Feature: Vouchers and gift cards: Design for living

Presentation, packaging and design are all essential for creating impact with vouchers and gift cards, explains Andrew Johnson, director-general of The Va, the trade association for vouchers, gift cards and stored-value solutions

Capturing people’s attention has always been the quickest route to generating sales, and the world of vouchers and gift cards is no exception. Voucher and gift card producers are continually looking for innovative new methods of standing out from the crowd and offering consumers the whole package of added value through design. The three Ps – presentation, packaging and product design – not only help to grab people’s attention but also add value and enhance the “giftability” of a voucher or gift card, helping to make them more appealing and desirable as gifts or rewards.

I decided to ask some members of The Va about what factors should be considered in the design of gift cards and vouchers and the results that a captivating design can achieve.

Alan Kellock, retail development manager at Woolworths, comments: “With gift cards particularly, the importance of good design cannot be underestimated. It’s imperative that the imaging appeals to both the purchaser and the recipient. Fail in either respect and you inevitably have one or two unhappy people, or no sale at all.”

Getting this right, however, as Stephanie Wilson, director of SK Chase, highlights, offers great potential. “Issuing lots of attractively and interestingly packaged gift vouchers gives you the opportunity to raise awareness of your brand and demonstrate its quality with both the initial customer and the end user. Buyers will want to hand over attractive gifts that make them feel generous, and recipients can often be converted into buyers themselves if they\\\'re particularly impressed with the packaging.”

Technology plays its part in card design and with this comes security issues, as Richard Bentley, managing director at Kalamazoo Security Print, points out. “Security proves high on the agenda when considering the design for a company voucher. Software packages, scanners and colour copiers are making it harder to spot the real from the fake. For this reason it is imperative that specialist features are integrated within the design of the voucher.”

Branding is probably the key aspect of a design. After all, not only is it imperative that the recipient knows where their reward has come from and where it can be redeemed, but the branding opportunities available on gift cards and vouchers also offer one of the best methods to promote customer loyalty via gifting. Tracy Aslam, head of incentive business for Kingfisher Gift Vouchers, says: “Obviously the creative element is very important, but an over-riding factor which must drive the design is clarity of branding, particularly where multi-option vouchers are concerned. It must be obvious to the recipient where they can redeem, so the B&Q, Comet and Woolworths logos feature prominently on ours.”

Denise Porter, business development director at Treatme.net, describes how the company added value to its gift card through its packaging and presentation in a way that the branding became part of the surprise. “Treatme.net has developed a multi-fold, cross-effect package for its gift pack offering,” she says. “The design gives the impression of unwrapping a present: each page/layer folds outward to reveal the surprise. It was important that the outer packaging didn’t give away this surprise and so no corporate branding or hints to the gift experience market were present. Only a very elegant bow and ribbon with gift tag image was added. Once opened it reveals the Treatme.net branding and images of gift experiences. These in turn open up to the removable voucher and gift message, which makes the experience of using Treatme.net simple and fun.”

Leeroy Pye, head of international business at Nitecrest, highlights that branding can be extended to really promote the product at every opportunity. “We believe that it is important to stand out from the crowd whether it\\\'s purely the card design itself, the carrier or indeed both, such as offering interesting designs such as holographic cards, cut-profile cards and lenticular cards.”

The variety of ideas that Va members are developing is in keeping with the very nature of gifts and rewards – they should be fun, colourful, sexy, appealing, quirky and eye-catching. In addition they should be designed to make the user experience as positive as possible, including added security features. Ultimately, they should evoke an emotional, personal and aspirational response from the intended recipient as these are the factors that turn an ordinary product into a desirable gift.