Marketing Your Credit Card Programs to Gen X
Written by Georgann Smith
A new report covered in the article Gen X Favors Credit, but Will Millennials Ever Drop Debit? claims “Gen X is now the leader in card ownership, as 83 percent own a Visa card, 69 percent own a MasterCard and 32 percent own an American Express card.”
In the past, Baby Boomers have held the highest percentage of ownership, causing credit card marketers to focus their campaigns on this demographic. With the shift in ownership, marketers must retool their campaigns and strategies to better influence the 32- to 48-year-old age groups.
As they do, it’s good to understand how Gen X consumers differ from those comprising other generations. According to PaymentSource, Baby Boomers require a high degree of personal touch points during financial transactions. For example, a Baby Boomer is more likely to go into his local service provider’s office to pay a bill than to use online bill pay or P2P technologies like Dwolla.
Millennials, or Gen Y, says PaymentSource would rather use technology to conduct all of their financial transactions, preferring almost no personal interaction. For example, Gen Y is more likely to chat online with their credit card’s customer service department vs. calling the issuer’s cardholder service line.