The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking • Hacker News Board

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#21

Post by mabbo » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 3:42 AM UTC

didgeoridoo wrote: post #4

So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450? (100k points at around $0.02 per point [0] plus $300 of travel credit) Also, you had to go on a “listening tour” to discover that wealthy young professionals enjoy traveling and eating at restaurants? [0]: https://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/redeeming-chase-ultimate-re...

> So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450?

They've done the math.

They know how quickly the points will be spent (slowly). They probably have a deal that when you buy something with points, they don't have to pay the company itself for say 6 months, or maybe they get a discount on the service like 15% off. They could even decrease the value of points over time.

They also know that you'll renew, and they won't have to give you $2000 worth of points again. They know the probability of renewal for each customer, each year. Each time you do, the deal gets sweeter for them.

That's how someone can "give you $2300 for $450" and still make money.

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#22

Post by thisisit » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 3:53 AM UTC

> Something that offered flexible rewards for the categories they cared about: dining and travel.

So, the article's posit is that millennials care about these two things hence the card sold well. Were there no cards which covered this category? Was it only traveling and fueling which earned reward points?

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#23

Post by AFNobody » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 4:00 AM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #21

didgeoridoo wrote: post #4

So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450? (100k points at around $0.02 per point [0] plus $300 of travel credit) Also, you had to go on a “listening tour” to discover that wealthy young professionals enjoy traveling and eating at restaurants? [0]: https://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/redeeming-chase-ultimate-re...

> So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450? They've done the math. They know how quickly the points will be spent (slowly). They probably have a deal that when you buy something with points, they don't have to pay the company itself for say 6 months, or maybe they get a discount on the service like 15% off. They could even decrease the value of points over time. They also know that you'll ren…

/r/Churning

For some of us, taking VC/marketing money and laughing all the way to the bank is a hobby.

I didn't renew my CSR or 3 other cards I had with chase. I walked away with ~$5k in benefits for ~$700. That doesn't even get into the free $$ from a bank account or the other stuff I've done in the past 12 months.

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#24

Post by Finnucane » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 4:04 AM UTC

It may be that I am too old for this, but when I go to the bank I do not want a 'high touch' experience. I'm reasonably certain about that. No matter how 'interactive' it is. I'd really prefer a 'no touch' experience. One where I settle for old school 'talking to the guy at the bank.'

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#25

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 4:30 AM UTC

matte_black wrote: post #15

kilroy123 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so?

There’s endless articles comparing the two online but to give my personal input I find quite a few of the perks Amex Platinum offers really don’t matter to me, and the reward points and travel credit for Chase Sapphire Reserve are just way better.

[deleted]

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#26

Post by patio11 » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 4:46 AM UTC

didgeoridoo wrote: post #4

So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450? (100k points at around $0.02 per point [0] plus $300 of travel credit) Also, you had to go on a “listening tour” to discover that wealthy young professionals enjoy traveling and eating at restaurants? [0]: https://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/redeeming-chase-ultimate-re...

Anecdote: she designed a program which went from 0 to "in the pockets of literally over 90% of SFBA professionals who've eaten with me in the last 12 months", in under a year, and when I ask about it every last one of them said it was their main card. You know the line from the Social Network? If it were as simple as outspending Amex, you would have outspent Amex.

Middlebrow dismissal all you want; this was one of the biggest coups in consumer banking in the last 20 years. (The LTV of a premium credit card gets into the five figure region.)

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#27

Post by bsder » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 4:51 AM UTC

perseusprime11 wrote: post #19

didgeoridoo wrote: post #4

So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450? (100k points at around $0.02 per point [0] plus $300 of travel credit) Also, you had to go on a “listening tour” to discover that wealthy young professionals enjoy traveling and eating at restaurants? [0]: https://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/redeeming-chase-ultimate-re...

They beat amex at their own game. That’s a big deal.

AMEX basically shot themselves in the foot.

AMEX had one of the highest renewal fees for users and one of the highest transaction fees for vendors.

Consequently, they lost the ubiquity required to be a useful credit card and wound up in a downward spiral positive feedback loop.

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#28

Post by patio11 » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 4:54 AM UTC

specialp wrote: post #10

danso wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was simply a matter of giving away benefits and points for free, why is it (as alleged by the OP) that Chase/JP Morgan managed to such a major encroachment into the premium market due to the Sapphire? Sure, “anyone” can brainstorm a benefits package and viral branding and yet Chase seems to have dominated this phase at the particular moment.

Because they were giving people $1500 to sign up for their card effectively. I am one of those people that signed up. I signed up for no reason other than I am getting a tremendous amount more than what I am paying for. Last December Chase announced that they lost about 2-300 million off their profits due to the generous promotion. If I taped a dollar bill to every can of Coke and sold them for 50 cents and the sales…

If I taped a dollar bill to every can of Coke and sold them for 50 cents and the sales of Coke exploded, would you say I put a marketing coup on Pepsi?

This depends on whether you sell cans of Coke (boring) or convert people into Coke drinkers (very interesting to Coke).

Chase invested $X to, effectively, purchase a portfolio of new users. Some members of that portfolio will be worth less than the average cost of acquisition. Some members will be worth much, much, much more.

"Banks are full of dumb people who are bad at math" is one of hackers' common beliefs which is not just a vexatious tribal marker but also a really you-have-to-turn-off-your-abilities-to-perceive-the-world-truthfully-to-believe-this vexatious tribal marker.

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#29

Post by oh_sigh » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:10 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #26

didgeoridoo wrote: post #4

So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450? (100k points at around $0.02 per point [0] plus $300 of travel credit) Also, you had to go on a “listening tour” to discover that wealthy young professionals enjoy traveling and eating at restaurants? [0]: https://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/redeeming-chase-ultimate-re...

Anecdote: she designed a program which went from 0 to "in the pockets of literally over 90% of SFBA professionals who've eaten with me in the last 12 months", in under a year, and when I ask about it every last one of them said it was their main card. You know the line from the Social Network? If it were as simple as outspending Amex, you would have outspent Amex. Middlebrow dismissal all you want; this was one of th…

Yes, CSR is hot, but it did cause them to take a $300M profit hit, and their dominance will only last until the next bank offers insane handouts like chase did.

Re: The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking

#30

Post by dang » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:30 AM UTC

didgeoridoo wrote: post #4

So she’s a marketing genius for selling $2300 of rewards for $450? (100k points at around $0.02 per point [0] plus $300 of travel credit) Also, you had to go on a “listening tour” to discover that wealthy young professionals enjoy traveling and eating at restaurants? [0]: https://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/redeeming-chase-ultimate-re...

This sort of shallow, hasty dismissal of someone else's work is just the kind of comment we're hoping to convince people to pause before posting here—and then not post. Would you please not do this in the future? It's easy to convert this kind of bad comment into a good one: instead of acting like you know someone's work better than they do, post your points as respectful questions.

The odds are that a hasty internet dismissal is missing something, and even if it isn't, it damages the conversation culture to snark this way. The kind of comment we want on HN comes from reflection, not reflex.