Card Banking is Great?

I read this article recently. About the 5 key reasons why a card banker's job is great.

[Read it here: Bankcard Jobs News ::: Banking Career News ::: Cardgigs - The Payments Industry Career Hub ]

One year ago, I would have agreed whole-heartedly. Today, my nerves are shaken a little, with added fuel by horror stories of the 'firing squad' from the Big Boy in the business.

Do I still find a joy in cards & payments challenging and meaningful? Absolutely.

Is there a future for cards? Of course - as long as consumerism exists.

Will 'cards' be the growth engine for payments? Probably not. Other form factors will emerge and gradually replace the card, given the world's increasing reliance on 'virtual-ism'.

So, question to self: Should we all start looking for new jobs?

The decision is all yours.

Unsolicited credit card cheques to be banned in the UK

Consumers in Singapore are spoilt for choices, particularly in credit card marketing offers. In fact, the rules here are so relaxed, that card marketing practices will never be allowed in places such as the US or Euro-zone.

Case in point: When was the last time you received a cheque from your credit card bank giving you 'free' money? (On that note, please send me examples of the cheques you have, please.)

Such predatory marketing tactics will soon be banned in the UK. The Euro-zone will likely follow at some point.

Will Asia be next?

Read the news article here:
Unsolicited credit card cheques to be banned - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

The Changing Face of Loyalty in Payment Cards

Some time ago, I blogged about a soon-to-be-published whitepaper on the subject of loyalty in payment cards, and how commoditisation is going to change the playing field of how programs should be run.

The paper has been kindly picked up by VRL and will be published in abridged form in the latest issue of Cards International. The full-length paper can be found here on Insight's website.

All comments welcome.

"Pick a card! Any card!"

As a loyalty marketing practioner, you find the work hard, time-consuming, and sometimes unappreciated. However, as professionals, we strive to maintain sanity in a crazy world and find relevance in what we do. This also means looking towards the altruistic and take heart that what we do really made a difference in lives. Still, there are times when it is necessary to laugh at ourselves in the absurdity of the work we do. Here are a few gems I found on the web. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Credit Card Mailers: Straw Poll

Whenever someone inquires about my profession, the exchanges inevitably leads to the question of marketing mailers, those pieces of glossy, high-quality printed fliers and brochures that sells everything from low cost balance transfers, to the latest offers at named retailers.

To the marketer, they are precious pieces of articles that represent possible the only tangible form of direct communication from the card marketer to the consumer/cardholder. On the other hand, the everyday consumer tends to look upon them with disdain and sometimes annoyance.

I will attempt to do the first (at least, it is the first that I know of) scientific market research on what people actually do with their statement inserts (as it is known in the business).

Please help in the research by following the link and casting your vote:
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/47034/tqdcw

Hopefully, I can get some interesting results and share some insights on the phenomenon.

The Semiotics of Loyalty

Several weeks ago, I began the project of writing a whitepaper on loyalty. During the course of preparation, it occurred to me that the word loyalty means a multitude of things. In marketing, the very mention of loyalty seems to evoke much excitement. I have come to realise that even marketing professionals themselves tend to take the meaning of loyalty for granted.

Umberto Eco is a best-selling novelist, a renowned academic in the study of semiotics, and my favourite author. The rather obscure field of his expertise is about the study of signs and symbols, their meanings, and the way in which those meanings are conveyed. Broadly speaking, language and words are also signs and symbols on themselves. The most interesting aspect of this study is the transient nature of the interpretation of meaning. If we took this philosophical approach to the word loyalty, the discussion on its meaning become immensely interesting.

Loyalty means very different things to different parties in the loyalty value chain. It remains an illusive and multi-faceted concept in the business world. As a marketer who is endeared to the semiotics, I cannot help but believe that the we cannot take a laissez-faire approach to the definition of loyalty in the business context as we do in philosophy. There has been too much talk and not enough scientific discourse on the concept. Before we can all agree on what loyalty means, we cannot advance in the way loyalty marketing can be conducted.

The chairman of my former employer, Aneace Haddad (click here for his blog), had this to say after reviewing my whitepaper, "Maybe someone needs to provide a linguistic framework to set things straight from the beginning."

I hope my soon-to-be-published paper will be the beginning of our own industry advocacy to do exactly that.

The Semiotics Of Loyalty

View more documents from wwanling.

The Relevance of Loyalty in Credit Cards Today

A cursory check on the major banks in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and India revealed that almost all of the card products come with a default rewards program of some sorts. The most common form of rewards currency are points, rebates, and airline miles.

There was a time when loyalty programs were deemed the 'killer application' for credit cards. But there seems to be a growing proliferation of 'run-of-the-mill' programs.

What is the relevance of a card loyalty program to an issuer? Have we lost sight of the true business reasons for wanting a loyalty program in the first place?

In the next few weeks, I will be working on a white paper to explore this topic. In the meantime, do share with me your views.

The beginning of something... I think.

They say that procrastination is bad. I agree. I have long since wanted to start a blog on card and loyalty marketing issues rather than a "personal" blog with endless meanderings. But it never really got off the ground.

This is a bad sign of "having the means but lacking the will". So, forcing myself to leave meaningful footprint on the web, here's my maiden post.

The world of card marketing is crazy, and wonderful at the same time. Life would be boring without it.