Recent News
By Caitlyn Christensen / Staff Writer
published: Thu, 7 Jan, 2010
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association is now distributing a discount-and-reward dining card for hungry Pitt students and faculty members through the Pitt Box Office.
The card costs $3 for students and $5 for faculty and staff. Students should bring their Pitt IDs and the exact amount of cash for registration to the Ticket Office in the William Pitt Union. When they purchase the cards, students will receive a list of participating businesses’ addresses. Tickets will be available for as long as supplies last.
Discounts apply to restaurants and grocery stores in Oakland, Squirrel Hill, the Waterfront and the Strip District. Highlighted business partners include Szechuan Express and Little Asia in Oakland, Yongfa grocery store in the Strip District and Hokkaido Seafood Buffet near the Waterfront.
Offers vary among businesses. Students will receive at least 10 percent off their purchases at more than 20 Chinese restaurants.
In 2008, the card was only available to Chinese Pitt students and staff, as well as visiting scholars. The CSSA extended the offer to all students, staff and faculty in 2009.
Ying Yang, president of CSSA, said that there is higher turnout for the card this year than ever before. It is the program’s three-year anniversary.
“About 400 students have already purchased the discount card,” Yang said. When the program started in 2007, the group sold between 100 and 200 cards.
Yang attributes the enthusiasm to Pitt’s growing Chinese population and new methods of advertising.
“We advertised through other channels this year. Not just our e-mail list, but also our Facebook group and GPSA’s website,” Yang said, referring to the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly.
Yang said that 83 percent of buyers heard about the offer through Facebook.
The whole process is nonprofit, Yang said. The $3 and $5 charges go to cover card-printing fees. There is no annual fee for participating businesses.
Yang said CSSA borrowed the idea for the program from the Chinese Association at the University of Illinois.
“Illinois has a huge Chinese community,” Yang said. “We thought it would be a great idea to initiate the program here.”
Frank is a cutting edge social media, consumer discount program that makes saving money with great deals and promotions as easy a using a credit card. Frank features personalized business pages, powerful ‘real-time’ analytics, a network of other local businesses and the ability to update promotions at any time.
Wilmington, NC (PRWEB) January 12, 2010 — Frank, a new website and discount card system, is on a mission to increase exposure for communities of local businesses as well as help Frank’s friends (Consumers) find deals and save money. Frank is easy for shoppers and businesses to use plus it’s a low cost and effective addition to any company’s marketing plan using “non-traditional”, cutting edge ways of engaging consumers with businesses, businesses with other businesses by the power of social media.
Frank is is regularly updated with new perks and deals but instead of a book like you typically find in traditional forms of advertising, a card the size of a credit card is used to take advantage of Frank’s deals.
Here’s how Frank is bigger and better than coupon books:
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Becoming a friend of Frank is inexpensive and easy, plus the card is good for a whole year. The cards can be purchased directly from Frank’s site or through a fundraising group. Frank works with school districts, churches, and non-profit organizations for fundraising opportunities; this relationship is beneficial for Frank card holders, local businesses and groups who choose to participate in Frank fundraisers. Frank is a win win for everyone involved, “we are heavily involved in our community…supporting local businesses and building relationships through our efforts,” Frank CEO Greg Tumolo said. Frank is always looking for fundraising opportunities with schools, churches and clubs.
The Frank site can be used with iPhones, BlackBerrys, etc… Frank’s friends can log on to the site to view daily deals in real-time. To stay completely up-to-date with Frank’s latest deals, sign up to receive text messages and/or e-mails about deals. Frank also highlights businesses and special deals on popular social media sites including Twitter and Facebook. To make using Frank as easy as possible, all Frank businesses are tied into Google Maps so maps and directions are just a click away
 we are heavily involved in our community…supporting local businesses and building relationships through our efforts,” Frank CEO Greg Tumolo  |
When a business partners with Frank, the company gets its own business page on Frank’s site. The page can be personalized with company logo, contact information, pictures, videos, news and mostly importantly, Frank deals. Any business owner knows the importance of tracking ROI on a new marketing adventure. Frank’s powerful analytics make it easy for participating businesses to track activity on their business page such as how many of Frank’s friends have viewed and/or recommended the personalized business page.
Another benefit to using Frank is how easy it is to add and change deals on a regular basis. The more often new deals and free perks are added, the more often Frank’s friends will check back to the business page which also increases brand awareness.
Teaming up with Frank allows participating companies to network with other local businesses who use Frank; it’s a community of businesses using non-traditional means of promoting. This relationship makes it easy to share business ideas and even cross promote with other businesses. Plus, Frank’s business-to-business portal allows businesses who partner with Frank to offer deals especially for other business owners.
Frank adopted the llama as their logo. The llama (named Frank of course) was chosen because like Frank, llamas are typically very social and curious. Seeing Frank the friendly orange llama on the doors of a local business will signify Frank’s friends are welcome.
Right now Frank is only available in a few cities but will soon have friends all around the United States. For more information about Frank, becoming friends with Frank, or to get started promoting a business and increasing brand awareness, visit http://frankdeals.com. Also, be sure to find Frank on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Contact:
Greg Tumolo, CEO
Frank Deals
888-40-FRANK
By Erin Hitchcock – Williams Lake Tribune
Published: December 25, 2009 7:00 PM
Denny’s Restaurant in Williams Lake has so far raised between $800 and $1,000 worth of food for the Salvation Army Food Bank.
Denny’s manager Laurie McKenzie says the restaurant started collecting food and money for the food bank on Nov. 1, and will continue collecting until Dec. 31.
But on Thursday, Dec. 10 the donations that had so far been collected were taken to the Salvation Army, since Denny’s was running out of room to put them all.
With the help of Denny’s staff and customers, Salvation Army Captain Randy Kadonaga picked up the donations and packed them into a van before taking them to the Salvation Army to be sorted.
“Lots of presents were donated as well,” McKenzie says, adding that this year was the first year that Denny’s held a food and present drive for the Salvation Army.
McKenzie says Denny’s cook Helen MacDonald came up with the idea that instead of doing a gift exchange between staff this year, staff buy presents and food for the Salvation Army.
“When this was passed around to all of the staff, they all got excited and thought let’s take it a step further,” McKenzie says. “It worked out really, really well.”
Mckenzie says 26 Glendale Elementary School students from Linda Jantz’s Grade 3 and 4 class put in a huge effort, bringing in several cases of canned goods.
McKenzie says she thanks all of the kids who participated in Kids Eat Free Night by bringing in goodies, as well as all of Denny’s customers who also brought in donations to make the fundraiser a success.
She notes that a group of 31 kids brought in about $300, which was converted into 41 case lots of food.
“It’s been very, very successful,” she says.
She adds that all of the kids who participated were given a Kids Eat Free coupon.
All of the adults who participated were given a Salvation Army Red Bag, cup, and CD, as well as a Denny’s Restaurant VIP 20 per cent discount card that doesn’t expire until March 31.
“Because it was so successful, we’re going to do it again next year and look forward to all of our customers, especially the kids that participated, in being a part of it,” McKenzie says.
By Ben Baird, Press & Guide Newspapers
DEARBORN — Residents can get discounts from more than 200 local businesses and support area schools by investing in a new initiative called Shop Dearborn that’s designed to support the local economy.
Mallak Beydoun, president of MNB & Associates, said Shop Dearborn involves buying a $25 card that allows the holder to get significant savings on all sorts of products and services from area businesses.
“We’re trying to encourage local spending,” Beydoun said.
Proceeds from card sales will go to the Dearborn Education Foundation as a fundraiser, she said. She said it’s important to give back to the schools.
The cards are good for one year, she said.
“It offers significant discounts,” Beydoun said.
She said users can potentially save thousands of dollars. The cards make good gifts for the holidays, she said.
“It really is a gift that keeps on giving,” she said.
Her business has been putting together the program with the help of Dearborn High School students from an intro to marketing class, Beydoun said.
She took the idea of the initiative to the class’ teacher, Georgene Stergalas, who once taught her. Together they started brainstorming with the students and got it going, she said.
The students helped through the whole process from start to finish, she said.
Many businesses have begun participating in the program because it gives them lots of exposure, Beydoun said. She said it’s free for businesses to get included.
She said businesses can change the promotions they offer through Shop Dearborn at any time, and the changes are then automatically sent to card holders through e-mail.
Anyone interested in getting a card or more information can visit www.shop-dearborn.com. The Web site maintains a regularly updated list of participating businesses and their promotions.
A fully interactive Web site will replace the current site soon, Beydoun said. The new site will feature a blog, surveys, forums, and businesses displays.
The upgraded site should replace the temporary one by the end of the week, she said.
Any person is entitled to be given drugs at a pre-determined price regardless of their earnings, age or pre-existing conditions. There is a new prescription medicine discount card offered to any person that needs it, and it is free of charge! Access to medical care and rx access is here too. For too long, people with no presciption insurance have been paying full retail prices for their prescription medication however by way of this new program they will now have an advocate at their side. Prescription help is available.
There are quite a few organizations that have plans to slash the price of medicines to those Americans without health insurance coverage. This has developed into quite an opportunity to save health care dollars among cardholders in the entire 50 states. Commonly, these prescription medication discount cards are established at over 50 ,000 local and national pharmacies.
Quite a few non-profit organizations and clinics dole out the cards as a manner to fulfil a need and help their area throughout tough times. The discount cards have been mailed to regional United Way agencies, clinics, physician offices and pharmacies in addition to neighboring community health centers. These cards are not health insurance, but they can reduce the expense of your prescription medicine by up to 22 percent or more. The individual simply presents their card to the pharmacy after that they are assured that they will shell out either the pre-determined price or the pharmacy’s retail charge, whichever is lower.
There are individuals that are saving $15 -$40 on a prescription and that is cash they can expend to buy groceries, pay mortgage or pay the phone fees. People are furthermore able to receive the medicines they very much want. The cards are to be had at no cost to everybody and there is no constraint on how often they can be used.
An extra method that several companies are able to help uninsured citizens is through Prescription Assistance Programs. These plans are operated by every drug company and each one is a little distinctive. If a individual qualifies in spite of this, they will get their drugs at no fee. To be eligible the individual needs to be without health insurance and their household earnings can’t exceed specified guidelines.
There is a enormous need for medication assistance at this instant, particularly in view of the fact that a bunch of patients continue to suffer the loss of their jobs. A bunch of patients require assistance at this time more than ever.
OVIEDO – Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the flyers, coupons, frequent shopper cards and gift cards that you use to get the best deal. Now, you can fit all of these money-savers into one slot of your wallet – in the new MyCFLCard.
The card acts as a gift card, discount card, frequent shopper rewards card and cash-back rewards card at businesses throughout Central Florida. But this is more than just a savings card.
Each card has a serial number, so consumers can go to MyCFLCard.com, register their card, and then track everything linked to their cards.
Want to see which local restaurant will give you the best deal before going out on Friday night? Log in to the Web site and see what coupons are available or where you’ve earned the most cash-back points. Or, if you’ve loaded money onto the card, you can see your remaining balance.
With all the options that the MyCFLCard offers, there comes a price. The card costs consumers $19.95, a price that co-founder Tracy Squadrito said can be recouped through discounts and rewards in about two months.
What makes the MyCFLCard unique is not just the benefits it holds for consumers, but also the benefits that participating businesses will receive.
It costs a business $45 a month to sign up. That fee includes being on the Web site database, being featured on the MyCFLCard, and receiving the software to track how people are using the cards at the business.
Squadrito said the tracking feature is what makes this card so much more appealing to businesses than the Hometown Savings Card, which she shut down at the beginning of this year.
“With the Hometown Savings card, the residents liked it [but] the businesses didn’t because they couldn’t track anything; there’s no record at the end of the day.”
With this card, however, businesses not only can see exactly how and when consumers are using the card, but they can also log onto MyCFLCard.com anytime to change what discounts or offers they want to make available.
Businesses can also donate products or services for monthly giveaways, which consumers are entered to win whenever they swipe their cards.
“For a little bit of money, everybody’s winning together and [businesses] get big dollar advertising,” Squadrito said.
The card is also a fundraising opportunity; part of why the cards cost $19.95 is so that schools, organizations, churches and businesses can sell the cards as fundraisers and make $5 for each card sold. The fundraiser is similar to selling Entertainment Books, except the card only supports local businesses.
“People always tell me, ‘We want to stay local. We want to help someone who has a small business here in Oviedo,’ ” said Debbie Norton, co-founder of MyCFLCard.
Kathy Melecio, owner of Oviedo Jewelry and Pawn, said the card’s options and tracking software make it an attractive advertising choice for her business.
“I like it that it’s something that can be tracked,” Melecio said. “If you do an ad – if you don’t have a coupon or some way of tracking it – you have no idea if you’re getting something out of it or not. The card will be able to track that.”
Melecio said that she would probably offer the gift card option, as well as frequent shopper rewards. “There are a lot of different options for the businesses, so I think that’s advantageous,” she said. “I like the gift card option because everybody’s using gift cards now.
“(The) frequent shopper would be good because I see so many people in and out of here and I forget, but if they got that card and we could see that they’re frequent, then they could get a discount that someone else wouldn’t get.”
The Web site is up and running, and while Squadrito and Norton are still in the early stages of recruiting businesses, the database will open soon so consumers can start to see what local businesses will be featured on the card.
Consumers can start buying the MyCFLCard in early January.
Those interested in buying the card or fundraising with the card, or businesses looking to participate, can go to MyCFLCard.com or e-mail info@MyCFL-Card.com. MYCFLCard will also be hiring sales representatives; contact info@-MyCFLCard.com.
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