American Express: Now For Smaller Purchases

Recently I’ve noticed interesting new billboard advertisements for American Express credit cards across Toronto. They are subtle, but the message is quite clear. American Express wants you to know that their cards can be used for small purchases and not just buying plane tickets.

I really hadn’t thought of it much, but it does make a certain amount of sense. In Canada, Visa is the dominant player with Mastercard being slightly behind in terms of acceptance, brand awareness, and usage. American Express is a distant third.

So it appears Amex has identified the problem. People might have an American Express card in their wallet, but they don’t think about pulling it out when they go to the grocery store or McDonald’s. People might use American Express for booking concert tickets (Front of the Line), plane tickets, business expenses, and when travelling, but don’t think of it as their “day to day” card.

In fact, I would be willing to bet American Express is by far the number one “corporate card” in Canada, but a distant third when it comes to personal cards. American Express EQUALS Business Card in many people minds.

So Amex launches a promotional campaign with a picture of a hamburger, to try at least, to get people to use their American Express card day to day. Not sure it will have much effect, but I guess if it causes 0.5% of people to use their Amex more, it would pay for itself.

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