Since 2009, Chase had been issuing Chase Sapphire Preferred credit cards, but in 2016 it launched a new card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This indicates that the Sapphire Reserve would be a means of payment and loan extension. However, as the firm later realized, this novel card’s popularity was the additional advantages conferred to its holders, including points and miles (Grobert, 2016). Chase decided to focus on traveling and dining through the redemption of the points earned. The launching of the Reserve card resulted in high card requests due to the lucrative deals that accompanied this product (Kheel, 2020). Such deals included a bonus of 100,000 points for signing up, threefold points on dining and traveling, airport lounge memberships, security programs, and credits, which counterbalance a $450 annual fee (Kheel, 2020). Excited clients shared favorable terms and conditions of the arrival of Reserve cards on various social media platforms such as YouTube and Reddit.
Although Chase charged a high annual subscription fee ($450) similar to existing companies such as American Express and Citibank, they had been time-conscious in introducing the Sapphire Reserve card. The community of Reserve cardholders would help Chase in online marketing of the product while sharing exciting stories about the card’s benefits across platforms such as YouTube, and Instagram among other platforms (Grobert, 2016). For instance, Grobert (2016) reported that when the first cards were issued, users posted videos on YouTube showcasing these cards and acquired over 60,000 views. A thread on Reddit on the same had over 10,000 comments. This marketing method was advantageous to Chase since it was done at no cost. Moreover, the cardholders used the exact cards from the company hence promoting the information’s credibility (Grobert, 2016). Therefore, Chase does not have to spend most of its resources on advertising this card.
While Reserve was expected to record high usage among old population consumers, Chase established that most applications were from relatively young people. Economists opine that the widespread use of this card among millennials is Chase’s highest accomplishment (Grobert, 2016). Ordinarily, the young spenders would not care much about using their credit cards, but that was not the case with the Reserve cards. These contemporary cards now form part of the holders’ lifestyles, which informs its prevalent use (Shoates, 2016). Since Chase was to compete with major companies such as American Express, which had been operating for a long time, they had to invent other marketing approaches to match their competitors. When American Express started targeting millennials through the #AmexAccess campaign, Chase opted to counter this by devising the #SapphireOnLocation hashtag on Instagram. The use of #SapphireOnLocation would help gain access to the platform with over one billion users.
The use of Instagram via the #SapphireOnLocation platform seeks to spawn the platform’s community to increase awareness and extend the marketing grounds of Reserve card. Considering that Instagram has many users, Chase had to use different approaches to access a wider market. The company contracted social media influencers such as a popular photographer called Alice Gao, a Hong Kong national, a food and travel company called No Leftovers with a massive following on Instagram, and an American celebrity model by the name Chrissy Teigan. Using the hashtag #SapphireOnLocation, the three influencers were to share posts to create awareness of the product among uninformed followers. After that, interested customers would contact Chase to inquire about the card application.
When adopting the Reserve card, Chase chose to exploit the use of the online community to market the brand. Information sharing via YouTube channels, Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram, among other avenues promoted and boosted the company’s revenue. The use of #SapphireOnLocation on Instagram was effective in informing millennial customers of the Reserve card and underlined the need to strategize on means to market credit cards to young consumers who devote significant time to social media.
References
Grobert, S. (2016). How chase made the perfect high for credit card junkies. Web.
Kheel, J. (2020). Is the Chase Sapphire Reserve worth the annual fee? Web.
Shoates, K. (2016). What is a lifestyle brand? Web.