Personalized Banking Cards

This time, it’s personal

Extract from the "Review" (author: Frances Hedges)

In a society that is all about the individual, companies are competing to come up with new ways of providing a tailored offering, from customized ringtones to digital photo frames - and now even personalized bank cards.

Personalization is all around us, from the screensaver on our PC to the blog we’re updating constantly. It’s a trend that innovative companies are tapping into wherever they can in order to attract and retain customers in an increasingly competitive market. So could the latest development - personalized banking cards featuring a photograph selected by the individual - help banks get closer to their customers?

Personalized technology is so pervasive that it often goes unnoticed, yet much of it has only been around for a matter of years. We take it for granted that websites such as Amazon address us by name; we don’t think twice about downloading - or, better still, composing - ringtones for our cellphones; and some of us even put our faces on our postage stamps.

This may be part of a wider trend for conspicuous displays of individuality, such as tattoos and body piercings - a reaction (whether conscious or not) against the perception of a pervasive globalization that threatens to throw a blanket of uniformity over the world.

So why are modern consumers so determined to have their identity emblazoned on every available surface? "Young people are becoming more narcissistic," explains Dr David Holmes, Director of the Forensic Research Group, Psychology and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University. "What’s more, there’s an emerging generation of "digital natives" - people who’ve been brought up with technology and the options it offers - who see choice as something that they’re entitled to, not something that they have to earn or deserve."