“Innovation is well funded and maturing as a marketing discipline”, says Gartner’s 2019 CMO Brand Strategy and Innovation Survey, and we see that as great news. At Chaddsford Planning Associates, our long-established view has been that marketing is the creation of outstanding customer value. One...

Chaddsford Planning Associates once again chaired the Front Page Focus plenary session at the EBT Next Generation conference in Orlando.  The topic focused on the future of electronic benefits transfer (EBT) now that, 35 years after the first EBT demonstration project in Pennsylvania, all SNAP...

The Lobster is heralding the rebirth of Chaddsford Planning Associates’ Product  Marketing practice under the direction of Principal Director Nancy Bucceri. Initially, the practice will focus on providing advice on the marketing and sales of healthcare information technologies....

Now that the SNAP and WIC nutrition programs are finally rolled out using electronic benefits transfer technology as the benefit-delivery mechanism, the time has come to examine how else we can put this technology to use. The electronic payments industry, state and territorial governments, and the...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) this month proposed eliminating a loophole that allows states to make recipients of minimal amounts of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (welfare) benefits automatically eligible to participate in USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly...

A number of years ago, a financial-industry colleague of mine and I devised a consumer-finance alternative to check-cashing services, payday loans, and rent-to-own stores. The plan we developed was designed to provide a gateway to capital for consumers with limited assets and low income. Our inverse...

The oldest form of fraud (thinking that no one is watching you) is being defeated by modern technology (data analytics) employed by the Department of Agriculture as it oversees the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) program. In 2018,  the Food and Nutrition Service of the Department...

EBT The Next Generation  2019 Agenda Is Taking Shape The agenda for EBT the Next Generation is almost baked. The conference will take place on November 3 - 5 in Orlando, Florida Now in year 23 year, EBT-the Next Generation is the premier conference focused on the use of electronic payment technology...

The Federal Government Is Funding Implementation of an Effort to Reduce Recipient Fraud in the SNAP (formerly Food Stamp) Program The Agriculture Department, which administers the SNAP Program, announced this month the availability of a grant program for states. The purpose of the grants is to fund...

Adding value for SNAP shoppersSearch the Internet for apps related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as SNAP and formerly known as food stamps) and you are likely to find any number of them where as recently as five years ago you might have found none.Some of these apps may...

 EBT community came together to meet early SNAP issuance demand, necessitate by the government shutdown The EBT community is a public-private partnership of government agencies and companies that design, develop, implement and operate the complex systems that deliver food nutritional assistance...

A Christmas MemoryThe Lobster is taking a detour at this holiday season. Today I ask you to stop and help me commemorate the death of my uncle in World War II. Long-time readers of The Lobster will recall this post from its original run in December 2013.Over 400,000 Americans were killed during World...