extend the brand beyond breakfast.The new products include Chobani Greek Yogurt Oats, Chobani Indulgent, Chobani Kids, Chobani Seasonal, Chobani Kitchen and Chobani Simply 100 Greek Yogurt in key lime and pineapple Coconut.

MasterCard is in the process of acquiring Pinpoint Pty. Ltd., an Australian provider of loyalty and rewards services to financial institutions across the Asia Pacific region. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.

Pinpoint was founded in 1984. Headquartered in Sydney, it has a growing footprint across the region into markets such as China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan and Japan. Its customer base includes financial institutions and merchants.

A new low cost money wiring service from Walmart saves customers money and showcases the thought process the company applies to disrupt high margin businesses and generate store traffic.

The new service is called Walmart-2-Walmart and when it launches on April 24 customers will be able to wire up to $900 for only $9.50. between Walmart’s 4,000 U.S. locations. The service is intended to complement Walmart’s existing relationship with MoneyGram which offers a broader range of financial services including international transfers.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and money transfer provider Ria Money Transfer, a subsidiary of EFT provider Euronet, are launching Walmart-2-Walmart Money Transfer Service. Available April 24, the new service allows customers to transfer money to and from more than 4,000 Wal-Mart stores nationwide for what Wal-Mart says is up to 50% less than similar offerings on the market.

Rob Price, SVP marketing and advertising and chief marketing officer for CVS/pharmacy, has left the company to take a new role, the retailer said in a statement sent to sister publication Drug Store News.    

“Rob led the retail marketing team during a period of tremendous growth and strong financial performance and brought numerous positive changes to the business. We thank Rob for his important contributions and wish him the best of luck in the next phase of his career,” the company stated.

Purchase, N.Y. – MasterCard has entered into an agreement to acquire Pinpoint Pty. Ltd., an Australian provider of loyalty and rewards services to financial institutions across the Asia Pacific region. This acquisition is expected to close in second quarter 2014.