If credit card companies are known for anything, it's their marketing. This week, a new study from Mintel Compremedia, a marketing research firm, released a new report on total credit card mailing volumes.
Its most recent report measured 260 million credit card offers sent to American households in the past year. This was down by one-third from the year ago period, indicating that credit card companies are getting serious about finding new ways to reach consumers.
Persistent Change
Credit card companies exist in a business with persistent change. New marketing materials, new consumer needs, and new features are consistently rolled out to put a credit card in virtually all American wallets.
Analysts who studied the report have concluded that the industry is currently in a consolidation phase. Following a credit expansion after the Great Recession, which began in late 2007, the industry increased its marketing volumes to issue new cards in 2011 to 2012. Now, credit card offers are reaching Americans at the slowest pace since 2010.
Eager to repay balances from the Great Recession, credit card users only recently resumed normal spending patterns in May 2012. Even still, the chart below demonstrates just how eager credit card users are to keep their credit card balances at a manageable level.
Consumers are also wising up to credit cards and shopping for the best cards by feature, credit line, and processing network. Analysts think the fastest growing segment of the market, young professionals, are more inclined to search online for information about credit cards before completing a digital application. In recent years, credit card companies have shifted their advertising to encourage more people to complete applications online.