The most distinctive thing about Monzo has always been the Hot Coral cards. Indeed, this helped massively with Monzo’s zero-advertising spend throughout its early years. However, now the Plus account has the “holographic” card there’s a move away from the Hot Coral - and for the most engaged users, no less - those who are most likely to prothetalize about the product to others. Is this a wise move? I wonder what the internal decision making process looked like over this. Why not the Hot Coral, but modified in some stylish way? It seems a strange decision to move away from something so central to the brand.
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I think hot coral has always been very divisive among people with some dying for it but others hating it.
Going with a safer, but still flashy card, is a safe option for Monzo to ensure that people aren’t put off upgrading because of the card.
At the same time, it could also serve as a driver for signups for people who want to show off that they’re different to other, regular Monzo users by sporting a shiny card. Different colour cards have always been a differentiator for premium accounts with banks
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I think as trends come and go it is important to adapt. I believe the days of brightly coloured cards are at an end - but they did indeed serve Monzo VERY well for brand recognition and creating a buzz.
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I think the new Monzo Plus cards are just as eye catching and as on trend as the coral cards were at the time. In person* they’re both distinctively Monzo, and I suspect the holographic blue will become just as synonymous with Monzo as coral did.
*In some photos they can look identical to Revolut’s card depending on the lighting. As someone who has both, this is absolutely not the case in person and you can distinctly tell the difference even from a distance.
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I think that Monzo is now focusing on providing a more rounded offering in terms of its services. This has the consequence of relying less on word of mouth for advertising, and eye-catching cards, and more on the hopes that the niche community that its developed over recent times are satisfied with their ability to be the ‘pioneers’ if you like, especially as Monzo Labs, and the new feature set have always been more enticing once you’re a member, than the branding.
Essentially, now more than ever its about showing what they can offer, and focusing less on the tangible things.
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I’d like to see a new card with a dead golden goose on it. I’d probably pay £5 per month for it.
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I cannot remember the last time I actually used my physical card for anything…
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However, now the Plus account has the “holographic” card there’s a move away from the Hot Coral - and for the most engaged users, no less - those who are most likely to prothetalize about the product to others. Is this a wise move?
Fair point, but I think users who are passionate enough about Monzo to pay for Plus are probably not bought in just by the card colour, and will speak about Monzo to others etc regardless. I certainly do!
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Sorry whats a card, I don’t even carry mine anywhere, it’s in a storage box at home and linked to Google Pay
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Handy to have for larger purchases or if your phone dies or gets lost/stolen.
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A metal hot coral would have been cool
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I think that could have worked pretty well.
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I would have screamed like a little girl seeing her favourite celebrity if they did that.
The Hot Coral Card was (for me) how I found out about Monzo (I saw it in a friends wallet) and for a while everytime I saw one I was like “oh cool, another Monzo user”
But I also like the new plus card - I see it as a move away from being a tech company and towards a mainstream bank, and it looks pretty cool in my wallet/Apple Pay.
Overtime though, the coral card has become less about how I saw/wanted to see Monzo - and it was more about “how does xyz feature compare to XY bank etc”
I think it served it’s purpose, but it’s the right time to perhaps retire it
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On the grounds of ‘be careful what you wish for’;
As for the £5 issue;
Happy for it as a repeating monthly payment 
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Handy to have for larger purchases
Credit card surely for larger spends?
Marketing moves fast, the Hot Coral was good for ‘startup’ mode but Monzo are now looking ahead at a more stable (we hope) future, this is an absolute minor/non-issue IMO.
And don’t start me on a metal card. Spend the money on providing better services (basic, improve Plus, get more offers for the users, bring iOS/Android to closer parity, bring Joint Accounts to parity, there is so many more places Monzo could (should?) spend their time and money and attention).
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This would be good if Monzo weren’t so stuck on hot coral cards, we might get to see a different card colour for joint accounts then
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Most people so far have opined on whether they like the Hot Coral, or other tangential things. But the question that I was asking was whether the loss of such a prominent real-world factor is in fact dangerous for Monzo. I don’t think you can underestimate the cumulative effect of seeing those Hot Coral cards all over (reinforcement both before signing up for your own, and after), and the ad-hoc conversations and interest that it triggered. Those are powerful factors for marketing.
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How many have you actually seen from a stranger?
It’s not a hat that you can spot from a distance. Unless you’re behind that person when they are paying for something, then when else do you see the colour of someone’s card?
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