Chief Marketer Staff, Author at Chief Marketer

Cendant Splits Company Into Four

Cendant is breaking its business into four independent companies to boost its value for shareholders. Under the plan, which was approved Sunday, the four divisions will include Cendant’s travel, real estate, hospitality and car rental businesses. Each …

Agencies

McDonald’s Serves Up Mobile Coupons in California

McFlurry with your phone? In an effort to better connect with younger consumers, McDonald’s restaurants in southern California are…

Agencies

Gift Card Popularity Up This Holiday: Survey

Gift card sales are expected to spike during the 2005 holiday season, according to a recent survey from First Data Prepaid Services’ ValueLink. Fifty-four percent of survey respondents who purchased gift cards this past year indicated that they have …

Agencies

Hasbro’s Tonka Hits Road For Toy Drive

Hasbro is taking its larger-than-life Tonka truck on tour as part of a cause marketing initiative to collect toys and games to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina and local charities. The Tonka Toughest Mighty Dump Truck kicked off a 14-city tour last …

Agencies

Panasonic Turns TV Mystery Into Sweeps

Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co. is using an online sweeps to extend a mystery that began in a TV spot last spring. The spot, for Panasonic’s HD Plasma TV, shows a handful of different scenes while asking, “What is the color of innocence?” (And …

Agencies

American Express Touts Luxury Bargains

American Express is giving its Rewards members a shot at luxury goods for as few as 1,000 Rewards points…but only for 14 days. AmEx is using the Membership Rewards Exclusives Event to launch a new overlay for Rewards, dubbed Membership Rewards …

Agencies

Automotive Manufacturers Put Brakes on Incentives

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. broke records this summer with their employee-discount incentive programs, each touting the promotion as a big success. But while cars sales zoomed, profitability plunged. Last week, GM North America, the company …

Agencies

Banana Republic Primps With Geisha

Banana Republic is running a two-part sweepstakes tied to Columbia Pictures’ Memoirs of a Geisha. The grand prize is two trips— to Los Angeles for the movie’s Dec. 3 premiere, a $250 Banana Republic wardrobe and $250 in spending money. The second prize …

Agencies

Finger on the Loyalty Pulse: Grocer Uses Fingerprint ID

Syracuse, NY-based grocery store Green Hills is nearly ready to roll out the Pay By Touch biometric fingerprint ID system for payments and identification to its 30,000 loyalty program participants. “We’re still working through some technical issues, but …

Supervalu Readies Organics Supermarket

Grocery wholesaler Supervalu will open its first natural-foods supermarket in January, with plans for more. The first Sunflower Market will open in Indianapolis and serve as a prototype as Supervalu seeks a foothold in the growing organic foods segment, …