Incentive Magazine published “The Life Cycle of an Incentive Gift Card” in the fall of 2011, in both print and online versions. This article is an in-depth look into how card features such as value, acceptance (open, multi-merchant or single-merchant) and plastic design can affect the longevity and use of a gift card. InteliSpend’s Betty Weinkle, former Incentive Gift Card Council president, was a contributor. Selected article quotes from the article are provided below.
Weinkle on card production:
[InteliSpend has a system where, when an order comes in,] “We emboss the card number, put on an individual’s name and a message—“Congratulations,” “Happy Shopping,” whatever—and it gets printed and shipped within 48 hours.”
Weinkle on retailer filters:
“We use incentive research to inform us when we build a card with a client. We want to guide the spend so that it supports everything incentive research tells us is important—awards that are free of guilt, possess trophy value, and garner lasting impact. We don’t want the reward used for light bulbs and dog food.”
Weinkle on card tracking:
“We can tell a client with a reward card usable at 200 places that the top 20 percent spent it on travel-related items, and maybe there’s an opportunity to do a promotion that focuses on travel reward cards going forward. That’s what moves the needle. Business intelligence on the back end helps create laser-focused rewards or incentives as the cardholder relationship continues.”
To view the Incentive Magazine’s complete gift card life cycle article, visit incentivemag.com [http://www.incentivemag.com/Gift-Card-Programs/Prepaid/Articles/The-Life-Cycle-of-an-Incentive-Gift-Card/].