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Lisa Hronek Posts Tagged ‘American Express’
Nextpedition: American Express Brings Together Social Media and Adventure Travel
Feeling adventurous? Then you should check out Nextpedition, a new take on travel, introduced by American Express. Through American Express’ Nextpedition website, you can build a custom-made trip based on your personal preferences, but the destination and itinerary will remain a mystery until the day you depart. To start, consumers take an online quiz to determine their travel profile, which includes questions about hobbies, interests and even social media activity. Consumers will find out what kind of traveler they are, defined by a “travel sign.” Examples of these signs include “Poshaholic,” “Hiplomat,” “Nature Junky” and more – talk about marketing segmentation, right?
To complete the entire process, travelers must also consult with a specially trained American Express Nextpedition Specialist who helps to create the mystery itinerary. Once everything is booked, travelers will receive a pre-programmed travel console/smart phone, which will communicate the itinerary to them day-by-day, and allow travelers to share their experiences on Facebook. Nextpedition trips are available for individual travelers or groups, they vary in price point starting at $1,000 for domestic and $2,500 for international, and there is a seven-day minimum duration.
The Nextpedition website intrigued me enough that I took the Travel Profiler myself. I went through 15 entertaining questions which were clearly aimed at differentiating the music-lovers from the sports fanatics and the foodies. Here are a couple sample questions:
The zombie apocalypse is real and they are attacking. What do you do?
a) Look up how vampires were dealt with in the middle ages
b) Search for an antidote, because there has to be a cure
c) Build a flamethrower out of an old grill and car parts
d) Grab a baseball bat and start swinging
e) Have a massive party, cause it’s all over anyway
While on your trip, a book will be written about you. What’s its title?
a) Eyes on Design
b) The Movable Feaster
c) The Architect of Sound
d) The Superfan
e) Off the Grid
At the end of the quiz I was deemed a “Gastronaut,” but I was also given runner-up options of “Blisstorian” and “Tasteblazer.” (I obviously fell into the foodie bucket.) Each runner-up travel sign came with a general description, and the ability to choose either if I thought it was a better fit for me. Once I had selected my preferred sign, I was given the option to post my travel sign to Facebook or start my Nextpedition planning. Interestingly, in order to start the Nextpedition, I was still required to sign into Facebook. Needless to say, this is a very social media-oriented program. Although I stopped the process at this point, I am pretty confident that it would have taken me all the way to a tasty new adventure.
Who knew holiday shopping could be so rewarding?
Using credit cards for holiday shopping offers many benefits such as convenience, peace of mind, purchase protection, and now extra rewards. In order to encourage usage this holiday season, many credit card companies are offering special cash back deals and savings opportunities. For example, Discover has a holiday-themed website featuring the tagline “Gifts for them. Rewards for you.” Discover’s website also features a special incentive offer of $150 cash back when you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days of opening a Discover Card.
According to USA Today, this isn’t Discover’s only promotion. Discover is also offering 5% to 10% more cash back on purchases at select retailers, but only if they are made through Discover’s Shop Discover. American Express is offering five times the rewards points on purchases from select retailers such as Apple and Target. And the Amazon.com rewards card offers extra rewards on digital downloads purchased during a limited time-frame. Comperemedia observed another special offer for the Amazon.com Rewards card, promoted in the email and digital channels. From November 15 through December 31, customers can earn 3 points for every $1 spent with the Amazon.com Rewards card through Checkout by Amazon. Checkout by Amazon is a feature available through many online merchants that ties all of your purchases back to your Amazon account, even if they are made on another website.
There are also many rewards that might not be as obvious. I happened to stumble upon the Small Business Saturday Facebook page and discovered that American Express is offering a $25 statement credit when you register an eligible American Express card and use that card to make a purchase of $25 or more at a small business on November 26th.
The holidays are quickly approaching, so it would be worth your while to take the time now to browse through some of the special deals out there and find the best card for the kind of shopping you like to do. Take the time and do some digging, it could be extremely rewarding.
Are you preferred?
The word “preferred” seems to be catching on when it comes to credit card marketing. Using “preferred” to convey a higher level of status isn’t new; however, the increasing number of recent product launches that have the word baked into the card name suggests that a trend is emerging.
Here is a list of preferred cards hitting U.S. mailboxes in 2011. Note that five of these seven products were launched/re-launched since the official end of the recession.
- American Express Blue Cash Preferred
- American Express Blue Sky Preferred
- American Express Starwood Preferred Guest
- Bank of America Business Preferred World MasterCard(charge card)
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Citi ThankYou Preferred
- Citi Diamond Preferred
Some history…
There was a time when owning a gold credit card meant something. In the 1990’s, if you owned a gold card, you had financial clout and the cache that went along with it. Then, Visa removed the $5,000 minimum credit limit requirement for gold cards and suddenly they were being offered to the masses. Platinum cards followed the same path – most subprime credit card offers these days are for platinum cards – prompting Visa to launch its Visa Signature card and MasterCard to launch its World and World Elite products, to distinguish premium cards from traditional offerings. These network platforms haven’t disappeared but their use in a marketing campaign is less obvious in today’s environment.
Given the ongoing economic uncertainty, most issuers continue to focus on premium cardholders and competition for new premium cardholders has become particularly intense. Issuers have been looking for new ways to differentiate themselves and the result has been a shift towards a tiered approach, based upon a single product, available with multiple pricing options. For example, there are four versions of the Citi ThankYou card: ThankYou, Preferred, Premier and Prestige, each offering different benefits and fees. Similarly, there are three versions of the new Bank of America Business Charge Card. Both Chase and American Express use the term “preferred” to distinguish the fee-based versions of their products from the no-fee based cards.
A tiered approach to card marketing is becoming more popular, as issuers attempt to carve up the premium segment. As a result I expect that we will see more issuers use the word “preferred” in their marketing materials in the coming months (or at least until something else becomes more popular).
Cupcakes for Points?
Rewards are confusing. It’s true. Even as a Comperemedia finance analyst, I don’t generally know how to redeem my points. Airfare, kitchen mixer, gift cards… what’s the best option? I love the simplicity of my cash card: every few months a chunk of my balance disappears without my help, but I know that it isn’t the most lucrative deal.
Chase and American Express are expanding the ways cardholders can redeem their rewards. Both issuers are offering cardholders the option to use points like cash to make purchases. Chase announced in June that it was upgrading Amazon.com cards by adding the feature “Amazon Shop with Points.” Cardholders can use the points earned on their Amazon.com cards to make purchases at the point of sale Amazon.com. The points can be redeemed at a rate of 1 point per 1 cent.
American Express made a similar announcement, offering cardholders the opportunity to use Membership Rewards points to buy Facebook ads. Small business cardholders can purchase ads with points through the OPEN Facebook page or the Membership Rewards website. No details about redemption rates were disclosed at the launch.
Using points as currency is likely to solidify the relationship between the Chase Amazon.com cardholder and Amazon.com by making the relationship more lucrative, and deepen the relationship between the Amex cardholder and the OPEN network by tying more business management features to the owners’ Amex cards. And making the process easier, by letting cardholders use the rewards at point-of-sale, instead of going through the rewards section of their credit card accounts can only help increase usage.
These redemption programs are easy to understand and alleviate the nagging feeling that I’m using my points wrong. It seems likely that more co-branded cards are likely to follow suit. Could this be a part of a new way of using rewards? Could they eventually be made into an actual currency, letting me use my points to buy a cupcake and a magazine at the corner shop? Even if a new super-convenient currency isn’t coming, I appreciate anything that helps me use my points better.