Customer cards a big hit with shoppers

Bielefeld, 21 June 2010 – The results of a recent TNS Emnid survey on cards and customer cards in Germany showed that on average Germans carry 4.2 cards in their purses and wallets – down from 4.5 cards in 2006. The clear favourite remains the EC payment card with 81 percent, while health insurance cards take second place with 77 percent. The PAYBACK card and credit cards offered by a range of companies are joint third with 32 percent.
 
According to these results, loyalty programmes schemes are still very popular in Germany. However, the vast majority of Germans now feel they have enough cards. 72 percent of respondents indicated that they do not intend to acquire or use any other cards. Nine percent of respondents would consider having Germany's rail network card, the BahnCard, making it the most likely addition to purses and wallets.
 
Younger consumers are particular fans of loyalty programmes. 45 percent of under-30s like them because of the savings they offer. In the opinion of those taking part in the survey, the most important characteristics of customer cards are their ability to be used in several shops – 68 percent of respondents consider this very or quite important – and their range of services, special offers and benefits specifically for card holders, which 62 percent feel is very or quite important.
 
The large number of loyalty programmes is clearly a problem. 71 percent of respondents find the multitude of cards confusing and fear they will not be able to keep track.
 
The PAYBACK card plays the biggest role on a day-to-day basis. 83 percent of respondents are familiar with PAYBACK, 39 percent feel PAYBACK offers the greatest benefits, and 27 percent say it is the most important bonus scheme for them. 58 percent consider PAYBACK to be Germany's leading bonus programme.

More than two-thirds of respondents (69 percent) find mailings from a loyalty programme of which they are members "very helpful and informative" or "partially helpful and informative". The only forms of advertising deemed to be more effective are inserts in newspapers and magazines (87 percent) and advertisements in newspapers and magazines (86 percent). Further down the list come online advertising, which 40 percent of respondents said was very or partially helpful and informative, and e-mail advertising (27 percent). Right at the bottom were telephone advertising to home phone numbers (twelve percent) and text message advertising (nine percent). PAYBACK customers are very receptive. Three-quarters (75 percent) of them say that the information they receive from Payback is of interest to them.
 
The survey was carried out over the phone in April and May 2010 by TNS Emnid Medien- und Sozialforschung GmbH on behalf of PAYBACK GmbH. 1,001 people over the age of 16 were questioned. The survey can be downloaded at www.tns-emnid.com and www.payback.net.