Incentive - March 2008 - (Page 42)

2008 Incentive Gift Card Roundtable Hallmark Insights: Depending on the program, we do track it at the participant level, or they can go online and download their own report card or however they want to handle it. the recipient, be it their employees or their customer that they want to reward or incent. Extremely popular in the marketplace. How large is the incentive portion of gift card business for each of your companies? JC Penney: I don’t believe it is the largest side, because there is what I call the consumer arm, which is cards that JC Penney sells in their stores and online consumers, as well as the cards you have in other grocery and retail stores. Omaha Steaks: Our most popular channel right now for growth is online, but then our close second is the third party cards. Q One of the general trends we have been seeing and writing about for a couple of years in the incentive market is the boom in non-sales recognition programs. Are you seeing evidence of this in your own sales? Hallmark Insights: From our perspective, we are seeing that organizations understand that they need to have award vehicles that resonate with their team members. So they are trying to please boomers who are on their last years of service, and millennials, and the power that we offer is choice of great brands, and we work with very large organizations where the only award vehicle that is approved by the organization is a gift card-based program. And it is an extremely powerful incentive if you, the recipient, can go and choose a gift card that was not preselected, but one that is meaningful to you. And you just feel extra special in that if you want to do electronics you can go to your electronics retailer. If you want to get outdoor equipment, you can go to Bass Pro Shops. It’s very powerful. What are some of the top questions that incentive planners need to ask when selecting cards? JC Penney: The Incentive Gift Card Council—again, I throw that hat on every now Q Do any of you network branded cards? Q Bass Pro: I think that for most retailers, people are purchasing your closelooped brand of card for strictly the purpose of just that, to purchase your brand, and I think that network brand takes a little away from it. Q Going back to the survey we did in August, we saw that only about 30 percent of respondents used cobranded or customized cards. Are you finding more co-branding? Bass Pro: It is a huge deal for us at Bass Pro Shop incentives. We purchased our own customizing equipment about five years ago and we just recently updated the equipment to much quicker and faster machines, but our experience has been that people love the fact that you can co-brand that card and they get some credit for giving that card, and it has been a huge success for us. JC Penney: We have had a couple very nice opportunities that required the buying company’s logo or name on that card as well, and this is an important part of some of the things that we do. Also, with the e-mail certificates, there is a gift card as well. We do cobranding there, too. Omaha Steaks: We are able to actually co-brand our certificates right now. We are looking into bringing in equipment to do co-branding in-house, much like Bass Pro. We are looking into it, because we get a lot of requests for it. Hallmark Insights: This is one of the top requests from the larger corporations. The Fortune 100, the Fortune 500 clients, pretty much have the expectation that they want to work with great brands, and they love showing their brand alongside other great retail brands that are meaningful to Q Q For online, does that include both corporate and consumer? Omaha Steaks: Right, that is just anybody that can go to our Web site and they can purchase those. It is a good mix of both. What type of incentive programs do you find that your cards are being utilized in most, and also what demographic, if there is any particular demographic? Q “It is an extremely powerful incentive if you, the recipient, can go and choose a gift card that was not preselected” –Keith Fenhaus, Hallmark Insights Disney: Our incentive rewards are positioned for the high-end travel tier. However, with the inclusion of Disney stores, Adventures by Disney, Disney Theatrical, etc., we are really able to position our products and services into all layers and levels of incentive programs. JC Penney: As far as the demographics and programs, JC Penney reaches a wide demographic, but we see our card being used in employee recognition programs and consumer promotions. and then—did a paper on that, so there is some information out there on the IGCC Web site, but I think some of the things that we try to educate corporate clients about, for the best fit when we are talking to someone, is, we will ask about the location of the retail card, where are the retail stores located in relation to your recipients? Are there other places they can use the card? So is it online? Of late, I think buyers are paying attention to the terms and conditions of the card. How long is the card valid for use? We have all heard a lot about the laws pertaining 42 | Incentive | March 2008 | incentivemag.com http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - March 2008

Incentive - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note: Delivering on Diversity In The News Cover Story: Leveraging Diversity in the Workplace Incentive Interview: Paul Levesque on Why Awards Fail Case Study: AEIS’ Max!-imum Incentive Program Mine Employees’ Creativity with Innovation Incentives Incentive Must-Reads The Third Annual Gift Card Roundtable My Turn: Motivation or Bribery? Everybody Get Together In Her Shoes: Why Bosses Should Be Flexible Incentive Primer: Passport Problem-Solving potentials Here and Now Is CES Electronics Heaven? China and Crystal: More Than a Pretty Face Travel News Florida: What’s New on the Beach? Smooth Sailing for Incentive Cruising Come To Hawaii And Take It Fast Last Word: But Enough About You

Incentive - March 2008

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