Introducing the Facebook Card, a New Type of Gift Card
newsroom.fb.com
newsroom.fb.com
Is this solving any problem or filling any hole in the market? Of course it's filling facebook's data hole in that they can't currently track what I buy. I'll keep that between myself, the retailer, and my bank. Thanks anyway.
Float: while money is in the system, Facebook can use it for their own purposes or on Wall Street.
Unredeemed value: about 10-20% of gift cards are never redeemed. In the USA this amounts to $10-$20 billion that consumers just hand over to retailers for nothing.
Add that to FB's ravenous desire for your personal info, and even if a small fraction of FB's users adopt this, it's a big win for them.
P.S. Um, as for benefits to the consumer? Well, maybe centralizing in-store gift cards has some benefit. And sometimes I've wanted a way to buy someone a beer over the internet. There only really good thing about gift cards, for consumers, is that you can urge someone to consume an indulgence they wouldn't get for themselves, and show that you understand their tastes, while also allowing them some choice about when, where, and what to spend it on.
Are you going to spend the time to actually find a Jamba Juice and go there to buy a gift card? Or are you going to just click "buy as a gift for Friend" on Facebook?
Another option is to buy the gift card at another store, but then you're just filling Safeway's data hole or Target's data hole instead of Facebook's. Is that better?
More importantly - a gift card in a shop can be bought with cash if you choose, and even if I used a credit card, my bank doesn't show me ads because I shopped somewhere
> Seriously who buys gift cards for a shop that sells drinks?
http://www.statisticbrain.com/starbucks-company-statistics/
> Starbucks Company Statistics
> Year Value of Gift Card Activations
> 2011 $820,500,000I should have asked what sane person buys a gift card for a shop that sells drinks.
Why _wouldn't_ you do that, if the circumstances suggested it? It's a way of giving someone some freedom in choosing their gift, while restricting it to a range.
Maybe I want to buy someone a really nice suit, but I know they'd never do it themselves; they just can't bring themselves to spend a lot of money on a nice suit - they permanently dress in cheap clothes from discount stores. If I give them cash, they feel guilty for spending it on a suit, and also guilty if they _don't_ do that, because they know I wanted them to spend it on a nice suit. Gift voucher ahoy. I'm sure you can imagine other circumstances.
Others that leap to my mind are; forcing someone to buy books instead of blowing it on alcohol and skateboards; making it harder for someone to buy drugs with it (there are always ways to launder gift vouchers, but the discount can be huge); giving gift vouchers for some place they really love as a way of demonstrating that you've actually thought about it.
When someone gives me cash, it suggests to me that they haven't put in any effort. I'd rather they got me something that cost a fiver but they actually know I like, than giving me a twenty. I already have some money and from the point where I started working full-time, unless someone is going to give me a life-changing amount of money, they might as well not bother. A well thought-out gift-voucher can be a half-way house.
Furthermore, when you give someone money (unless you give a life-changing amount), it just goes into their pocket with the rest of their money. Some will go on an electricity bill, some will go on food, some will be train fare, it'll all just disappear in things they were going to do anyway. Unless they were living on the breadline, you've made no difference - there is nothing that they have, or did, that was because you gave them some money. You might as well have not bothered. Money - it's the gift people don't even notice.
Why would you assume someone has to make more than the effort of working for a pay check, and then giving you some of that hard earned cash to do with as you please?
But then you go on to say; "unless someone is going to give me a life-changing amount of money, they might as well not bother." .. what the hell, dude?
Did they get up in the morning thinking "today I'm going to work hard so I can give that guy a nice present"? No. At some point they thought they'd better give me something, and reached for the easiest, most convenient thing they had. Some money. The bare minimum of thought went into it. Why do I want more than the bare minimum of thought? Because that's what friends do. More than the bare minimum. I spend hours and hours, sometimes spread over several weeks, thinking about and finding great gifts for people, because I genuinely like seeing my friends made happy by unexpectedly receiving something they'll really get a lot of pleasure out of.
" "unless someone is going to give me a life-changing amount of money, they might as well not bother." .. what the hell, dude?"
What? What's not to understand? Someone gives me a twenty. I already have a twenty. I have more than one. If there was something I wanted to buy with it, I already would have. Unless I'm living at the point where I am right on the breadline, one grocery bill from poverty, I won't even notice it (as above, it'll go into the pot marked "money" and just go on some bill or some tax or the rent or whatever). Sad but true; I have made enough to comfortably pay my bills with some left over. If they had stopped off somewhere and spent a five on something they really know I'd like, something that required them to think and spend some time, it would show real effort on my behalf. Sometimes the clichés are true; it's the thought that counts.
Gift cards are like food stamps for middle class people. You may as well include a note saying "now don't you spend this on drugs".
Even in the case you are describing, I can think of someone wanting to buy me some nice clothes, and then giving me a gift card from a retailer, but then perhaps I'll go there and I won't find anything that suits me, and I'll be forced to buy something anyway. The fact that the retailer is written on the card and restricts my choices cannot possibly be a plus in my opinion. I would rather prefer getting 20£ and my friends telling me "I thought you could buy those trousers you like with them", and it would have the same effect, without needlessly restricting my choice.
I agree with you that I would much rather receive a less expensive gift that has a special meaning from the person who is giving it to me, rather than just cash, even if more. A gift card does not seem the ideal solution to this problem to me though, since the category that a gift card applies to is still very broad.
The point you make about not buying alcohol or drugs or whatnot is valid instead, I admit I did not think about it. Nevertheless, it still seems a pretty uncommon use case to me.
On the suit example, I was actually thinking more along the lines of a bespoke tailored suit; they're surprisingly reasonable if you shop around, and everyone can use a decent tailored suit :) Granted, that's something of a more expensive thoughtful gift - it's not something I'd do regularly, but it'd be a gift someone would appreciate for years and years. Every time they put it on, they'd remember that someone gave it to them specially; it'd provoke a pleasant emotional reaction every time. Literally a gift that keeps on giving. If you spent the same amount on, for example, a month's rent paid for them or something else that they just always spend money on, they'd barely feel a thing.
Don't forget the skateboarding. It's all the kids spend their money on :p
Not necessarily. In the GP's example:
> Even in the case you are describing, I can think of someone wanting to buy me some nice clothes, and then giving me a gift card from a retailer, but then perhaps I'll go there and I won't find anything that suits me, and I'll be forced to buy something anyway. The fact that the retailer is written on the card and restricts my choices cannot possibly be a plus in my opinion. I would rather prefer getting 20£ and my friends telling me "I thought you could buy those trousers you like with them", and it would have the same effect, without needlessly restricting my choice.
The gift-giver assumed that the recipient would appreciate a gift from this store. With the gift card, the recipient at least has a choice. Without, the recipient may end up with an article of clothing that they will never, ever, ever wear.
If it's something they will never ever ever wear, it doesn't sound like a "decent actual gift" to me.
Your whole approach seems to be that you assume people are incapable of making decisions about their own lives.
I'd also say it's just as lazy as cash, judging by the lines of people at the customer service kiosks at malls that hand them out and how they're last-minute suggestions in line at the grocery store.
Well, that's essentially as thoughtless as cash. It's all about the thought behind it. No thought = rubbish gift.
Am I to take it that you refuse every gift everyone ever offers, in a fit of outraged morality? "How dare you offer me some money? Do you think I'm incapable of getting money? You want to WHAT? PAY FOR MY CUP OF COFFEE? How dare you!"
It satisfies a person's general aversion towards gifting cash in an envelope and still gets me a usable currency. Plus, my name isn't tied to it as well!
Not to mention the hum drum partners FB is pairing with. Olive Garden? Really? Facebook's new monetization strategy is to do what the checkout lane at my local supermarket has been doing for years.
If you put it that way Google’s monetization strategy is what Yellow Pages has been doing for decades. Does’t seem to be working that bad so far.
Looking at their initial retail partners, they have a beverage store, restaurant, cosmetics store(?), and big-box retailer. For contrast, they aren't starting with Starbucks, Cheesecake Factory, CVS, and Sears.
Looking forward to try it here in Canada.