Product Development in the Credit Card Industry: an Application of Conjoint Analysis

Transcription

1 Product Development in the Credit Card Industry: an Application of Conjoint Analysis Autoria: André Luiz Roizman, Jorge Ferreira da Silva, Lenise Saraiva de Vasconcelos Costa The product development is fundamental to define marketing strategy in order to achieve competitive advantage. In this sense, the objective of this study is to propose a product design based on the definition, classification and evaluation of the main attributes and levels of the product by the consumers. Conjoint analysis theory is used to uncover the group of characteristics seen as desirable by credit cards consumers, and was applied in two steps: (1) the choice of the attributes to be evaluated by respondents and (2) the analysis of this evaluation. This last step allowed the identification of the product concept considered the most adequate, as a result of the stimuli combination that generated the highest utility level for respondents. The results show that the elimination of annuity payment is a trend, since price is the preferred attribute. On the other hand, offered benefits show that this attribute is sufficiently relevant because consumers are willing to pay higher annuities for some of them. Credit limit did not show the expected relevance, and brand was considered the least important attribute. Important refinements could be the adoption of social marketing associated with credit card services and the analysis by segments, considering more than one economic or demographic issue, in accordance with product managers' objective. 1 INTRODUCTION A credit card is a plastic document containing the user information that qualifies consumers to make commercial transactions in affiliated establishments. For the market, credit card is a way of payment whose use is growing in Brazil and around the world due to several positive factors, including ease-of-use, control, security and modernity. It offers advantages such as potential sales growth for the commercial establishment and purchase flexibility for the consumers. In Brazil, the credit card market has grown an average of 20% annually, gaining a significant place in the economy. The increased acceptance by establishments combined with a growing availability of products and constant technological advances have created a complex market of demanding consumers. On the other hand, credit card issuers want consumers to be well informed about credit cards services, market evolution, new products, purchase processes and technological improvements in this ever changing market. The predicted strong growth in this industry is mainly due to the substitution process of other payment methods, such as checks and cash. The technological advances allow credit card issuers to offer other functions, as personal identification and additional information about consumers. Due to its relevance, it is essential to deepen in the understanding of what in fact are the consumers' needs about credit cards. The main challenge of credit card issuers is to offer a product that creates competitive advantage, conquers and satisfies demanding consumers. This concern address to examine the consumers' satisfaction with the products offered; the possibility of a different offering to the market; the recognition of the most valuable benefits to the consumers; the desired credit limit; the price accepted by consumers; the best interest

2 rate to be charged; the difference among the brands. In short, to know the product that would satisfy all the previous consumers` needs. In this sense, the objective of this study is to propose a product design based on the definition, classification and evaluation of the main attributes and levels of the product by the consumers. The market global vision and the segments preferences were considered in order to allow managers to formulate strategies to conquer and to satisfy consumers, besides increasing companies' results. It is relevant to point out that the term product in this work encompasses its service component. 2

3 2 MARKETING IN SERVICES According to Boone & Kurtz (2001), the general definition of services corresponds to the intangible tasks that satisfy consumers' needs. According to Kotler (2000), service is an activity or benefit, essentially intangible, that one can provide to another and that does not result in the ownership of any goods. Sometimes, rendering services may be related to physical products. Activities such as depositing money in a bank, having the hair cut, traveling by airplane, fixing a car or using a credit card can involve the purchase of a service. The classification of services allows marketing professionals to group services with the same characteristics to develop adequate strategies for these groups of services. Kurtz & Clow (1998) proposed that the credit card service be classified in terms of the (1) nature of the organization, since it satisfies both individuals and businesses needs and is offered also by public as private institutions. This study only considered its use by individuals. Related to the (2) nature of the service, credit cards are a service rendered by means of a product (the plastic card) and are completely consumer oriented. The credit card issuer is always contacted to allow the transaction, although not present in the establishment at the moment of the service. In which they concern the (3) customer relationship, credit cards are considered a formality because the service is based on a contract where both parties' rights and obligations are defined. The formality also exists due to the collection of annuity, interest and charges for loss or theft protection. Considering that the service starts with the acquisition of the card, the consumer starts each purchase process and finishes the service by paying the invoice. Concerning to the (4) nature of the demand, normally, it does not exceed the production capacity since the card is requested after purchase decision. Also, when a new plastic card is requested, the credit card issuer and other agents have conditions to manufacture it because the demand fluctuation does not vary, with the exception to periods of sales campaign. In respect of (5) the package of services, credit card issuers provide multiple services and only one product. The credit card issuers offer a product to the market (plastic card) and multiple services to the consumers, such as the issuing of the card, the billing process and attendance. Moreover, other aggregate services, such as insurances, reserves and card replacement are also offered. As for the (6) units of services, consumers usually use the cards for a nondetermined period, with the option to stop at any time, but can use the service only for specific situations, as airline tickets or books online. It is difficult to define the equipment level of use because people can quantify these levels differently. In credit cards service, a point of sale - POS - is necessary. This piece of equipment is requested by an establishment to apply for authorization. They also can identify lost, stolen or illegal credit cards. POS transactions pass through a secured phone line and there is manual back up equipment to perform the transaction in case of problems. Related to the (7) customization, there are cards that offer different services according to consumer s profile. Because they are physically durable, they can last forever. However, loss, expiration and theft induce their replacement. The (8) delivery method of the service is by means of several credit card issuers and sold through different channels. Credit card issuers give the same type of service to all consumers, although the usage is individual referring to card emission, billing process and central office of attendance. Finally, the (9) capacity 3

4 allocation is the standard time spent in the delivering to consumers after the purchase request, or reserve of the product. Product Development Consumer satisfaction is one of the main concerns about developing and launching products and services on the market. New products are crucial to achieve success and increase profits in the organizations. Therefore, companies that do not develop new products can suffer from a decline in sales and profits, due to increased competition, changes in the market and technology or rival innovations (Urban & Hauser, 1993). Some studies by companies such as Booz, Allen and Hamilton, Inc. (1982), Conference Board (1986) and researchers of the Marketing Science Research (1990) concluded that about 25% to 35% of companies' revenues were based on products launched in the previous five years. So, to minimize the risk of failure of these products and services, companies must invest resources and time in their process of development. The development of new products can be motivated by several factors, such as seeking better financial results, sales and market growth, extensive competition between companies, product life cycle, rapid technological advances, globalization (entering new markets or defending current one), regulation that modifies the product, search for material cost reduction, innovation, demographic and life style changes, consumers needs, suppliers initiative and strategic alliances to better serve the market (Urban & Hauser, 1993). Considering that the product is the most important component in marketing mix, managers have a fundamental responsibility in the process of developing new products and service, which must be launched at the right moment and aggregate value for the consumers to cause a positive impression and strengthen the strategic position of the company. Otherwise, the company will not be competitive. To guarantee competitiveness and launching effectiveness, companies have adopted new approaches and techniques. Computational models ease attitudes regarding the product life cycle and decision-making process evaluations within this cycle (Lilien & Rangaswamy, 1998). Among several successful models for products launching, this study chose the Conjoint Analysis Method, which primary goal is to determine the best combination of consumers' attributes. It measures product preferences based on attributes and on the consumers` reactions to the alternatives offered, helping managers to know exactly what consumers need and desire. Important issues that must be observed when applying the Conjoint Analysis include the possibility of: trade-offs between attributes and benefits offered to consumers during the product design; broking down the product into attributes that are meaningful for consumers and operational by managers; describing of the product as combinations of attribute levels; synthesizing the product alternatives from these attribute levels; and description in graphical and verbal form (Lilien & Rangaswamy, 1998). The method is based on the consumer preference research and uses products previously offered for evaluation. Generally, the choice of the product attributes that compose the bundles is based on information depicted from consumers' focus groups, in-depth interviews with market specialists and product development teams or secondary sources. As the election 4

5 forms are not restricted, any combination of attributes and levels can be merged to achieve project success. Since the product is defined as a combination of attribute levels that are presented to the respondents, it's not reasonable to expect a respondent to evaluate all possible combination. So, this research employed a fractional factorial project with orthogonal combinations of attribute levels to reduce the number of combinations presented to the respondents. The unreliable alternatives generated were substituted for other combination of levels, with the careful not to duplicate any existing one or select other orthogonal combinations. The data collection is the result of the alternatives ranked in order of preference. Respondents are asked to evaluate trade-offs between the attributes of each combination and order the product combinations in a simple classification. To analyze data, the consumers' preferences on the attribute levels are broken down in a way that individual values of utility are calculated. By the sum of these utilities, the global utility functions of the levels are obtained, as well as the relative importance of each attribute. These functions allow consumers preferences to be estimated for all the products that derive from the combinations of levels and attributes proposals, even for those not evaluated directly. 5

6 3 METODOLOGY The study includes all the individual credit cards consumers of the state of Rio de Janeiro, regardless of the number of cards possessed by each one. The sample was chosen by convenience (non-probabilistic), for reasons of quick information retrieval and reduced cost, and data was collected in Also, only credit cards were considered, discarding debit, virtual and chip cards. The sample was composed by 137 respondents with distinct profiles as to number of cards possessed, brand, income, age, residence, gender, monthly average credit card expense and as percentage of monthly income spent on credit card. More than 40% of the respondents possess only one credit card and about 80% of them possess up to two credit cards. Visa represented 50% of the cards, followed by Mastercard, with more than 30%. Half of the respondents have a monthly income between R$ 2,000 and R$ 5,000 and 86% has an income between 1,000 R$ and R$ 10,000. Over a half of the respondents are 26 to 35 years old and more than 90% are 21 to 50 years old, 61% of those are men and 39% are women. About 75% of the respondents spend up to R$ 1,000 monthly with credit cards and 87% consume up to 30% of their monthly income with credit cards. About 60% of the respondents own a property, 80% own a vehicle and 95% have a job. Data collection was done by in-depth interviews, a focus group and a questionnaire. The indepth interviews were conducted with credit cards market specialists in order to select the attributes to be discussed in the focus group. The focus group was used to validate the main attributes of the product, as well to define the attribute levels used in the questionnaire. The consumer preference structure was made by means of the classification of the products in order of preference, based on pre-selected attributes and levels. Data was processed by means of the Conjoint Analysis method and SPSS 11.0 for windows to get the degree of importance of each attribute and the utilities of the respective levels. Finally, results were analyzed to find the products to be offered the consumers. As main limitations of the method, one can include the sample selection by convenience; the respondents difficulty in understanding the questionnaire by , despite the attachment containing instructions; and the risk of inadequate election of attributes by focus group, what certainly reflects in the relevance of the results. It is important to state that, since the product development is based on consumer needs and desires that can easily vary, the answers presented in this study must be considered only in the current context. The Election of Attributes and Levels The election of attributes and levels was based on in-depth interviews and a focus group to learn what is offered by credit card issuers that the consumers consider beyond their needs and desires related to the product. After the interview, fourteen attributes appeared, among which ten were chosen to be ranked by the focus group: price (annuity), interest rate, credit limit, credit card acceptability, brand, payment facility, product distribution, invoice, benefits offered and philanthropic organizations links. Table 1 shows the most important attributes for the eight respondents. With the exception of respondent 2 (R2), the four most chosen were offered benefits, price, credit limit and brand. 6

7 ATTRIBUTES R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Credit Card Acceptability Brand Product Distribution Payment Facility Invoice Credit Limit Price (Annuity) Offered Benefits Philantropic Organizations Links Interest Rate Table 1 Attributes Classification. The definition of the levels started with the brand attribute, immediately identified as Visa, Mastercard and American Express. For the attribute offered benefits, the focus group elected several benefits, as mileage program, card loss or theft insurance, life and vehicles insurance, card loss or theft reporting, emergency card replacement, cash advance, cinema, theater and restaurant reservations, medical and legal assistance, bail advance, trip tips, sending urgent messages and localization and return of lost luggage, which were grouped in three levels: mileage program, insurances and special services. The level mileage program corresponded to the self-explicated offered program; insurance included the vehicle, life, loss or theft insurance, lost luggage, medical and legal assistance; and special services referred to the loss or theft reporting, card replacement, cash and bail advance, sending of urgent messages, trip tips and reservations (cinema/theater/restaurant). Due to the difficulty of the group to define levels for the attributes Price and Credit Limit, the researcher accepted the suggestion to interview a small sample of 50 people with the questions "How much would you like to pay to use your credit card (annuity)?" and "What credit limits (maximum and minimum) would you like to have on your card?". Prices levels were defined taken in consideration that 32% of the respondents would like to pay up to R$ 30; 36% would pay from R$ 30 to R$ 60; and 32% accepted to pay from 60 to R$ R$ 120. Concerning the credit limit, 52% would accept a minimum up to R$ 1,500 and 55% would accept a maximum of over R$ 6,000. So, the attributes and levels stayed defined as Table 2, below. ATTRIBUTES LEVELS BRAND Visa Mastercard American Express PRICE (ANNUITY) Up to R$ From R$ to R$ From R$ to R$ LIMIT OF CREDIT Up to R$ 1, From R$ 1, to R$ 60, Over R$ 6, BENEFITS OFFERED Mileage Program Insurance Special Services Table 2 Attributes and Levels. 7

8 Selection of Purchase Options The choice of four attributes with three levels each leaded to a combination of 81 different profiles, reduced to nine by means of the fractional factorial project, since the technique of conjoint analysis allows the reduction of combinations without the loss of significant profiles. Checking for incongruities, it was decided to modify the second profile because it offered the maximum level of price and the minimum level of credit limit, and changed the minimum to intermediate limit level. Also, it was considered relevant to duplicate Profile 7, raising the attribute price to intermediate level and measuring to find out if the attributes therein were really relevant to the respondents. The defined profiles are the following: PROFILE 1 PROFILE 2 Brand American Express Brand American Express Price From R$ 30 to R$ 60 Price From R$ 60 to R$ 120 Credit Limit Over R$ 6,000 Credit Limit From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Benefits Mileage Program Benefits Insurance PROFILE 3 PROFILE 4 Brand Mastercard Brand Mastercard Price Up to R$ 30 Price From R$ 60 to R$ 120 Credit Limit Over R$ 6,000 Credit Limit From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Benefits Insurance Benefits Mileage Program PROFILE 5 PROFILE 6 Brand Mastercard Brand Visa Price From R$ 30 to R$ 60 Price From R$ 60 to R$ 120 Credit Limit Up to R$ 1,500 Credit Limit Over R$ 6,000 Benefits Special Services Benefits Special Services PROFILE 7 PROFILE 8 Brand Visa Brand American Express Price Up to R$ 30 Price Up to R$ 30 Credit Limit Up to R$ 1,500 Credit Limit From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Benefits Mileage Program Benefits Special Services PROFILE 9 PROFILE 10 Brand Visa Brand Visa Price From R$ 30 to R$ 60 Price From R$ 30 to R$ 60 Credit Limit From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Credit Limit Up to R$ 1,500 Benefits Insurance Benefits Mileage Program 8

9 4 RESULTS The answers to the questionnaires were tabulated using conjoint procedure, which calculates the partial utilities levels and the attributes relative importance through multiple regressions. The ideal result is presented in Table 3, below: CARDS BRAND PRICE CREDIT LIMIT OFFERED BENEFITS UTILITY RANKING 1 American Express From R$ 30 to R$ 60 Over R$ 6,000 Mileage Program 0, American Express From R$ 60 to R$ 120 From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Insurance -2, Mastercard Up to R$ 30 Over R$ 6,000 Insurance 1, Mastercard From R$ 60 to R$ 120 From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Mileage Program 0, Mastercard From R$ 30 to R$ 60 Up to R$ 1,500 Special Services -0, Visa From R$ 60 to R$ 120 Over R$ 6,000 Special Services -1, Visa Up to R$ 30 Up to R$ 1,500 Mileage Program 2, American Express Up to R$ 30 From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Special Services 0, Visa From R$ 30 to R$ 60 From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Insurance 0, Visa From R$ 30 to R$ 60 Up to R$ 1,500 Mileage Program 0, Ideal Card Visa Up to R$ 30 From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Mileage Program 3,3845 Table 3 Ideal Card for Total Sample Based on the previous table, the preferred card among the options offered was number 7. Since the ideal card, based on the sum of the major utilities of each attribute level, was the one with the brand Visa, the price up to R$ 30, the credit limit of R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 and the mileage program benefit, its only difference in relation to card number 7 is the credit limit. As it would be expected that the highest credit limit utility level would be preferred, a possible justification for the option for the intermediate level option may have been the difficulty by the focus group in defining levels observed. The price attribute had the highest relative importance, with 32.0%, followed by offered benefits attribute with 28.6%, credit limit with 21.4% and brand with 18.0% (Table 4). The result reflects exactly the Brazilian economic, political and social difficulties. The increasing cost of living, the decreased middle class income and the reduced purchasing power lead consumers to negotiate price reduction when possible, regardless of the offered quality. Especially in the credit card market, the results are similar to data collected in the interviews and the focus group and indicate a trend of eliminating annuity collection. This fact is confirmed by the level utilities normalization. Extremes can be seen in the attribute price, where up to R$ 30 level shows utility 1 and from R$ 60 to R$ 120 level shows utility 0. The offered benefits attribute is near to the price attribute based on the mileage program (utility of 0.85). This is an excellent benefit for people who travel and a good opportunity for people who like traveling but cannot afford it. The level was well evaluated due to the reduction of the number of miles to make a trip and the increase of options to accumulate miles, such as hotels reservations, rent of vehicles, insurances and premium in the credit card acquisition, among others. The increasing in the period of miles validity and the opportunity to repurchase miles for one year from the expiration date also contributed to the good evaluation. The exchange devaluation prejudiced this program; however, the new ways of getting miles supplied this 9

10 aspect. Finally, it is important to state that consumers prefer the trade off to pay annuity of R$ 30 to R$ 60, instead of up to R$ 30, to have the mileage program. The credit limit and the brand showed less relevance than the two attributes previously cited. It is important to state that the consumers would not like to have credit limit less than R$ 1,500 and are indifferent to Visa or Mastercard, rather than American Express. The low importance given to the brand indicates that this attribute is not sufficiently representative in the product purchase decision. The answers have shown that American Express has lower utility than the competitors. It may have been influenced by the cultural issue that the credit cards offered by American Express can only be acquired first class people. These results indicate that the company should address its strategy to consumer needs and desires, instead of developing campaigns demystifying this legend. ATTRIBUTES LEVELS PARTIAL UTILITY NORMALIZED UTILITY RELATIVE IMPORTANCE Visa 0,3001 0,60 BRAND Mastercard 0,2109 0,58 American Express (0,5109) 0,35 18,0% PRICE Up to R$ 30 1,5637 1,00 From R$ 30 to R$ 60 0,0568 0,53 From R$ 60 to R$ 120 (1,6204) 0,00 32,0% CREDIT LIMIT Up to R$ 1,500 (0,6748) 0,30 From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 0,4250 0,64 Over R$ ,2498 0,59 21,4% OFFERED BENEFITS Mileage Program 1,0957 0,85 Insurance (0,5839) 0,33 Special Services (0,5118) 0,35 28,6% Table 4 Results for Total Sample Finally, with the objective to illustrate the data contained in Table 4, the relative importance of the attributes and utilities levels for the total sample can be also seen in Graphics 4 to 7. 1,00 1,00 0,75 0,75 Utilities 0,50 Utilities 0,50 0,25 0,25 - Visa Mastercard American Express - From R$ 0 to R$ 30 From R$ 30 to R$ 60 From R$ 60 to R$ 120 Levels Levels Graphic 4 Brand Utility Graphic 5 Price Utility 10

11 1,00 1,00 0,75 0,75 Utilities 0,50 Utilities 0,50 0,25 0,25 - From R$ 0 to R$ 1,500 From R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 Over R$ 6,000 - Mileage Program Insurance Special Services Levels Levels Graphic 6 Credit Limit Utility Graphic 7 Offered Benefits Utility 11

12 5 COMMENTS One of the main concerns of a product manager is to continually create new opportunities to increase revenue. This study arrived at the conclusion that price is the preferred attribute for consumers in credit cards purchase process. The elimination of annuity payment is a trend, since people refuse to pay more than R$ 60. On the other hand, as the mileage program is the preferred benefit for the majority of the consumers, it may delay the elimination of annuities as the market accepts paying a higher price (from R$ 30 to R$ 60 x up to R$ 30) in exchange for this benefit. Insurance benefit was considered of little importance to consumers, perhaps because consumers, in general, already have life and vehicles insurance. Moreover, consumers tend to believe that they will not need to use legal and medical assistance, lost luggage and credit card loss or theft benefits. Consumers also indicated as little importance the special services benefit. This may have occurred because the option of advanced cinema/theater tickets and restaurant reservations is admittedly convenient, however still a novelty for many people. Another problem may be that people fear of informing their personal data through the internet. The analysis of the offered benefits shows that this attribute is sufficiently relevant because consumers are willing to pay higher annuities for some of them. Even though, new benefits must be discovered and offered to increase customer satisfaction. The credit limit did not show the expected relevance. The ideal card has the level from R$ 1,500 to R$ 6,000 as the most satisfactory one, what was not observed neither in the interviews nor in the focus group. A previously stated justification for the intermediate level option may be the difficulty in defining levels. The conclusion is that offering a high credit limit to consumers does not mean higher card sales. Perhaps this attribute is more related to the risk of the operation and delinquency than to a product sales argument, considering it is more important to the credit card issuers than to consumers. The brand was considered the least important attribute for consumers in the product purchase process. However, observing the levels, consumers prefer Visa or Mastercard to American Express. This attribute may not be so relevant to consumers because they can acquire any brand of credit card. The question is: if the brand is not an essential acquisition attribute and the consumers may acquire credit cards of any brand, why is American Express neglected? May be because the cultural issue that indicates that consumers see American Express as a first class brand. The suggestion is that the company would use the technique applied in this study to discover consumers' needs and desires to formulate a marketing strategy in accordingly. An alternative would be developing brand awareness actions in order to attract consumers, since all issuers offer similar benefits. Despite the cultural issue, the low relevance of this attribute in credit card acquisition process shows that there is an opportunity for American Express to penetrate the market. A suggestion concerning marketing strategy is the adoption of social marketing associated with credit card services. Managers could state the social marketing importance of using credit cards, and stimulate consumers to donate a percentage of each purchase to philanthropic institutions. This could increase sales and profits to the agents of the industry, also minimizing the annuity degree of importance to them. This study could also be 12

13 reproduced to include corporative, chip and virtual credit cards, due to the great possibility of appearing other product attributes and levels and varied profile definitions. Another important refinement could be the analysis by segments, considering more than one economic or demographic issue, in accordance with product managers' objective. It might be interesting to create a segment containing two classes: frequent travelers and infrequent travelers, regardless of age, gender, income or any other aspect. The analysis of these answers could be relevant. It is important to state that the expression frequent travelers would have to be well defined and quantified in order to minimize doubts and make the study viable. The segments could be created by means of conjoint analysis or clusters. Finally, this study only aimed at developing products based on consumers' needs and desires, with no concern about the offering of products from the credit card issuers' point of view. 13

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