In 2009, Chase launched Ink, a new credit card brand designed for small business owners. Up until then, it seems the credit card companies had reserved their marketing ingenuity for consumer credit cards.
Wait…what’s the difference between a consumer credit card and a small business credit card? According to a study by CardHub.com, there is virtually no difference between consumer credit cards and business credit cards. In fact, the recent push for business credit cards could be a way for financial institutions to circumnavigate the 2009 Credit Card Act, designed to protect the interests of credit card holders.
Putting aside my thoughts on greed in the financial industry (really, that wasn’t a Catchword tent at Occupy Oakland), if Ink was only judged from a brand naming perspective, it is clearly a strong name. It is short and evocative – an all-around great choice for a credit card geared towards business owners.
Yet, the Ink launch was waaaaaaaaaay back in 2009. More recently, Chase complemented the Ink business credit card with a new expense-tracking mobile app, called Jot. This is a nifty program for cell phones that allows the business owner to track business expenses by custom-tagging purchases in real-time. As the wife of a small business owner, I notice my husband saving receipts, and jotting notes, clients, and names right onto these receipts. Here you have an app that allows you to do just that with the touch of a few buttons.
Chase’s launch campaign for Jot encourages you to “meet” Jot – personifying this app as an expense super-assistant. Further proof that their marketing effort towards small business owners was effective: said husband actually ripped out an ad for Jot presumably to remind himself to investigate and sign up for it (Jot is only available to Ink customers, thereby adding one more sucker to the subscriber list).
Once again, if you completely ignore the social responsibility aspect, Jot is a great name. It is evocative in nature and complements Ink quite nicely. In naming, shorter is almost always better – most notably with apps. The challenge is communicating a meaningful message in a short name. Jot accomplishes just that – with only three letters. Due to the cute logo and the tie-in with Ink, I find the name to be quite memorable as well.
As far as I’m concerned, the name Jot is hot. Catchword did not work on the name, but if it was an external agency, they deserve praise. If it was created internally, somebody deserves a raise!
Overall Grade: A
