Credit Card Marketing

How effective can a credit card be if you are not aware of its existence? To create awareness and attract customers, companies all over the world and in the UK resort to using advertising and marketing gimmicks. Some of the marketing strategies are traditional while others are ground-breaking. Credit card companies spend on various marketing vehicles like the television, Internet, direct mail and Magazines. In fact, the awareness and customer base increased for MasterCard after their effective and popular “priceless” advertisements. The return on investment is always in the form of a customer.

One of the new ways of attracting and keeping customers is through loyalty based programs. This is because consumer loyalty encompasses every effort related to building a long-lasting relationship with customers. If a credit card company can build loyalty, then not only will they retain the customer but also get many more customers. This is a tool that most marketers have started to use to build consumer loyalty through what is popularly known as the point-based loyalty program. But then loyalty or reward programs are bait and it is laid through various advertising mediums.

The most traditional means of marketing is through mail. Most of the time, you open a mailbox to find an irresistible offer from a credit card companies and the conversion rate is more than 30%. The psychology that credit card companies play on is that it is almost impossible to carry too much cash in your wallet. So the next best thing is plastic money. Since the advent of television and radio, the number of credit card advertisements has increased and so has the number of attractive offers. From no interest to cash back features and from 0%APR to rewards and loyalty programs, the credit card is becoming more customers need driven. During the same time marketing was also carried through magazines. Credit card companies even started attaching forms within the magazine as a perforated page that can be torn from the magazine, filled and sent to the company. The whole idea was to make the process easier and faster.

Although the marketing of credit cards continue in the electronic and print media, but the focus has changed considerably towards the online media. The online media or the Internet is a force to reckon with as more and more people are indulging in buying off the online stores than departmental store shelves. Online marketing is considerable easier because companies can now send mailers to people with links to their website. So existing and new customers can get to know about new products as well as compare it with all the old products.

Each credit card company today has its website, which is a powerful medium of offering a visitor all possible information regarding a particular card. It makes it easier for a visitor to compare the various credit cards, read review about particular cards over the Internet and make an informed choice. People can now fill the forms over the internet and even talk to sales people through Live Chat. Credit card marketing seems to have come of age!