CVS Caremark & Supplier Diversity: Making the Connection

Today:  Attended the CVS Caremark Supplier Diversity Business Building Event for women-owned businesses at the Baltimore Convention Center, in conjunction with WBENC’s 2010 Conference & Business Expo.

In this photo: Cynthia Maniglia of The Copy Grove (left)
and Joanne Lewis of Tango Vision, Inc. (right).

The event featured a one-hour session about doing business with CVS Caremark, followed by a series of intense, one-on-one 15-minute, "speed" presentations, scheduled prior to the event - a chance to give your best elevator pitch.

To hit a home run at one of these events:  Be sure to know your niche - where your product or service best fits within the company's structure, as well as how it aligns with your potential buyer's overall corporate strategy.

The Copy Grove has been asked to follow up our recent presentation - and we'll keep you posted.

You've Come A Long Way Since Bill Cosby

Temple University's fundraising pitches have come a long way since the tv commercials featuring Bill Cosby (who attended the University) with the memorable refrain, "I could have gone anywhere - I chose Temple." While not as high-profile as the Cosby spots, today's fundraising efforts from the University show spunk and creativity, as is the case with this recent email that I received from my alma mater, with the intriguing subject line:

A chair. A camera. 60 seconds.

To be truthful, when I read that subject line, I thought Temple wanted me to make a video for them (a chance to use the camera on my MacBook Pro and maybe get famous?). Silly me! And when the email opened with this personalized message ...

Cynthia,

During finals week in May, Temple students

were given one last test - to convince you

in just 60 seconds to support the university.

Click here to decide whether they passed.

... of course, I had to click to see the video.

I think you'll agree, this video is a great way to bring real faces to a fundraising effort, and what greater way to talk about supporting the next generation of society-molders than having them speak for themselves and the University.

Go Temple!

To give to the University, click here.

Long Live Summer ~ and Star Rewards!

For quite a few years, the mailers that Macy's has been sending to their charge card customers featured "clean release" cards (sometimes, they're not so clean and full of goo when you pull the cards off the mailer). The cards were good for "Star Rewards" discounts on purchases made with Macy's charge cards. These mailers tended to have upwards of four (or more) cards affixed. That's gotta be expensive to produce. So I wasn't surprised when this new mailer from Macy's arrived, sans the glued-in cards.

The format is a self-mailer with an insert that pulls out of the mailing sleeve. The insert is cleverly designed to pull down from the bottom, with the line of demarcation acting as the liquid inside of a die-cut cocktail glass, to reveal the word "CHEERS." When the insert is pulled completely out of the sleeve, you are left holding a little red booklet with one page filled with four discount cards, which you then can tear out.

With summer only 17 days away and the coupons good from June 3rd through July 18th, this is one promotion I'll be holding onto ~ and using on my next trip to the mall.

Where my mother/fathers at?

Watch as the Sienna Family drops their hot new single, Swagger Wagon. This goes out to all you minivan families ...