It appears as those Citigroup is jumping into the daily deals space made famous (or is it infamous?) by Groupon.
Citi appears to have plans to unveil a service that “promotes the sale of goods and services of others, through credit card customer, loyalty, reward and redemption programs and by providing access to discounts for use on purchases, all for promoting customer loyalty.” The service, which evidence suggests will be called Citi Easy Deals, will offer “discounts and other rebates for credit card use as part of a customer loyalty and incentive rewards program,” according to online filings accessed by Bank Innovation.
Citi appears to be beefing up its rewards offers. The bank’s card benefit’s site, for example, offers a hearty menu of rewards benefits. Daily deals would seem to be yet another offering meant to entice consumers.
Although we’d all suffer in the glare of 20:20 hindsight – I wonder what Diners would be worth in todays market?
The impact of widening international acceptance network for Discover will probably result in profitable business, but surely it will be quite marginal. Only 11% of US citizens have a passport and most are not likely to be booking too many overseas visits in the next couple of years. Unless it is to gloat at those countries with worse economic performance (what is the Icelandic for schadenfreude?)
Discover does not have significant brand presence outside the US. The Diners brand is arguably stronger internationally so the 44 overseas issuing franchises mentioned are probably a bit of a red herring – they are unlikely to switch to Discover issuing in a meaningful way in mature markets without a big bucks marketing incentive. A period of Diners/Discover co brand issuing might be on the cards – but in todays climate is anyone going to adopt/keep to a strategy of rolling out a new international issuing brand?