Don’t Leave Mt. Ararat Without It : Armenian Express, Rival Pitch Credit Cards to Ethnic Group

After narrating the tale of yet another traveler stricken with a sudden loss but saved by his trusty credit card, the tough customer with the cauliflower nose might invoke an unfamiliar homily: “Arantz karteet toors mee yeller!”

That’s Armenian for “Don’t leave home without it!”--and while it hasn’t been selected as the advertising message for one of two new credit cards being marketed to Armenians in the United States, it might as well be.

Joining the ranks of “affinity” credit cards targeted at groups ranging from the Sierra Club to the National Rifle Assn., the Armenian Express card is vying with one issued by the Glendale-based Armenian Cultural Foundation for a place in the hearts and wallets of the estimated 1 million Armenians in the United States.

Some 160,000 direct-mail solicitations for Armenian Express have been sent in recent weeks to Armenians whose names have been culled from mailing lists and telephone directories across the country. In addition, Armenian investors are being wooed at cocktail parties planned in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Fresno, Detroit, Boston and New York.

At the same time, the nonprofit Armenian Cultural Foundation has mailed 50,000 letters pitching its ACF Card to Armenians west of the Rockies. Both are being heavily promoted in Armenian community newspapers.

The cards, which sprouted independently of each other, are believed to be the first aimed at an ethnic group.

“It’s a new concept of affinity I haven’t seen employed anywhere,” said John Love, publisher of Credit Card News, a Chicago-based newsletter.

During the past few years, banks have pried open the clogged credit market with hundreds of cards designed for loyalists of all stripes. The cards--usually Visas or MasterCards--also feature the names and logos of alumni groups, professional organizations, football teams, even rock radio stations, and a percentage of the company’s profits typically are donated to some associated worthy cause.

“People respond to their group’s name or endorsement,” Love said. “They may be getting a cold letter from an out-of-state bank, but at least it has a warm name on it.” That name can go a long way among Armenians, a people with ethnic loyalties made all the stronger by enduring a devastating massacre in 1915 and being scattered to the four winds ever since.

“It’s a pride-and-heritage thing,” said Keith Cullam, a vice president of Armenian Express Canada Inc., the Vancouver-based parent company of Armenian Express (USA).”Nine out of 10 people who responded to our marketing survey gave the same reason for wanting the card: ‘Because I’m Armenian.’ ”

Issued as a MasterCard or Visa under a contract with Marine Midland Bank of New York, the Armenian Express card even bears the image of Mt. Ararat, a symbol of unity for a people still in mourning for the loss of their homeland.

“It speaks to every Armenian’s heart,” said Zohrab Shamassian, the general manager of Santa Ana-based Armenian Express (USA). “Mt. Ararat excites every Armenian to the heavens.”

According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Armenian Express will funnel 25% of its net profit to Armenian cultural, civic and charitable organizations in the United States. On the other hand, the Armenian Cultural Foundation, a charity group that supports schools, publications, the Armenian Olympics and other community activities in Southern California, will donate all its card proceeds to such causes, foundation officials say.

Such aid could total as much as $500,000 by the end of 1989, according to estimates of the two organizations.

Community activists see it as a windfall for the growing Los Angeles-area Armenian community--which, with 250,000 members, represents the greatest concentration of Armenians outside the Soviet Union.

“For decades, the community has run on eternal, ongoing fund raising,” said Harut Sassounian, editor and publisher of the California Courier, an English-language Armenian weekly newspaper. “But you can finally get tired of begging. The cards are a painless way of helping your community by doing something you would do anyway--you go shopping.”

Still, ACF organizers are quick to distinguish themselves from their profit-making brethren at Armenian Express.

Plans Stock Offering

“They’d like to capitalize on the ethnic theme to generate profits, like any American business,” said Rafi Ourfalian, an attorney who is an ACF board member. “They make these promises and pledges to support community activities, but how much of that will become reality I do not know.”

The brainchild of Bedo and Setrak Kalpakian, Armenian brothers who amassed a textiles and mining fortune after emigrating from Sudan to Canada in the 1950s, Armenian Express hopes to raise $6.75 million through the sale of 4.5 million shares of common stock. An amended prospectus was filed this week with the SEC, which has not yet approved the document, according to a spokesman for its Los Angeles underwriter, J. Alexander Securities Inc.

The company holds an option to purchase Pacific Savings & Mortgage Corp., a Vancouver thrift, for about $4 million, according to company officials. U.S. general manager Shamassian said the bank would be renamed First Armenian National Bank, and eventually would be at the center of a network of financial institutions catering to the Armenian community in the United States.

But many hurdles must be cleared before such grand plans are to be realized.

One of the first is the company’s name, which rings an all-too-familiar chord in some quarters.

“We take our trademark rights very seriously,” said Audrey Jonckheer, a spokeswoman for American Express in New York. “We are quite concerned about the use of ‘Armenian Express’ to describe a credit card or financial services, and we are involved in discussions regarding the use of that name.”

Armenian Express’ Cullam says he doubts the two cards can be confused. “Theirs doesn’t have a picture of Mt. Ararat on it,” he said.