Brief:

• General Mills' Box Tops for Education program released a mobile app that eliminates the need to clip and collect physical coupons from packaging to help raise money for a select school. The app lets shoppers scan their grocery receipts to earn 10 cents for every participating product purchased, according to a company announcement.
• General Mills is giving five schools a chance to win a $20,000 makeover as part of its app promotion. Those who scan a receipt with at least one participating product between July 15 and Nov. 15 could win the funds for their school.
• The new Box Tops app is free to download from Apple's App Store or Google Play. When first opened, the app asks mobile users to select which school they want to support. After that, they can start scanning store receipts within 14 days of purchase. The Box Tops program has raised $913 million for U.S. schools since General Mills founded the program in 1996, per the announcement.

Insight:

By leveraging a mobile app for Box Tops, General Mills is bringing its education charity into the smartphone age and improving its convenience for mobile users. The company previously offered a similar app several years ago and continues to fine-tune the experience. Rather than requiring consumers cut out coupons from physical packages and collect them to submit to a Box Tops coordinator at schools, the app helps to automate the process and lets people quickly view a running total of their total contributions. Seeing how the money adds up could help to motivate consumers to continue scanning their grocery receipts for a good cause, rather than having a vague idea of what they've contributed.

General Mills also can collect more detailed information about shopping habits through the app that requires receipt scanning, as its privacy policy explains, which can be used to tailor its marketing and advertising efforts to fit customer behavior. The app asks for a user's name and email address to register, or they can use a Facebook or Google login. After that, the app asks for the name of a school, the user's ZIP code and date of birth. By scanning a complete grocery receipt, consumers are disclosing all their purchases, not just General Mills products with Box Tops coupons.

The Box Tops for Education app likely will help to broaden the charitable program's reach among tech-savvy young adults and those who want to associate themselves with brands that are socially conscious. Generation Z, the oldest of which were born when Box Tops launched in 1996, tends to feel especially connected to causes, and more than two-thirds of the age group think brands should help them achieve those goals, PSFK research found.