MasterCard Inc.'s consulting unit will announce today a research offering on cardholder attitudes designed to let issuers benchmark performance against one another and adjust their strategies.
Based on a survey panel of about 40,000, the research makes possible finely detailed assessments of consumer preferences regarding payment modes and the products offered by different issuers, MasterCard Advisors said.
Typical national consumer samples of 1,500 or so are not suitable for "statistically significant reads" on the questions the new research examines, said Greg Howes, an executive at MasterCard Advisors, which manages the data in partnership with Ipsos, the French polling company.
In the past MasterCard Advisors did such comparative research by using what Mr. Howes termed a "consortium approach."
The group "relied on those issuers who had an interest in the information providing us their cardholder list, or a subset of their cardholder list and then" fielded a survey and distributed results among the participants, he said. "What you get back is heavily influenced by those issuers who happen to decide to participate."
MasterCard Advisors first fielded mail surveys for the research in the second quarter last year, and it recently finished updating the data with another round of surveys. The group also contacted new consumers to replace respondents who did not reply to the second round of surveys.
MasterCard Advisors plans to continue refreshing the data in this way annually, while tapping the panel for additional information with interim surveys, such as sweeps targeting small-business owners.
"The panel is a living, breathing resource," Mr. Howes said. It is something "we own and control."
The panel data makes it "possible for us to understand … what's the likelihood" for a particular issuer's product to be a consumer's "primary card. And if it's not the primary card, what is the primary card — what are the characteristics associated with that individual cardholder or the cards that the individual issuer is competing against."
Overall, Mr. Howes said, the data showed that "about two-thirds of credit card … purchasing … happened on the primary card," which he said was consistent with prior research.
"So being top-of-wallet is a very important dimension in being successful with your clients," he said.
Still, Mr. Howes said he does not expect the information to steer all issuers toward identical strategies.
"That's almost never the way this plays out," he said. "Potential cardholders out there have different characteristics … . Really what we are doing as far as information is supporting the card issuer's formulating strategy about which portions of the marketplace" to target. "And frankly a big dimension of that is where they come from. … Certain issuers, as a result of their strategy, have focused on certain types of cardholders" — for example, people who may value rewards programs or large credit lines, he said.
MasterCard Advisors will sell the research through subscription arrangements under which issuers will have the option of access to raw panel data.
During the next six months, MasterCard Advisors expects to distribute studies focusing on: customer satisfaction and loyalty, debit and other payment choices, rewards, consumer spending by product, small-business attitudes, and segmentation among cardholders.
MasterCard Advisors is not a significant source of revenues for its Purchase, N.Y., parent, but the company regards the unit as crucial for distinguishing itself from competing networks.
