Emotional Value and Marketing Influence on Consumer Financial Behavior

Consumers often make irrational decisions when making purchases, favoring options that provide emotional value such as extra points, free seat upgrades, or cashback, over purely dollar value. Credit card companies utilize marketing tools to drive consumer behavior, turning financial products into emotional value propositions. Co-branded cards with merchants represent a significant business model innovation, allowing banks and companies to generate substantial interchange and interest revenue from consumer transactions.