Citi Cards: City of Dreams
Financial
Written by Eric Slack   
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Citi Cards: City of Dreams - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Bill Johnson tells us how a partnership program and high ideals are driving this legendary institution forward.
With all the chatter about predatory lenders and unscrupulous credit card companies, you might think every large financial institution is trying to rob you blind. Credit companies with a global footprint and a vast array of services as well as a culture centered on integrity may be rare. But they are also more likely to have everything you’d ever want out of a credit card company.

Citi Cards: City of Dreams - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Bill Johnson, Executive Vice President
“Credit customers want their cards to work without fail and interruption, while also protecting the security of their financial information,” said Bill Johnson, the executive vice president of Citi Cards’ Partnership Group. “We focus on trying to minimize disruptions.”

Citi Cards is one piece of the Citigroup global financial network. Citigroup traces its beginnings all the way back to the 1812 founding of what would become known as Citibank. After nearly two centuries in operation, Citigroup is the largest company in the world according to Forbes Global 2000 with assets of $2.4 trillion as of last September.

Citi Cards is part of Citigroup’s global consumer group (GCG). It generates roughly 40% of the GCG’s profit and is the largest credit card issuer on the planet. It boasts 150 million accounts and employs more than 30,000 people at more than 30 worldwide locations.

Citi is keenly aware that although its size attracts customers, it also attracts scrutiny. This means the company needs to focus on transparency while shaping its public image.

The first part involves customer service. With heavy consumer and commercial demand for services tailored to suit specific needs, the company created dozens of different card programs designed for individuals, business owners, and college students. Citi tries to gauge customer feedback by conducting regular focus groups to study product offerings. Citi also voluntarily stopped the practice of universal default, no longer raising interest rates on customers who make late payments on non-Citi cards. This is a common criticism of the credit industry, and the decision proves Citi Cards is leading, not following, the effort to make credit card companies more transparent.

The company is also committed to protecting customer identity. Citi Cards is constantly working to stay ahead of hackers and identity thieves. The company tests its own systems regularly, trying to find any holes before they are exploited. “Banking authorities set some pretty high standards, and the standards we set within Citi Cards are even higher than those set by the regulators,” Johnson said.

The second aspect involves branding. In May 2007, Citi Cards launched a new national advertising campaign. The concept of the campaign was to illustrate how Citi Cards can give people the financial tools to live their dreams. One prolific TV commercial shows a father and son traveling to what they thought was their ancestral homeland. The company spared no expense on the promotional spots, putting them on NFL broadcasts, ESPN, “CSI,” and “Heroes,” as well as in Sports Illustrated, People, Vogue, and Time.

Partner of choice
The sheer size and scope of the entire organization gives Citi Cards advantages even some of its largest competitors don’t have. The breadth of its product range, international capabilities, cash management, and global transaction services allow the company to leverage its relationships. This is particularly important when you consider Citi Cards’ partner-branded card program.

“There are not many companies in the card space that can bring these capabilities to bear for a partner, nor do they have the opportunity to be introduced to the partner through those channels,” Johnson said. “Also, our scale of operations allows us to make both short- and long-term investments others may not be able to make.”

Citi Cards’ Partnership Group offers consumer and commercial private-label and general- purpose credit programs. Citi Cards is the industry-leading provider of partner-branded card programs with more than 30 major partners and 25,000 retail partners in North America. The major companies Citi Cards partners with reads like a who’s who in business. Home Depot, Sears, Macy’s, American Airlines, Hilton, Exxon, and AT&T are just some of the leading companies that have taken advantage of this partnership program.

The idea is to increase partner sales by actively engaging the customer at the point of sale. Johnson and his team use the extensive leverage Citi Cards can offer to do more than provide credit cards and customer service. Instead, Citi Cards tries to develop programs to bring value back to the partner.

The program also has its perks for Citi Cards. It is an opportunity to create distribution channels other issuers could never dream of having. The program already created 80,000 touch points for potential customers through these partnerships. Clearly, this is an important focal point of Citi Cards’ growth strategy.

“We choose partners who are willing to engage in the mutual development of a product set, build a portfolio and manage its performance, and can sustain themselves over time,” said Johnson. “These are companies whose brand resonates with the customer, spend a significant amount of marketing dollars in support of that brand, and whose products are at the top end of their industry.”

After two centuries and billions of dollars, Citi Cards is part of an organization that tries to live up to the high ideals we wish all corporations would aspire to. According to Johnson, that’s just the way Citi Cards operates.

“We ask ourselves, how would we as individuals want to be treated as a customer?” said Johnson. “It’s not enough to just sell another product, it has to benefit both partners and customers.”
 
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