Britain’s most powerful credit card brand
Britain’s most powerful credit card brand in 2007 was
Barclaycard, beating Capital One into second spot.
This is according to the Issuer Brand Index (IBI) monitored in Cardbeat ®, a syndicated market research tracking study run by the Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG). This study considers the strength of the brand to be driven by a combination of card ownership and usage, perceived brand quality, brand awareness, and general brand characteristics. The study evaluates the strength of 17 top UK credit card brands.
Highlights from the study include:
* Barclaycard is the most powerful UK card issuer brand beating Capital One into second spot. Its top position came as a result of having the highest brand awareness and second highest card usage ratings. Wide card ownership also contributed to Barclaycard capturing the number one spot.
* Lloyds TSB’s customers have higher outstanding balances and use their card more for purchases than any other brand
* Marks and Spencer’s card brand holds the top spot driven by high perceived quality and general brand characteristics but languishes at number 11 spot in the research due to its low card usage and moderate brand awareness.
* Egg’s card brand was at number 3 in terms of general brand characteristics, just behind the Co-op and Marks & Spencer’s card brand. It will be interesting to see if it has been adversely affected by the negative publicity following its “sacking” of unprofitable customers earlier this year, when the next study is carried out.
* MBNA and Barclaycard’s card brands are joint first in card ownership market share but with a marked difference in usage and brand awareness.
* The least widely held card brand tracked in our study was issued by the Post Office
Matt Simester, Director at Auriemma Consulting Group commented, ‘as the credit crunch continues to dominate the consumer agenda, a powerful brand is critical to maintaining high quality recruitment and retention. While consumers with a poor credit history will find it hard to move issuer, those with stronger credit histories will demand better quality propositions from their current provider. Pressure to reduce costs of servicing, higher average APRs and lower investment into marketing may also impact perceived brand quality this year. I anticipate that there will be a different set of winners and losers at the end of 2008.’
Methodology and detailed results
The Issuer Brand Index is designed to capture brand strength of top UK card issuers in 4 separate categories:
Card Usage – Captures share of usage in terms of spending volume and reported outstanding balances
Brand Awareness – Represents familiarity with the issuer’s brand name
Quality – The perceived quality of the product and customer service provided
Brand Characteristics – perceptions of the brand by both existing customers and non-owners
Issuer Brand Index: Top Ten Overall Ranking –
1. Barclaycard
2. Capital One
3. HBOS
4. Lloyds TSB
5. Natwest
6. HSBC
7. American Express
8. Egg
9. MBNA
10. Co-operative Bank