The Great Trust Offensive

Companies as diverse as McDonald's, Ford, and American Express are revamping their marketing to win back that most valuable of corporate assets

BusinessWeek, September 17, 2009 — "The spark began where it always begins, at a restaurant downtown, in a shop on Main Street," intones a narrator as the camera lingers in a restaurant, bakery, and bike factory. "Entrepreneurs like these are the most powerful force in the economy. As we look to the future, they'll be there ahead of us." The music swells, and the narrator concludes: "While we're sure we don't know all the answers, we do know one thing for certain. We want to help."

The commercial, which began airing across the U.S. this summer, was developed by Ogilvy & Mather for American Express (AXP). Its mission: to cast AmEx not as a financial titan but as a humble service provider assisting mom and pops—establishments consumers typically like to support.

Bruised AmEx Returns to Roots†

Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2009 — American Express Co., after outclassing its rivals for the past 50 years, is looking uncomfortably like just another credit-card company.

AmEx is reeling from late payments and defaults by customers it aggressively wooed before the U.S. economy tumbled into recession. Its sterling reputation for customer service is under attack from longtime clients. Even cardholders with plenty of money are putting away their plastic, pushing shares of the New York company to a 12-year low.

AmEx Encourages Cardholders to Leave†

Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2009 — It used to be that credit-card companies lured customers with cash rewards. Now American Express Co. is paying to get rid of them. The card issuer is offering selected customers a $300 AmEx prepaid gift card if they pay off their balances and close their accounts.

Lux Brands Face Tough Balancing Act

By Kevin O'Donnell

Prophet, February 1, 2009 — Luxury brands face no small dilemma these days as they try to deliver growth without compromising cachet—all against the backdrop of a severe global recession that’s sure to challenge their fabled resistance to downturns. (Marketing News)

Four Strategies for Beleaguered Banks†

Financial-Services CMOs Need to Make Their Cases With Courageous Marketing Plans

Advertising Age, January 9, 2009 — There's an old British saying that where there's muck, there's brass. Right now the muck is the financial-services industry, and the brass is the massive opportunity in this $10 billion category for groundbreaking branding and marketing — one that rivals the defining of the dot-com era. Financial services, once one of America's most admired and valuable industries, has lost its luster and international standing, creating a multibillion-dollar brand vacuum.

Ads for Respected Brands Hit Racy Sites†

Brandweek, November 4, 2008 — As celebrity slip-ups continue to serve as fodder for a slew of gossip sites and blogs, more mainstream brands are finding their way onto these sites, despite their often-racy content. The big question is whether content of this variety is simply becoming more acceptable for marketers given its popularity, or whether negligent ad networks are placing messages on sites many brands would rather avoid. Both could be the case, said several media executives.

Resolved to Keep on Marketing, Even in Tight-Fisted Times

New York Times, October 20, 2008 — Attendees of a big annual conference for marketers, held here last week, could have been forgiven for believing they had stumbled into a symposium for scholars of American history in the 1930s.

These are some of the words and phrases heard during the conference, the 98th annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers: “financial crisis,” “scary,” “foreclosure,” “economic crisis,” “difficult times,” “the chaotic financial markets,” “devastating,” “under siege” and “unprecedented.”

Whether the members of the association — 400 companies that together spend an estimated $100 billion a year on advertising and other forms of marketing — are willing to stick to the spending plans they made “before the globe... continue reading

AmEx's Hip Cards to End†

Niche Offerings Fail to Generate Enough Demand

Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2008 — American Express Co. is pulling the plug on a much-hyped line of credit cards that were aimed at attracting young and affluent customers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The company, which has been weighed down by rising delinquencies and a slowdown in consumer spending, is also discontinuing three other niche cards that were aimed at engaged couples, newlyweds and avid golf fans.

AmEx Invites Card Members To Help Change The World

MediaPost Publications, May 18, 2007 — AMERICAN EXPRESS IS INVITING ITS card members (formerly known as holders) to participate in an initiative designed to generate ideas for making positive change in the world and raise money to make it happen. "The Members Project," which launched this month, invites consumers to membersproject.com, where they can submit and rate project ideas, join discussions on message boards and vote to choose one idea that the company will help bring to life with up to $5 million. The promotion ties in with American Express' new brand campaign, "Are You a Cardmember," which highlights the value of being part of the AmEx community.

Only the Strongest CMOs Will Survive

Senior-Level Marketers Must Anticipate and Embrace a Massive Reinvention of the Marketing Function

CMO Strategy by AdAge, January 29, 2007 — Over the past two years, my contributions to Advertising Age have ultimately supported a single theme: Our fast-changing world is forcing a massive reinvention of the marketing function and its leadership. And those senior-level marketers who can't anticipate and embrace the implications and opportunities will be marginalized, at best, in their roles.