Do badly chosen American Express promotions cheapen their brand?

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• Andy says:

  15 Oct15 October 01:22

  Although they are in the same group as Thistle and have a niche rewards scheme, I would have thought Guoman properties are very much the stereotypical Platinum Card demographic:- 4 and 5-star hotels like the Royal Horseguards and the Grosvenor.

  • Rob says:

    15 Oct15 October 08:25

    They are a bit nearer the demographic although substantially better options available in those areas. The Guoman brand is about to be dumped (and about time) because it has gained absolutely zero traction with the travelling public.

    The best thing about the launch of Guoman was that you knew which Thistles were rubbish – ie all of them. Because the refurbished ones were ‘promoted’ to Guoman!

• grex9101 says:

  15 Oct15 October 15:20

  I don’t think it cheapens the McDonald’s brand at all. … :’)

• squills says:

  15 Oct15 October 17:38

  “We want to be ubiquitous,” says Leslie Berland, executive vice president for digital partnerships and development at American Express. “We want our customers to think about using their American Express card in places they haven’t thought about before.”

  There you go – their marketing strategy isn’t too complicated.

  Ultimately it doesn’t really matter to Amex if SOME people think it cheapens the brand: in the grander scheme of things, those people really don’t matter too much.

  I draw an analogy with BMW. You can now get relatively cheap BMWs in the smaller engine size categories (and the Mini). A few years ago, BMW wouldn’t have dreamed of doing that. It’s been a massive success, financially & strategically. I doubt if they lost any serious money customers @ the other end (luxury) because they were doing the cheap stuff, too. The people buying the luxury stuff are on the whole bright enough to get it.

  Going back to Amex, anybody reasonably savvy is going to understand why Ryanair and Premier Inn exist (and are successful in their own right) – and savvy people aren’t going to see Amex promoting their relationship with Ryanair/ Premier Inn as a bad thing.

  • Rob says:

    15 Oct15 October 17:41

    That is a different point though – justifying why Amex is offering the Nectar card, for example, as well as its expensive charge cards. I assume that purchasers of the most expensive BMW models receive different perks from their dealership.

    • squills says:

      15 Oct15 October 18:02

      Since you’re there Raffles & anybody ;-)…

      I just renewed my vehicle tax on my decrepit, ancient 4WD lol – £230 gets you 3 litres of turbodiesel power on the road, taxed, if the truck’s old enough!. I could have saved £2.50 by paying with a debit card but I paid with MBNA Visa linked to Amex, in the dim hop I’m going to get 465 Avios out of it.

      Q: did I do good or am I going senile?

      • Rob says:

        15 Oct15 October 18:19

        0.5p per Avios sounds good to me!

• Andrew says:

  15 Oct15 October 18:49

  Primark is already here 🙂

• Singing Dwarf says:

  15 Oct15 October 21:31

  No Tracking Stats for that merchant.

• Alan says:

  15 Oct15 October 23:32

  Slightly OT but original thread now closed for comments. I registered for the WH Smith offer and then made multiple £3.79 (meal deal) transactions over the course of a few weeks. I’ve now tripped the £30 threshold and within a day or so of doing so found a £10 credit on my a/c, so as per the T&Cs it doesn’t need to be all spend within one transaction – in this case at least, YMMV for other retailer offers, some of them (e.g the Hilton offer) were clear about it needing to be in one transaction.

  • grex9101 says:

    15 Oct15 October 23:35

    We have now found someone who has survived multiple consumptions of WHS “meal deals” and is still alive. Science may have found its man.

    • Alan says:

      15 Oct15 October 23:37

      Hahah 😀 Yes, sadly working in a hospital this is one of the better offers available food-wise 😮

  • squills says:

    16 Oct16 October 06:29

    Alan: that’s a really interesting bit of learning for future promos, I guess you’re right it depends on T&Cs.

    • Alan says:

      16 Oct16 October 07:16

      Indeed, I was sure I was going to have to chase the credit up via Amex CS but wasn’t necessary 🙂

• Adey says:

  16 Oct16 October 19:40

  JQ “The questoin is do Centurion cardholders also have this offer?”.

  Nope, not been offered these. Infact, there are no offers available for me right now (just checked online). I

  did just take up their offer of a free night at one (of a list of ~20) hotelsfrom the “fine hotels and resorts” group. So not all bad 🙂

  Adey

• thechiefexecutive says:

  17 Oct17 October 00:10

  I also used the Ryanair deal for my first ever flight with them (Derry) for a wedding this weekend. Used it for 2 x singles in and out so £20 saved across 2 cards. I will probably also use the Premier Inn credit although we’ve already booked Christmas with them to visit the inlaws (at £25 a night in the sale). So yes we like all these ‘downmarket deals’.

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