If you are like me, you probably can’t help noticing the increased velocity of new American Express partnership offers. As an American Express BLUE cardholder, I’ve always received a decent amount of special offers and communications.
But, what was a babbling stream has turned into a veritable torrent of offers. In my mailbox, it has reached a velocity of about 2 mailings/week on “earn points with this partner” or “get a special discount with that partner”. Their Facebook book page has also ramped up activity. From the looks of it, they post a new partnership offer every other day or so.
But, the one that really caught my attention was an email that offered to spiff me for the first 5 iTunes I bought using my American Express credit card.
Why do I consider that notable? Well, 5 or 6 years ago, American Express blazed a trail in systematically cultivating new card usage behaviors – “earn double points at the [grocery store / fuel pump].” Now, they are reaching down even further and cultivating the desired behavior of using my card for micro-payments – like this example for iTunes.
Talk about a juggernaut of transforming what was a T&E-only card to a “use it for everyday expenses” card. What is your take on this practice? Do you have other examples of motivating desired behaviors for card activation and usage?
