A Roundup of Store Gift Cards

Posted by RacheliBD on Apr 26, 2010 in Inspiration | 5 comments

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Opening
Giving and receiving is a large part of consumer pop culture, but sometimes we don’t know what to give, and for that retailers invented The Gift Card. More then a just a way for being generous, a gift card can be a way of promoting a brand and making consumers feel good while spending their money. Gift Cards can even be art, yes! we said art.

A few weeks ago we published a post about the design behind iPhone Apps. In that post we talked about how a new design frontier has opened up because of the iPhone and its apps. Another design and branding frontier opened up in recent years is store cards, or gift cards.

Gift Cards as Brand Builders
It’s a well known fact that store cards are a lucrative source of income for retailers. A cool-looking card can go a long way toward building both a phositive balancesheet and a solid brand.

Think about it, when is the last time you saw “cool money”? Can you think of a country that has cool money? Well, if Target were a state, and its store-cards were its currency, you would know at least one state that had cool money. And by “cool money” I mean the kind you like to both collect, display and most importantly spend. And “cool money” is also something you remember as a product too. People remember a cool gift card when they see it, and when it is time to get a gift card they will go with the one that looks the best (and also serves their purpose).
Summery
Finding a way to get consumers to spend money while at the same time building brands is the “killer app” of the retail world. Gift Cards are that “killer app”.

Here is a collection of store cards that we think do the job really well, in the future were going to add more, but if you have any you’d like to add, do let us know.