Santa's sack was chock-full with promotional giveaways and the marketing men were in the parlour counting all their money. Some of those super salesmen were actually marketing money-of the plastic kind. Dangling on red carrots of cash refunds, holidays and gifts, they were tempting the thrifty to spend a little more or add another credit/ debit card to the flap in the wallet. Scratches on the magnetic tape could, for instance, win Christmas shoppers a trip overseas, provided, of course, that the purse was lighter by at least Rs 5,000.Which clearly indicates the future of plastic money will depend a good deal on innovative marketing. Credit card holders are a growing family, proliferating at the rate of 30 per cent a year. The number of credit card holders should, according to ICICI Personal Finance Services, grow to eight million by 2004 from 4.5 million now. Debit cards could reach out to all the roughly 187 million bank account holders, estimated in India. A mind-teaser on the Net tempts marketing men to test out their promotional strategems for credit cards. Investments on all that cash refund, rebates, prizes, grand drawing, advertising speciality items or trips can be weighed against the returns. Click `calculator' to find out if the carrots have been nibbled at, and chances are that they have been!
The freebies are designed to bring two kinds of returns, more cardholders and more frequent use of credit or debit cards. MasterCard and Visa and all their `participating banks' have had their promotional campaigns. American Express did its bit too.
The American Express New Gold Credit Card came with a `CashBack' offer. Cardholders were offered a two per cent cash refund on all card purchases. MasterCard tempted Christmas shoppers with prizes for using their credit cards. Cardholders were enticed into using their cards more frequently, with the prospect of winning `exciting prizes.' Visa had similar promotional programmes to both attract new membership and enhance card usage. The Visa `go-for-it' programme in November and December 2000 was targeted at potential Visa Credit and Visa Electron debit cardholders.
All of Visa's 14 principal member banks were part of the marketing initiative. Applicants for Visa Credit or Visa Electron cards had a chance to win a trip for two to the Sharjah Triangular one-day cricket series finals in April 2001. An entry form for the contest offered other excitements too, like gift vouchers from Titan and Jammin' at Crossroads.
Apart from the `Go-for-it' Contest, Visa International had its Magic Moments, as did MasterCard. The MasterCard Magic Moments were for Christmas shoppers in Delhi and Mumbai. The Visa Magic Moments were for Visa Electron debit cardholders in Mumbai, keen on a splurge between July 24 and September 24.
The joint Visa International and HDFC Bank campaign promoted the Visa Electron debit card and was focussed on enhancing its usage. Visa International claims that the promotional programme gave Indian consumers their first moments of magic. The MasterCard Magic Moments came three months later. The Visa International Magic Moments was offered during 12 randomly selected five-minute periods each day between July 24 and September 24, last year. Visa Electron debit cardholders got a full refund, regardless of the size of the purchases. So, the winner took it all, or did he? After all, the success of a promotional campaign rests on the returns per rupee of investment. The promotional rupee did roll. At the end of the programme, the number of HDFC Bank-Visa Electron International Debit Cards grew by 59 per cent!
The value of transactions on the debit cards shot up by 76 per cent. The volume of transactions jumped 50 per cent and the average spend per card went up by 17 per cent. No wonder MasterCard did a repeat performance on New Year's eve, for Santa's sack had loads of money in it, for men marketing plastics.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
