
The Mastermind Behind Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card Sets Her Sights on Banking - uptown
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-02/the-mastermind-behind-chase-s-industry-changing-sapphire-reserve-card-sets-her-sights-on-banking
======
mter
I'm not sure if it's just the people I work with, or if chase has a problem
because credit card ownership has changed. I don't use credit cards in the
same way as parents where I'd have 1 card then make all of my charges on it.

For example: instead of making the csr my only card, I have the amazon card
for 5% back on a.com. I have the csr for 3% on restaurants/travel which covers
lunch/dinner + traveling and the 2.5% usaa card for everything else. Online
bill payment and auto debit has really made it less annoying to have multiple
cards.

The bad part right now for these cards is that if they slash their rewards,
they'll just lose all of their customers because we have no real loyalty to
them.

~~~
8ytecoder
With mobile wallets this will get even easier. I keep my brand specific cards
in Apple Pay and don't even carry it anymore.

------
ddaygold
There was an interesting story going around the desk December 2016. The head
trader was laughing and shaking his head about [1], JP's $200MM write down on
the card. He then turned to the younger (millenial-aged) traders to ask if
they had it. They all did.

Perhaps JP is taking a calculated risk? Perhaps they created a $200 buck
giveaway? I don't know much about consumer lending, but it seems like somebody
convinced a management comittee that it's a money maker.

What's the play? Gradually reduce benefits and hope that switching friction
leaves enough people on the card to make it up in fees? Is it just a straight
forward transfer from merchant fees to card holders? Is it driven by wealth
disparity: the higher income people likely to be enticed by the card are such
a large proportion of the money flow (and therefore fees) that they are a
critical target? Is it millennial hysteria?

[1] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-06/dimon-
say...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-06/dimon-says-new-
card-cuts-profit-by-up-to-300-million-in-quarter)

~~~
bonestamp2
I think it's a lot of these things. The other thing not mentioned is "Status".
When you hand over that metal card you feel special, sometimes the person
receiving the card comments on its weight or its thickness. If not
consciously, at least subconsciously this is a card that rewards your pleasure
centers when you use it. There's no doubt I use it more than any of my other
cards. My guess is they're crushing it on fees and giving ~40% of those earned
fees back to the cardholder as benefits.

~~~
pricetag
How often do you get people commenting on the weight of the card and where do
you live? I have the Amex platinum and the CSR and honestly I was concerned
that they’d draw too much attention.

They haven’t, and I’m happy about that. I suspect it’s because I’m in the bay
area and both of those cards are common out here.

~~~
bonestamp2
I live in one of the wealthiest parts of LA and I get comments on it a few
times a month. But this area is old money so a lot of the rich people here
don't have the latest thing (unless it's a car) -- in the bay area I'm not
surprised it's common. I also have the Amex Platinum and it gets about the
same number of comments. When I travel, especially outside the US, I get
comments on it about 30% of time I use it! lol. Metal cards are extremely
rare, if non-existant, outside the US.

------
thisisit
> 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?

------
Finnucane
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.'

~~~
foota
High touch means talking to people.

~~~
Finnucane
Yeah, I get that. But she couldn’t just say that, could she? She had to have
some dumbass business jargon.

------
didgeoridoo
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...](https://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/redeeming-chase-ultimate-rewards-
points-for-maximum-value/)

~~~
dang
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.

~~~
didgeoridoo
(I’m only responding because Dan getting involved in the conversation is
equivalent to the bouncer at the bar putting his hand on your shoulder).

My target was inappropriate. The snark should have been directed at the author
of the submarine PR advertisement, not the marketing executive. I believe
articles like this, which are barely more than corporate press releases, are
more damaging to the community than the loose language I employed.

The real problem with this piece is that it doesn’t say anything interesting
about the successful CSR marketing campaign, and instead positions it as:

1) Chase REALLY listens to its customers! Isn’t that great? Especially you
millennials!

2) Look at these CRAZY deals! What a bargain! You’re nuts not to get in on
this!

This piece is thus uninteresting, and deserves the snark. The exec mentioned
within it does not. (At least not yet — let’s see what happens with churn over
the next 5 years).

~~~
dang
Since Scott already replied, now you've got two bouncers.

The trouble with what you've said here is that even if you're right about the
article, it's easy to make your points without doing damage to HN. It simply
takes a will to do it and a willingness to wait a little, to make it past the
reflexive phase where the snark enzymes kick in.

That aside, there's another problem with your argument: if it's right, it's
too right, because the same observation applies to nearly all media pieces.
This sucks, but it is a cost of doing business on the internet (probably
literally). If we focus on these annoyances, we only deprive ourselves of
curious discussion. I'd say the guideline to apply here is the following one,
translated to the article level:

 _Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone
says, not a weaker one that 's easier to criticize._

In other words, please respond to the most interesting things in an article,
not less interesting things that are easier to criticize. If there are no
interesting things, that's different, but then you should flag the submission.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

------
hkmurakami
What a fluff piece. Strong sign ups driven by 100,000 bonus points doesn't
prove anything much regarding the card's ability to retain its users. They
gloss over the actual outcomes of the bank's efforts to reduce attrition, then
provide very little in the way of what they're actual going to do differently
with their retail banking division.

~~~
astura
Especially since, last I heard, they are still trying to figure out how to
make money from the Sapphire Reserve.

[http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/28/sapphire-
rese...](http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/28/sapphire-reserve-
cards-arent-very-rewarding-for-j-p-morgan.html)

------
cthalupa
"Mastermind" \- giving away a ton of points for a card that is doing it's best
to be an Amex Platinum?

I don't see how "copy the most successful prestige card" and "Give a huge
point bonus higher in value to the consumer than the cost of the card to the
consumer" is a mastermind strategy.

~~~
matte_black
It’s anecdotal but Chase Sapphire Reserve is easily the best card I own and I
have an Amex Platinum.

~~~
kilroy123
How so?

~~~
matte_black
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.

