In our last report, we looked at the changing consumer needs in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
At iQuanti, we have been constantly monitoring the fluctuations in search demand to understand consumer priorities and help our clients adapt and win in this new normal. Here is an in-depth analysis of the rapid changes we have seen in the search trends for Credit Cards over the past 6-8 weeks, and our recommended course-of-action for financial marketers to effectively respond to the ‘new normal’.
THINK PIECE: Evolving Credit Card Search Trends
At a Glance:
This report is a part of iQuanti’s research series: “Responding to COVID-19: Tactics for Financial Marketers”. This report focuses on the credit card industry in the US and provides:
- Insights on shifting customer behavior trends
- Recommendations for acquisition marketing tactics that can be implemented to ensure marketing effectiveness during these uncertain times.
Some of our key findings from the report:
- Search demand for various credit card products has dropped through the COVID-19 crisis. However, we are seeing early signals of a marginal uptick in April.
- Search trends by categories vary. Travel and rewards cards have seen a significant slowdown, whereas the Balance Transfer category has not been affected as much.
- Credit card demand and usage is showing signs of slowing down as consumers’ saving/spending mix changes, similar to what we saw in 2008.
- iQuanti recommends credit card issuers must:
- Evaluate if their product positioning and value proposition remains relevant, through a better understanding of the changing user needs.
- Tighten targeting levers, and identify key categories (transactors/revolvers) that you want to focus on.
- Focus on existing bank customers to gain incremental creditworthy customers through analytics led qualification.
This report reflects our perspective as of late April 2020.
