New Solutions in Credit Card Branding Power

By Oliver Moesgen and Chuck Pilsy
The KURZ Group

Sizzle and security through new applications of hot stamp foilsIt doesn't have to be your Dad's credit card any more! You know . . . the one with the rather shoddy hologram on the front, the plain brown or black magnetic stripe and white signature panel rectangles on the back. The new millennium has brought with it the introduction of much more sophisticated and integrated design techniques, providing the issuer or stakeholder of the card the opportunity to enhance both the promotional and the security attributes of the card.

Shrinking real estate on the card

Let's start with a new reality - with a card measuring 3-3/8" by 2-1/8", we are simply running out of real estate. The front of the card has never been busier; co-branding of cards by multiple partners has created a virtual competition for the best and the brightest design, and the one logo out of two or three that will immediately capture the attention of card holders as soon as they open the envelope. Add the hologram, utilized over the last few years as much for brand promotion as card protection, the account number and personalization, and there's not a lot of room left.

The back of the card for almost 30 years was limited to functionality. The magnetic stripe near the top carries the necessary data. A signature panel is applied for obvious reasons. Nothing else, except address and telephone information for the issuer or financial institution. Plain. Vanilla. Really boring.

Now let's move to a newer reality - the concept of the card with two front sides. Through the integration of multifunctional hot stamping foils, the issuer can gain up to 100% more physical space, enhancing promotional and security elements on the card, combining form and function
for broad benefits to the brand.

Magnetic stripe innovations

What can one do with the magnetic stripe? Is it even a "keeper?" The introduction of the smart card prompted many to predict the near-term death of the magnetic stripe on cards. Why use a magnetic stripe when the chip allegedly can more securely hold so much more data? Well, there are multiple reasons why the magnetic stripe remains a key component of cards today, not the least of which is cost. In comparison with the other data storage systems for read and write on cards, the magnetic stripe is by far most economical. In terms of physical or material cost, the magnetic stripe represents fractions of a cent per card. In the application process, mag stripe is applied on a tape layer at a rate of up to 80,000 cards per hour. And, the magnetic stripe can be encoded at up to 20,000 cards per hour.

Several major issuers have recognized in the last few years that the magnetic stripe also offers enormous potential as a marketing vehicle. Magnetic stripes in standard and custom colors have been introduced, allowing the stakeholder to reinforce its brand image through the use of key colors. This concept was expanded by The KURZ Group to include printing of the magnetic stripe, providing a 3-3/8" wide showcase for the company name, website, or other pertinent information, easy to modify from run-to-run. Colored and printed magnetics must be compatible to ISO specifications (for high and low coercivity products); it's important to engage the supplier
of the magnetic stripe in the design process to ensure compliance.

Another prominent feature of the printed and/or colored magnetic stripe - it is inherently more difficult to copy than the standard brown or black stripe, raising the bar for skimmers and counterfeiters.

More recently, KURZ has introduced three new innovations for magnetic stripes:

• SteelMag, chrome-based, providing a shiny appearance.
• MetalMag, also chrome-based, with a flat or matte appearance.
• TwinLine Magnetics‚, highlighted by a color flip when changing the viewing angle.

  Signature panels enhance card design
  

  We now move to the signature panel. Yes, plain vanilla ice cream still has many devoted followers, as does the white signature panel. It's cost-effective, user-friendly, and can easily include security features such as UV print and resistance to erasure, smearing and bleaching. But now you can have your cake and eat it too! (Sorry about the mixed metaphors, but ice cream and cake go together, right?) While retaining all of the important security features, the signature panel, too, can be printed, in register, with multiple colors, and can be applied as a single image in register on the card. One can even integrate a unique shape of the panel into the design, through the use of a custom application die. This is another way to enhance the security of the card while building into it new opportunities for marketing and promotion.

OVD options

Finally, promotion and protection of the brand can be greatly augmented through more sophisticated optically variable devices (OVD's). Standard holographic images have been around for a long time, and are easily recognizable, but may not provide the level of security once intended, and the hologram per se is certainly limited in terms of its physical appearance. The KINEGRAM, manufactured by The KURZ Group, is used exclusively for high security applications, such as financial instruments, including credit cards and banknotes, and governmental documents, including drivers licenses, identification and travel documents. The KINEGRAM provides proprietary overt and covert features, including nanotext and hidden information, enhancing for the brand owner both the promotional characteristics of the image and its security attributes. It is very difficult, virtually impossible, to copy, yet is easy to recognize, easy to verify.

Future trends

What will the future bring? Issuers are playing with different sizes and shapes of cards, and such innovations will continue. The use of a variety of colors and overprinted magnetics and signature panels, and high tech next-generation OVD's present the card issuers and brand owners with endless possibilities. However, with the constraints of existing ATM's and other card reading machines, the standard sized card will be with us for a long time.