Credit Card Needs

Determining the Needs of Potential Credit Card Customers

BBUS 3481: Marketing Research

Assignment 1: Secondary and Focus Group Research

Credit card usage represents one of the fastest growing financial channels in history as every day more and more Canadians move to plastic as their preferred form of purchasing. With over 74.5 million credit cards in circulation (Canadian Bankers Association, 2012), averaging over 2 for every Canadian and over $331 billion in retail sales in 2012 alone, the accessibility and ubiquity of credit cards has led to a fiercely competitive marketplace driven primarily by two principal issuers, VISA and MasterCard, competing over market share. These issuers are in turn driven by their affiliate issuers to provide new and interesting differentiators to encourage one affiliate to increase their share of the ever increasing market space at the expense of another.

Small and medium sized credit unions are historically served by CUETS Financial, a division of TD Bank Canada. CUETS is unique in that while it is largely a MasterCard issuer, TD Bank Canada is a VISA affiliate, leading to concerns that there will be an eventual migration of all MasterCard holders over to VISA. Despite these misgivings, many Credit Unions are now eager to offer a more comprehensive Credit Card offering with the strong market presence that TD Bank Canada offers.

Kootenay Savings is the 28th largest credit union in Canada (Credit Union Central of Canada, 2012) with 40,000 members spread through the West, North and East Kootenays of BC. Based in Trail, BC, Kootenay Savings currently offers only one credit card and is currently undertaking exercises to determine the impact of offering a wider credit card selection to its membership. Management has identified the credit card suite currently offered by CUETS as the preferred partner with a concern that the full suite represents too broad of a product range to offer an effective choice to the membership....