Golden Valley, Minn. ? After helping generations of homemakers collect sets of traditional flatware and dishes, the Betty Crocker catalog is taking a slightly different tack: selling trendier kitchen ware.

So along with Oneida knives and forks and English Rose tea sets, consumers leafing through the catalog now are finding spatulas that withstand high heat and stainless steel ball-tip whisks, some of the most popular new kitchen gadgets on the market. They’re also finding well-known kitchen brands including Oxo and KitchenAid.

Lincoln Davis, who is in charge of direct marketing for General Mills, shows some of the new items that can be purchased with Betty Crocker coupons at the General Mills headquarters in Golden Valley, Minn. The coupon program, now in its seventh decade, is among the longest-running loyalty programs in the country.

The changes are part of General Mills Corp.’s attempt to boost declining participation in its Betty Crocker Catalog Points program by making it more appealing to younger consumers.

The catalog’s target audience is women between the ages of 24 and 49, but the company says 60 percent of its customers, who clip coupons from General Mills products and redeem them for discounts on merchandise in the catalog, are at the high end of that age range or older.

“As we introduce new products, they are geared toward the younger end of that spectrum, but still have great appeal to people 45-plus,” said Lincoln Davis, who leads the company’s direct marketing.

The catalog also has a new “What is it?” explainer from Betty, who had a makeover herself in 1996. For example, Betty tells consumers that with the whisk, the extra weight of the balls makes the wires move independently, creating more mixing action that reaches the bowl’s edge.

The changes are putting the program back on the growth track, Davis said.

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The coupon program dates to 1931, when General Mills began tucking an offer for a free teaspoon into bags of Gold Medal flour and boxes of Wheaties, thinking it would be a good way to boost sales.

The response was so great, the company said, that by the next year General Mills was offering an entire set of flatware that could be purchased piece-by-piece with coupons plus a few cents.

The coupons were moved to the outside of packages in 1937, and by the 1940s, housewives around the country were cutting them out and mailing them in with a little money to build sets of flatware.

The Betty Crocker Catalog Points program became one of the longest-running loyalty programs in the country.

The coupons now are found on more than 200 General Mills food products, including Betty Crocker baking mixes, Cheerios, Hamburger Helper, Potato Buds, Pop Secret microwave popcorn and Gold Medal flour.

That’s more than 2 billion packages a year.

Consumers don’t have to collect coupon points to buy from the catalog, but without the coupons, they lose out on the discount.

Prices range from $5.25 plus 30 coupon points ($8.95 without points) for a silverplate fork or spoon to $229.95 plus 350 points ($385.95 without points) for a 16-piece set of Denby Harlequin dinnerware.

Ran Kivetz, a Columbia Business School professor who has studied loyalty programs, said the key to success in these programs was not to make awards too easy or too hard.

“You want some points, or some rewards, not to get redeemed,” Kivetz said. “But you don’t want too many points not to get redeemed because that means the program is not working or customers are not enticed.”