Banks.com’s Weamein Yee posted an interesting personal finance article recently on how consumer spending is slowing across all sectors. One of those sectors, of course, is credit cards. Even despite recent reports that American consumers were prioritizing credit card bills above mortgage payments, it seems the credit card industry is not immune to the current economic pressures. Companies are reporting less consumer credit card spending and more late payments.

Credit card companies are now getting more innovative in their marketing schemes. And we’re not talking about free sandwiches to lure college students off campus so they can fill out credit applications. Capital One’s Card Lab has seen much television commercial airtime recently and is being touted “a winner” by Ron Shevlin’s marketing blog.

Choose your own interest rate, rewards, card design, etc. It’s interactive marketing genius. By the time consumers get to the fourth and final step of “review and apply,” they’re already emotionally invested in this deal. They’ve answered the questions, picked the perfect balance of features and rewards and they’ve carefully selected the perfect picture of their kid, pet, spouse, favorite vacation destination, sports team logo, etc. And consumers feel completely secure because they were “in control” from start to finish in this, the first-ever “do-it-yourself” credit card offer. They are wanting that card in a bad way. I’d take it one step further than Ron Shevlin - this is sheer marketing genius.

Shevlin credits Capital One for being notoriously good at the marketing game and, he says, this Card Lab will only sharpen their efforts. It’s all about the actionable data, he writes.

“Analyzing the usage, trends, clickstream, etc. should help Cap One marketers get a really good understanding of who’s looking for cards online, what their preferences are, which features are most popular, and so on. And knowing Cap One, and what good marketers they are, they’ll use this data to develop and refine their offers and marketing programs.”