It is clear that homo economicus is not omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. We learn from online
shopping data that only some of the respondents are truly sensitive to the economic values of goods or services.
Quite a number of them want the experience, not necessarily the price. When we move over to the acquisition of
credit cards, we find that the economics is also not as important as we might have thought. It’s again the
experience. Yes, some economic considerations are important, but it is not money – rather it’s what money buys.
Our data about credit card applications suggest that no matter what the message, it’s important to get it into the
customer’s head. Don’t make the offer too long. Short is better, but not too short. Have a convincing offer, but try
to write it in fewer than 20 words so that customers don’t simply ignore the message completely because of the
daunting length and their lack of patience.
