Looks Can Make Cards An Attractive Offering

  Consumers today can choose pink cellular phones and select images of their children as the phones' home screens. And most MP3 music players and covers come in a rainbow of colors and designs. Now, more financial institutions are finding appearance similarly helps differentiate their lines of card products from those of their competitors.
  Among the issuers that enable customers to design the looks of their own cards or pick from a selection of special card designs are First Hawaiian Bank, First National Bank of Omaha and Discover Financial Services. The issuers contend that customers with personalized cards use the plastic more often because of their attachments to the images on the card.
  One undisclosed bank found that offering designer cards helped drive up transaction volume and the size of card transactions.
  Other companies making headway in the card-personalization market include vendors, such as Serverside Group. The United Kingdom-based company has developed software that allows cardholders to use their home computers to upload their own images into a system that prints the card. And CreditCovers LLC, a Madison, Wis.-based start-up, is looking to capitalize on the image trend by selling designer covers for credit cards.
  Supporting the marketing trend behind the scenes is more-advanced technology from companies, such as Datacard Group, that allows for better image management and printing technology that makes personalization more viable (see sidebar, page 33).
  Card designs reflect consumers' styles and offer choice, which issuers are banking on to generate long-term loyalty. Having a card that shows a picture or design that has a personal connection to the cardholder keeps that card in the coveted "top-of-wallet" spot, observers say.
  "I've been waiting for this to happen," Jandos Rothstein, assistant professor of graphic design at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., says of the rise in card personalization. "It's a step in the direction of personalization as a way of carrying a card that has some affiliation that is more personally about you." Rothstein has written articles on card design and collects vintage credit cards.
  Offering design choices also can help issuers keep in tune with consumers' lifestyles. Conscious Enlightenment, which developed the Enlightenment Card with First Hawaiian Bank, has created eight card designs to cater to the broad range of consumers who are interested in a New Age-concept card, says Christopher Miglino, Conscious Enlightenment CEO. The Los Angeles-based company, which produces magazines in several major U.S. cities, works with its internal art and photography department to create the designs, which include the popular Ohm symbol, a yogi at sunset and a stone Buddha.
  But while design offerings are trendy, they come at a price. "The impact was cost," Miglino says, declining to reveal specific expenses. "We had to do a run of 16,000 cards, 2,000 for each design." He says it is not just the look of the card but how the image ties into the concept of the card, which targets consumers who are into yoga, the environment, healthy living and charitable causes.
  Besides the Conscious Enlightenment Card, First Hawaiian Bank offers 50 different card designs for its Aloha Airlines card and other card products, including images of a surfer, a ukulele and Hawaiian scenery, says Curt Otaguro, the bank's senior vice president and division manager of card services. "We think the consumer likes choice," he says. "If a card looks good and relates to the consumer, then they'll use it."
  DESIGN SPURS CHOICE?
  Card-marketing experts also say the look of the card influences usage. Jerry Cosgrove, president and CEO of Cosgrove Associates, a New York-based card-development and marketing company, says his firm's market testing has found that card design influences which card the customer most likely would select.
  Other research from Personix, a Fiserv Inc.-owned company that works with Serverside to help issuers develop personalized cards, also suggests that a significant number of consumers would be interested in designer cards (see chart on page 34). Personix claims one of its clients, which a spokesperson says is a top-100 bank, found that 95% of cardholders who sign up in branches choose a designer card. Since launching personalized cards, the issuer's card-activation rate has risen 9%, volume has increased from four transactions to five per month and the dollar value per transaction has increased by an average of 30%.
  CONSUMER INTEREST
  Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover Card Services also is finding that more consumers are selecting themed card designs instead of opting for plain credit cards. Discover's most popular card among its portfolio of 150 design options portrays the American flag, says Matt Sloan, Discover vice president of portfolio marketing. He says Discover sees a spike in demand for flag and other patriotic designs around the Fourth of July. The same holds true for its sports-themed cards when those sports are in season.
  Discover develops new card designs based on consumer interests, says Sloan. The card company considers the card-design option as part of its overall strategy to allow cardholders to create their own accounts, such as selecting their own payment-due dates and getting e-mail reminders, he says.
  While Sloan would not disclose the costs incurred by providing designer cards, he says the expense is worth the price. "Once people engage with the feature, it increases their loyalty to the card and really helps us differentiate Discover from other competition in the consumer's wallet," he says.
  Taking card personalization one step further, Serverside offers a Web-based program in which consumers can download their own photos to create customized payment card designs. The system works with Datacard card-manufacturing equipment and software to provide issuers the tools necessary to manage and print designer cards.
  Serverside, which started in 2003, signed its 40th issuer in June, according to Adam Elgar, the company's founder, president and CEO. He says the personalization trend helps improve the brand identity of the card.
  "When I look at the card that has my son Jack on it next to an issuer name, that's an extremely powerful association," says Elgar.
  CUSTOM IMAGES
  First National Bank of Omaha uses the Serverside product, along with Datacard's image-management and printing equipment, to enable its customers to design their own credit and prepaid gift cards.
  Scott McCormick, vice president of First National Merchant Services' prepaid solutions division, recounts a wedding he attended during which the bride and groom were given a prepaid card with their picture on it as a gift. At the reception the couple showed everyone the card.
  "This was powerful from an experience standpoint because when someone gets something unique, it has meaning to it," McCormick says. "And that's the reason we do it. The demand is impressive."
  The Serverside program that consumers use to personalize cards works just like adding an attachment to an e-mail message. Consumers browse for and select the image they want on the card from their computer hard drive.
  First National Bank of Omaha charges $5.95 for the personalization option, though McCormick would not disclose how many cards have been created with the program. The original price for the service was $8.95, but the bank lowered it in November to encourage more participation, he says.
  CreditCovers is a relatively new player on the card-design scene. The company was started by 20-something entrepreneur Anthony David Adams. He saw a demand in the market to personalize credit cards and has built a global business providing card covers that are sold in shops globally for $4.99 each.
  "We felt we could create another medium for customizing something people use every day: their credit cards," says Adams.
  The card covers are similar to "skins" for iPods, which cover the face of the card yet leave a box open for the embossed name and card number. Several banks in the United States and abroad have contacted Adams to help them develop card cover designs, though he would not divulge the bank names.
  ARTIST HELP
  And Adams has enlisted a roster of artists to develop the designs. Currently, the company sells nine designs. But this summer, New York fashion designer Matthew Langille, who has designed for Marc Jacobs and Norma Kamali, is creating a line of card covers for CreditCovers.
  "Putting my design on a credit card is a funny thing," Langille says. "It's funny because nowadays people are searching for ways to express themselves and distinguish their styles in whatever avenues they can." Langille says there is a need in the marketplace for consumers to be able to express themselves "through these mundane objects that everyone has and all look the same."
  Though it is unclear how many personalized cards are now in consumers' hands, market experts expect the trend to continue to gain traction. "Credit card customers are increasingly looking for ways to customize their product to meet their needs," says Discover's Sloan. "Card design does that, and we're pleased it's as popular as it is."
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