Gift Cards Win Out Over Cash In IRF Study

The Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC) and the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) have released the results of a new study that show that prepaid gift cards are one of the most popular ways to motivate and reward employees.

Gift cards’ appeal, the study found, stems primarily from the control and personalization they represent. And when survey respondents were offered either a prepaid card or an equivalent amount of cash, researchers found that they chose the gift card by a ratio of five to one.

“We found that reward recipients are more likely to mentally classify prepaid cards as guilt-free spending versus cash,” says IRF President Melissa Van Dyke, “and they’re more likely to add the value of that prepaid card to their monthly budget, rather than simply replace it, as they do with cash.”

In the study, It’s In the Cards: An In-depth Look at Prepaid Cards in Incentives, Reward and Recognition Programs, the IRF reviewed recent academic and business literature on gift card usage and conducted a pair of primary research surveys on gift card use for reward and recognition programs in the U.S.

“When you consider that over 65 percent of recipients say they remember what they purchased and that many attribute that positive memory to the person or company that gave them the card, it’s easy to see how the organization receives a significant benefit as well,” says Betty Weinkle, vice president of corporate wellness at SpaFinder, Inc., and past president of IGCC.

To read more about the study’s findings, click here.