Banking can be this sexy, .... in China

"Designed in a stylish vertical layout. Hot red or calm blue, the bright colours are to decorate every youthful heart.""Dots scatter on the card ... and the two cards make a perfect heart shape." "The red card carries a speacial fragrance and makes it a must for a charming girl."

When you read these exerpts, what do you think the product is being marketed? A lady's accessory from a trendy fashion brand? An executive membership card? It's actually a credit card.

RenRen is the Facebook equivalent of China. By end of June 2011, it had 124 million active uers, or a quarter of Chinese netizens, and the number grows by 2 million a month. Although not so clear about its revenue drivers, fairly clear is its user segment - young generation. Renamed to RenRen, meaning everyone, it started in 2005 as XiaoNei, meaning on campus, which apparently links to its focus on college students.

As young as RenRen's users is the credit card industry in China. Even though Bank of China issued the first credit card back in 1980s, the sector did not really kick start until early - mid 2000s. According to a 2009 Mickensey study, credit card has only 6% share in personal expenditure by payment method, and penetration to the population is a nominal 5%, comparing to 60% in US. On the flip side, growth is phenomenal. Between 2004 and 2008, total cards issued soared at an average annual rate of 84% and spending growth was at 63%.

Young and educated consumers form the common base for the proliferation of both social network and credit cards, which makes it logical for marketers in both sectors to partner with each other.

The credit card shown on top of the page is the "RenRen Card" issued by China Merchant Bank, which could be linked to the RenRen social network account and the reward program of which gives you RenRen points to be redeemed for VIP services in the virtual community.

For quite a few years I have observed that any business offering functionality features in China can barely make a sound profit. Two ways to stand out are either making yourself a premium brand, e.g. Pizza Hut as a luxury restaurant brand offering high end Chinese consumers a large variety of pizzas unheard of in North America at a price level that easily doubles what it charges in US, or making your business fun. Now it is quite interesting to observe the 'fun' business model has been forwarded that much to get even banks on board.

Relatively loose regulatory environment leaves so much room for marketers in China. Customers there have to be excited by businesses not every month or not even every day, but every moment they are awake. When Canadian businesses in almost every sector believe that immigrants, a lot from China, are going to be the new source of their customer base, are they really making efforts to understand and excite their new customers?