Betty Crocker will end a customer loyalty program this fall that has included a catalog filled with products consumers can acquire by collecting points in favor of a more popular program that donates money to local schools.
“This was a hard decision for us,” Betty Crocker spokesperson Pam Becker said, adding that the Betty Crocker Points customer loyalty program has been around since the 1930s. The first printed catalog mailed in 1962. Betty Crocker is a division of Minneapolis-based General Mills.
However, consumer desires have changed over the years, and another loyalty program already in place is proving “very popular with consumers,” Becker continued. The Box Tops for Education program works by consumers collecting box tops from General Mills items featuring the program's logo. Consumers give the collected box tops to a school of their choice, which can redeem them for cash to use as they want within the schools.
The catalog typically has mailed four to six times a year. Its circulation has declined in recent years “but not as much as you think,” Becker said. She did not provide circulation figures.
The final catalog mails sometime this fall. An online catalog will remain up for a while afterward at bettycrocker.com but eventually will be taken down, Becker said.
The catalog offers merchandise such as Oneida flatware, Fiesta dishes and bakeware.
“We know there are a lot of people out there with drawers full of these points,” Becker said. The best way to redeem points as the program winds down is online, she said, because this is where the most up-to-date information about product availability will be found.
Chantal Todé covers catalog and retail news and BTB marketing for DM News and DM News.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
