Research Paper on "American Express Media Strategy Objectives and Plans"

Research Paper 6 pages (1804 words) Sources: 8 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

American Express Media Strategy, Objectives and Plans

American Express Company (AE), otherwise known as AmEx, is an American international financial services corporation that is headquartered in Manhattan, New York. The company is most well-known for its credit card, charge card, and travelers cheque businesses, and in fact AE cards consists of approximately 24% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the U.S.; this is the highest of any card issuer.

Both BusinessWeek and Interbrand rated AE to be the 22nd most valuable brand in the world, whilst Fortune reported AE to be one of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the World (CNN Money)

American Express and Marketing

The American Express (AE) Credit Card Company markets itself in various ways. Savvy with its promotional and publicity performance, it has put together a variety of tools -- some of them innovative -- that it uses for its own promotional ends. Some of its tools include the following:

Media & Celebrities

Being that the Company was established in 1850, AE has had a long history of promotional activities. One of its most successful campaigns was that developed in 1975 under David Ogilvy that was called the Don't Leave Home Without Them ad campaign for AE Traveler's Cheques. The company used famed actor Karl Malden to promote them for 25 years. In the UK, their publicist was the TV character, Alan Whicker.

Throughout their years, AE has continued to use celebrities to showcase them. Other examples include Mel Blanc and ballerina Cynthia Gregory. The ad was always done in the same way with the celebrity asking viewers if they knew him / her, with viewers having to apply for the AE card in order to see the name. Each ad signed off with the "Don't Leave Home Without it" motto that was revived in 2005 in conjunction with the Amex Travelers Cheque Card.

American Express's use of celebrities continues. Famous names include comedian Jerry Seinfeld (1990, 2004), as well as actors Kate Winslet, Robert De Niro, Ken Watanabe and Tina Fey; basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, fashion designer Collette Dinnigan, comedian and talk show hostess Ellen DeGeneres, golfer Tiger Woods, snowboarder Shaun White, tennis players Venus Williams and Andy Roddick, manager Jose Mourinho, and film directors Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, M. Night Shyamalan as well as the singer Beyonce Knowles.

TV Shows & movies

Other promotional tools that AE has used include TV shows / movies such as for instance the famous Sesame Street series where one skit contained some of the sesame characters holding a card that was similar to that of the American Express, and a voiceover saying "A Grown-Up Friend's Hand. Don't cross the street without it." Similarly, one CBS game show called Press Your Luck, also briefly displayed an AE card in the form of a parody.

Other films that parodied the card were the 1997 film Hercules and the 1989 movie Major League. It is unclear whether or not, AE paid them to do so. In Batman & Robin too, Batman pulls out a Bat-Credit card and says he never leaves the cave without it.

Sponsorship

American Express uses sponsorship as one of its media / marketing campaigns in order to attract people to its business.

Sponsorship is used to achieve certain specified business goals and to reach certain particular niche markets. According to IEG's Complete Guide to Sponsorship:

Sponsorship should not be confused with advertising. Advertising is considered a quantitative medium, whereas sponsorship is considered a qualitative medium. It promotes a company in association with the sponsee."

In essence what sponsorship is the company marketing certain paraphilia such as caps, briefcases and so forth with their logo targeted to specific niche market in order to make connections and market / promote themselves. It reinforces customer relations of the customer, serves as complement to other programs, and helps them reach niche audiences without waste.

Cause marketing

American Express often uses sponsorship strategies such as with their 4-year "Charge Against Hunger" campaign where charity is compounded with sponsorship in order to lend sustainability to their company (by linking themselves to social needs causes) whilst marketing themselves to a niche target. The charity generated approximately $22 million.

Another, earlier (1989) campaign promised that with each charge made to their Amex card, AE would contribute one cent to the renovation of the Statue of Liberty. The promotion generated a 28% increase in usage of the card.

The 2006 American Express Red Card, at the time only available in the UK, promised to fight AIDS with every purchase made to the card.

Another initiative -- this time slightly different -- launched in 2007 was the Members Project where cardholders were invited to contribute ideas for providing clean drinking water and AE funded the winning idea with $2 million (Facebook Members Project from American Express)

According to Schmader and Jackson in their book, Special Events: Inside and out, a company such as American Express benefits from cause marketing in various ways:

It enhances their image and shapes customer attitudes

It drives sales. In the case of American Express, for instance, they offer to donate to needy causes each time consumers charge a purchase to their card.

It creates positive publicity and heightened visibility

Social Media

In sync with most companies today, American Express also uses social media to boost its sales and drive publicity. Popular social outlets that AE uses include Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Use comments rose when LinkedIn was added and crescendoed to more than 60% with addition of Facebook and Twitter (Gillin, Stephen (September 7, 2011)).

Crafting innovative means, AE uses social media to gain publicity. For instance, in July 2012, American Express launched its "Link, Like, Love" service -- which offers discounts and experiences to cardholders based on their "likes," interests and social media connections -- back in July and followed it up with the Gift Chain in November. This project gave AE cardholders the opportunity to earn prizes off holiday opportunities that could, in some instances, be shared with their friends. Experts say that AE will probably up its endeavors on the social media spectrum since it allows companies to engage directly with customers and gain instant feedback as well as providing access to many more clients.

Targeting small business owners, AE also introduced its OPEN Forum community in 2007 with the site, by 2011, routinely attracting 1 million visitors per month. Slanting themselves to the same market, AE introduced YourBuzz, a free service that allowed business owners to discuss their companies and markets in social media outlets (ibid).

Promotion may also be cheaper than by using many other traditional techniques.

Ben Woolsey, director of marketing and consumer research with CreditCards.com, thinks that AE's promotion endeavors will soon move to mobile too as the company will look to making he most of the partnerships that it has with these providers. Facebook, many think, has already become and will continue to intensify as a key promotional tool since it exudes a family and friend kind of atmosphere (Skowronski (February 03, 2012)

One of the promotional strategies that AE has recently launched is called. What happens here is that the user syncs his eligible American Express card to his twitter account Sync, Tweet, Save, tweet any specials that come across his twitter feed from American Express, partner retailers, or even any of his friends, that have #Amex prefix in them and the special will automatically be loaded to his card and show up on his statement as a credit.

By requiring that the customer tweets the special, AE gains access to more people outside of its extended network that they may n ever otherwise have reached via traditional means. In fact, Mediabistro noted that in the first 48 hours of this program there were over 2000 tweets. What AE is capitalizing on -- and what every company hopes to reach -- is a viral effect where word-of-mouth promotes the business with very little impact from the company itself. This is the most effective and most successful form of marketing since no expense is involved and word-of-mouth publicity is the most effective promotional tool. This campaign is also actually very smart since partners of the program - which include companies such as Best Buy, Dell, FedEx, H&M, McDonalds, TicketMaster, and Whole Foods -- can anoucne their special to thousands of customers merely tweeting it through the AE "Sync, Tweet, Save" program. The customers themselves also benefit since they benefit from discounts and convenience. They no longer have to clip coupons or show a digital coupon through their smart phones. All they do is tweet (Lies, 2012)

This AE promotional tool, accomplished through social media, is therefore highly intelligent and effective.

Mobile

American Express also promotes via mobile games that it has launched over iPhone . According to Richard Harris, vice president and head of acquisition at American Express, New York: "The game provides an ideal way to create brand awareness," (Tsirulnik, (Nov. 16, 2010)

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