Office Depot Goes to School
Office Depot is using direct mail, coupons and sweepstakes to target the 6.5 million national parent-teacher association (PTA) members who buy school supplies each year.
According to Stanton Lewin, director of client services for LKH&S, one of Office Depot’s marketing agencies, segmenting and targeting a specific audience subset is new for Office Depot.
“It’s a small step in a new direction for them,” Lewin says.
The first phase of the Supporting School Values campaign dropped in August. Over 16,000 pieces were mailed to local PTA presidents in the 40 states in which Office Depot has stores.
The piece included a sweepstakes offering the grand prize winner a $5,000 “shopping spree” for his or her school, as well as a home computer for herself or himself.
“It’s something for you and something for your school,” Lewin notes.
Each state PTA president got a computer for his or her office as an incentive to participate in the campaign.
Local PTA presidents are supposed to “work with their constituencies,” passing out coupon booklets for discounts at Office Depot. (The discount coupons are for retail purchases only, and are not to be used with catalog orders.)
PTA presidents have been identified as being able to influence their members-primarily parents buying school supplies for their children.
“That’s a substantial network we’re trickling down into,” Lewin says.
A small mailing going directly to parents was also tested in late summer.
The results of the PTA mailing had not been analyzed as of press time, but Lewin says he wouldn’t be surprised if the response rate was in the double digits.
The alliance with the organization was perfect for Office Depot because it allows the company to create a perception that the store and catalog are prime sources for education products, even if their name isn’t “School Depot,” notes Lewin.
“Working with the PTA solves a lot of problems for us,” he says.
Other parts of the campaign involve Office Depot offering teacher appreciation breakfasts, which include special discounts as well as free merchandise for the teachers.
Office Depot vendors-such as Xerox, Crayola and Compaq-are helping to defray the program’s costs.
