Cash or Card: Consumer Perceptions of Payment Modes - Scholarly ...

possibly older to younger friends. However gifts of money between equals and peers are not
acceptable. Though the issue of money among peers is a factor, the increasing use of generic
gift shopping vouchers is something that was considered. The essential issue however for
this study is the mode of delivery.
The focus group discussion reflected the findings of the projective tests - a gift of money in
the form of cash is preferred over a direct debit. Not only is the process seen as cold and
impersonal, the consciousness that it would be spent on something special varied - $50 or
$100 note as a gift was preferred as cash. The sense of the projective tests is that money
deposited into a bank account is utility money and the gift is impersonal. In some sense it
becomes profane whereas the $50 remains sacred (Belk and Wallendorf 1990).
Physicality (see Exhibit 5.7f)
This theme and awareness of spending generated the most discussion. As can be seen from
the quotes in Exhibit 5.7f:
� I like looking at $100 note ,
� I feel as if I am parting with something when I had over cash
� It is just when I can hear coins I think I have actually got money. I feel richer but then I
know that’s not right
The discussion surrounding the physicality in the first session resulted in the facilitator going
in a slightly different tack by asking (relating to paying for products) - ‘If you had to go to a
totally new country (or planet) what would you take? The overwhelming response was Gold
(or diamonds) and the majority agreed that the next best thing was cash - none would take the
debit card. When asked why ‘cash’ the responses for the most part replied - well you can see
that it is money. This question was asked in another group and the response was the same.
During the discussion the issue became one of ‘recognition’, that is, would the value of gold
be recognised? If not then it would probably be worthless, but in the end they thought that
they would take it ‘just in case’. The sense that cash didn’t decline was also discussed,
initially in relation to the notes, but as the discussion moved on, that the same value was in
their debit account was recognised. The interesting aspect is that this was not the initial
response.
71