Who is Ben Grant?
JP Morgan Chase & Co. is tackling competitors head-on, even taking a page from Discover’s marketing playbook by using a social-media-based spokesperson in its latest marketing effort and using direct comparison to tout its credit card rewards program.
Chase’s recent TV ads for the Chase Freedom credit card, which features a cash-back rewards program, take direct aim at Discover Financial Service’s Cashback Rewards program, pointedly noting that cardholders can earn more money from Freedom because Discover has a $300 cap on its rewards-qualifying purchases.
Discover declined to comment on the Chase ads
Both cards offer 5% cash back at select merchants and both card programs change the merchant categories in which cardholders can earn rewards each quarter.
In its new ads Chase is using its recently introduced Freedom spokesperson, a trendy character named Ben Grant, whose “goal in life is to make sure cardholders are earning all the cash back they can,” Matt Kane, general manager of Chase Card Services, tells PaymentsSource. The Ben Grant campaign launched in mid-September and will run indefinitely, he says.
Direct comparison with rivals is a new approach for Chase, Kane acknowledges.
Analysts say the competition is clearly heating up among issuers to snare affluent cardholders who routinely spend on their cards to get rewards and other perks. And going head to head with products is the new norm.
“We’ve seen a shift towards much more aggressive marketing strategies, which has been driven by Chase,” Andrew Davidson, senior vice president at Mintel Comperemedia, tells PaymentsSource.
He notes that the arena of credit card customer acquisition has become an “extremely competitive environment” as direct mail volumes have increased. Issuers mailed 1.3 billion card offers during the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up 31.6% from 988 million in the same quarter of 2010. The latest numbers mark the eighth consecutive quarter of increases in direct mail credit card offers, Davidson says.
And while turning more aggressive, issuers like Chase are also using social media in new ways to connect with consumers, observers say.
“In terms of using characters in social media, companies are trying to build brand personalities and hoping it becomes someone that the consumer can in some way connect with [on an emotional level,]” says Linda Tuncay Zayer, associate professor of marketing at Loyola University in Chicago.
Building that connection with customers is what will set one credit card company apart from others, she says, acknowledging that companies pump millions of dollars into marketing because brand loyalty is so important to business. Those efforts are especially important to banks and financial services companies today because consumers have such a negative sentiment towards them, she adds. “They need to do some work on building those connections with customers who may have felt jaded,” she says. “That emotional connection is what’s going to earn that loyalty.”
Chase also notes that using a spokesperson in social media helps connect with consumers. “Leveraging a spokesperson really allows us to humanize the campaign,” says Kane. “It’s a very competitive landscape and we needed something to break through,”
Chase is not the first card company to boost its marketing using social media. Discover’s “Peggy” character, which Tweets his own updates in broken English on Twitter and is featured on several Facebook pages, has taken on a life of his own, gaining popularity on social media sites like YouTube and on TV (
Visa Inc. also is fueling its latest Super Bowl sweepstakes with social media by using the medium to expand on the storyline and characters of its “Ned” TV commercials, which tell the story of winning 10 tickets to the event (
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