Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Wasteful marketing materials

Friday, September 04, 2009

Wasteful marketing materials

I find it wasteful for credit card companies to be sending the marketing materials. I believe that most customers hardly pay attention to them. It is costly to print and mail them.

The bank recover these cost through high interest charges and fees. If they look after the welfare of their customers, they should avoid these wastage and reduce their charges.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: From another perspective: the banks created jobs for the marketing people, copywriters, the publisher, the printer, and the postal services. The tied up through the banks in their marketing campaigns allow companies to leverage from the channels for advertising and therefore drawing attention to their shops, products or services with the various tied-ups.; September 04, 2009 11:12 PM
Anonymous said...: I agree with Anonymous at 11.12 pm...
If everybody only save and save without spending, the whole economy will be worse off, and everybody will suffer.

Mr Tan is a very noble and thrifty man. However if everyone is like Mr Tan, then I guess the economy is going to take a longer and harder time to progress.; September 05, 2009 12:33 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: There are better ways to spend money, such as employer more teachers and service workers (instead of pushing the work to the people) or giving more allowance to parents for their children.

Wasteful activities is not the best way to create jobs and business.; September 05, 2009 12:49 AM
Anonymous said...: They add cost and eats into the return of the products.
NTUC lately has been advertising and spending on marketing to rebrand . It is wasteful
and the only change is external like a change of clothing or a make over. They forgot the important change and that is the agents are still product pushers. As everyone knows product pushers don't add value instead they rob the clients. Advertising and marketing cost aggravates.
Expect worser return from their par products in the future because the cost is passed on to the consumers. The consumers are the suckers.; September 05, 2009 1:39 AM
Ghim Moh Resident said...: In the earlier days, banks are supposed to protect the wealth of its depositors. However, it is sad that in the present today’s world, its quite the opposite. Credit cards is an example.

To Anonymous said...September 04, 2009 11:12 PM , yes it created jobs for people in its marketing programs. However, you have to ask yourself, how many people actually benefit from this i.e how many jobs are created and how many people got into trouble from the use of credit cards. To the common people, will it be better if the resources used in paying for this marketing program be used to say give higher interest in deposits so that banks will get more deposits and can give out more loans to SMEs and big organizations which will result in more jobs for the common people. In other words, better allocation of resources.

To Anonymous said... September 05, 2009 12:33 AM , if everyone just spend and spend without saving, the future generations will suffer. We should spend within our means and save enough for the rainy days. The current situation in America is a very good example for us to see. Millions are unemployed now in America as a result of over-spending, the excess created over the years.

My advice is to avoid credit cards especially if you are young. Use debit cards, minus another bill to pay, why not. Saving is a virtue and you will need the money for the future, for your rainy day.; September 05, 2009 3:05 AM
Anonymous said...: Credit card companies use all means to entice people to spend money. So telemarketing and printing of attractive brochures are one of the many ways to do so.
For the junk mails received, I put them into the recycle bin for recycling.

starlight; September 05, 2009 9:08 AM
Vincent Teo said...: Use credit cards wisely. Some cards have features that provide generous benefits to you e.g. no annual fee, special discount on some products/services you use frequently. Set up a GIRO arrangement so that you never worry that you will miss the payment due. This way it works just like a debit card.

Most importantly, do not apply for too many credit cards. It is very difficult to keep track and when lost, can give you a lot or problems.; September 05, 2009 1:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Consumers must exercise discipline. For me, I always make a decision whether I want to spend on a item. Credit card is just a mean of payment instead of cash for convenience.; September 06, 2009 6:35 AM