Staples Had Back to School Well Covered

Staples officially kicked off back-to-school season in early July with the introduction of a “Reward A Classroom” program benefitting educators.Available to Staples Rewards cardholders, the new program lets participants earn extra Rewards (on top of the standard 5% back) for a teacher of their choice. The designated teacher, who must be a Teacher Rewards member, gets 5% back on every Copy & Print purchase and 2% on all other purchases. Individual teacher earnings are capped at $2,000 a year: a maximum of 40 consumers can each contribute up to $50. Boasting 3M and Newell Rubbermaid as sponsors, the program also lets teachers create custom supply lists on staples.com/rewardaclassroom that can be shared with students and parents.Staples earlier this year upgraded the Teacher Rewards program to give members 10% back (instead of the standard 5%) on teaching and art supplies. Stores again staged regional “Teacher Appreciation Days” throughout August. At the events, the first 100 Teacher Rewards members received 20% back on all the products they could fit in a free reusable shopping bag, and could enter a sweeps awarding a $25 store gift card. Stanchion signs supported.Meanwhile, the office supply retailer sold $10 "Back-to-School Savings Pass" vouchers awarding 15% off all supply purchases as its lead value offer for the third consecutive year. (See "Staples Guarantees ..." in Related Articles.) Available through Aug. 31 and valid until Sept. 21, the pass was touted on posters, stanchion signs and header cards adorning seasonal P-O-P materials.Among other seasonal deals, Staples promoted:$10 off a $30 receipt at department store Kohl’s with any in-store purchase through Sept. 2. Kohl’s in turn offered a coupon for $5 off a $50 Staples receipt with purchase of at least $30.a $5 store gift card with purchase of $20 worth of Procter & Gamble items suitable for office breakrooms. (See "Staples Fills ...")four years of Microsoft Corp.’s Microsoft Office 365 University free for students with purchase of select touch-screen laptops from Dell, Hewlett-Packard's HP, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba.A free $15 iTunes gift card with purchase of $75 worth of HP ink.Basic supplies at price points as low as one penny.In addition to the typical window posters, ceiling banners, endcap headers and in-aisle displays, seasonal P-O-P materials employing a blue hue included a circular rack sign pitching the Staples-exclusive Martha Stewart Home Office line (see “Staples Jumps …”) as a way to get “Beautifully Organized for back-to-routine."Elsewhere, customized displays from national manufacturers were almost entirely absent from this year's mix. Among the sparse activity was a dedicated endcap for Texas Instruments’ TI calculators outfitted with a customized header and a standee promoting the first-time availability of school uniforms on staples.com — arranged through a partnership with French Toast Official School Wear. The standee carried a QR code linking to a mobile e-commerce page for the items and distributed informational take-ones containing a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase valid through Sept. 21. On staples.com, a “Back to School Center” also offered an expanded assortment of supplies, including dorm room decor.The seasonal campaign also encompassed national and regional TV spots, some with co-op partners including Microsoft and Hallmark Cards’ Crayola; regional radio spots; ROP ads in regional newspapers including the Houston Chronicle; display ads on third-party websites such as nouveaucheap.com and mycokerewards.com; themed circular features that began with the July 14 tab; email blasts, including some plugging online-only “Daily Deals”; and social media activity employing a #StaplesHasIt hashtag that was also used on the in-store collateral.The social media activity included a “Guess the School Supply Giveaway” running Aug. 4-31 that awarded one room-full of relevant items each week. Consumers entered via Facebook or Twitter by guessing which school supply was highlighted in a depicted room; correct guesses earned five bonus entries.

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