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Even their advertising is a mess. Their imagery suggests that they are deeply embarrassed by large subsets of their customers – older people, white people, non-metropolitan men. You will never find a white middle-aged man in their adverts, even though that group has enormous spending power.
Why would they spend money trying to attract a demographic that is already well aware of their products?
Perhaps because you don’t want to make your existing customers think they’re weird, out of place and and unwanted when they use your product? It’s a teeny-weeny bit risky to dismiss the customers you already have.
Amex is in no way a company that I regard as aspirational or relevant to me. I engage with it purely on a transactional basis, and with no sense of trust or loyalty.
Fair point on trust – it’s important to people that they can trust a company will deliver what it’s supposed to.
But loyalty? I don’t know why anyone would feel loyalty to any company, unless it’s perhaps a small local business. I’ll certainly never have loyalty to any large national/multinational company, regardless. If they provide the service as required, I’ll continue to use that company, but as soon as they are not fit for purpose I’ll find another. While I’m a member of various loyalty schemes, it’s purely transactional, as it should be.
Amex is in a mess from a customer perspective. The website looks 20 years out of date, is slow, clunky and frequently fails in part for days at a time. The app is nearly as dated. Offers are plunging. Customer service lines are slow and clueless. Complaints aren’t resolved within FCA deadlines. Churners are subsidised by loyal customers. Card benefits are a random mismatch with little focus.
Even their advertising is a mess. Their imagery suggests that they are deeply embarrassed by large subsets of their customers – older people, white people, non-metropolitan men. You will never find a white middle-aged man in their adverts, even though that group has enormous spending power.
Amex is in no way a company that I regard as aspirational or relevant to me. I engage with it purely on a transactional basis, and with no sense of trust or loyalty.
Re your point on adverts, that is the case with adverts for any company and has been the situation about three years now. It’s utterly ridiculous.
Here’s a middle aged white man in an Amex advert for those triggered by the sight of people who don’t look exactly like them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IzUpBVuMs
Even their advertising is a mess. Their imagery suggests that they are deeply embarrassed by large subsets of their customers – older people, white people, non-metropolitan men. You will never find a white middle-aged man in their adverts, even though that group has enormous spending power.
Why would they spend money trying to attract a demographic that is already well aware of their products?
Perhaps because you don’t want to make your existing customers think they’re weird, out of place and and unwanted when they use your product? It’s a teeny-weeny bit risky to dismiss the customers you already have.
Unless they are racist, these people know they are not weird. If you feel weird by seeing these adverts, well, we all know the reason why.
If anyone is after 70+ offers, mainly with obscure (to me) fashion retailers then Virgin still has you covered. Fear not! Sweaty Betty is among them.
I seldom look at credit card offers to be honest (the regular annual statement credits such as HN or Dell are exponentially more useful as you can plan around them). I take the view that if anything life-changing popped up it would be discussed here anyway…
I’ve just noticed £10 back at Chiquito’s and Frankie & Benny’s, but sadly both my local branches closed down during the pandemic!
Amex is in no way a company that I regard as aspirational or relevant to me. I engage with it purely on a transactional basis, and with no sense of trust or loyalty.
Fair point on trust – it’s important to people that they can trust a company will deliver what it’s supposed to.
But loyalty? I don’t know why anyone would feel loyalty to any company, unless it’s perhaps a small local business. I’ll certainly never have loyalty to any large national/multinational company, regardless. If they provide the service as required, I’ll continue to use that company, but as soon as they are not fit for purpose I’ll find another. While I’m a member of various loyalty schemes, it’s purely transactional, as it should be.
Loyalty isn’t just about loyalty schemes. None of the top tier hotel brands has a loyalty scheme as such, yet they offer greater benefits for loyal customers than those chains that have complex points schemes. In finance, the Nationwide and NFU don’t have any gimmicks/loyalty programme yet they offer some of the best value products on the market and have exceptionally high retention/renewal rates. Neither Asda nor Waitrose has an earn/burn scheme.
I understand the concept of just being transactional, but in my experience, making it more of a two way street yields far better results.
Amex is in a mess from a customer perspective. The website looks 20 years out of date, is slow, clunky and frequently fails in part for days at a time. The app is nearly as dated. Offers are plunging. Customer service lines are slow and clueless. Complaints aren’t resolved within FCA deadlines. Churners are subsidised by loyal customers. Card benefits are a random mismatch with little focus.
Even their advertising is a mess. Their imagery suggests that they are deeply embarrassed by large subsets of their customers – older people, white people, non-metropolitan men. You will never find a white middle-aged man in their adverts, even though that group has enormous spending power.
Amex is in no way a company that I regard as aspirational or relevant to me. I engage with it purely on a transactional basis, and with no sense of trust or loyalty.
Re your point on adverts, that is the case with adverts for any company and has been the situation about three years now. It’s utterly ridiculous.
Here’s a middle aged white man in an Amex advert for those triggered by the sight of people who don’t look exactly like them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IzUpBVuMs
Clearly a successful middle age white-man (sorry for the redudant adjectives) would feel weird seeing an advert where one of us choses such a poor Amex card? This is the one ad where a woman of colour in a rainbow shirt should be used.
Even their advertising is a mess. Their imagery suggests that they are deeply embarrassed by large subsets of their customers – older people, white people, non-metropolitan men. You will never find a white middle-aged man in their adverts, even though that group has enormous spending power.
Why would they spend money trying to attract a demographic that is already well aware of their products?
Perhaps because you don’t want to make your existing customers think they’re weird, out of place and and unwanted when they use your product? It’s a teeny-weeny bit risky to dismiss the customers you already have.
Unless they are racist, these people know they are not weird. If you feel weird by seeing these adverts, well, we all know the reason why.
It might be better to have an intelligent conversation instead of slinging insults.
The demographic make-up (not just race) of Amex’s advertising is so far removed from the UK population and from its probable customer base that I can only conclude that Amex selects its actors primarily on the grounds of race and age. I find that disturbing and weird. Don’t you?
Given Amex’s marketing department seems to be obsessed regard race and age as a big issue in how Amex is to be portrayed, it feels out of place to be part of a group that they have deliberately singled out as not representing them. That’s not racist in any sense of the word that I understand.
Amex is in no way a company that I regard as aspirational or relevant to me. I engage with it purely on a transactional basis, and with no sense of trust or loyalty.
Fair point on trust – it’s important to people that they can trust a company will deliver what it’s supposed to.
But loyalty? I don’t know why anyone would feel loyalty to any company, unless it’s perhaps a small local business. I’ll certainly never have loyalty to any large national/multinational company, regardless. If they provide the service as required, I’ll continue to use that company, but as soon as they are not fit for purpose I’ll find another. While I’m a member of various loyalty schemes, it’s purely transactional, as it should be.
Loyalty isn’t just about loyalty schemes. None of the top tier hotel brands has a loyalty scheme as such, yet they offer greater benefits for loyal customers than those chains that have complex points schemes. In finance, the Nationwide and NFU don’t have any gimmicks/loyalty programme yet they offer some of the best value products on the market and have exceptionally high retention/renewal rates. Neither Asda nor Waitrose has an earn/burn scheme.
I understand the concept of just being transactional, but in my experience, making it more of a two way street yields far better results.
Btw Asda has Asda Rewards, I’ve a £1 voucher in my account.
Even their advertising is a mess. Their imagery suggests that they are deeply embarrassed by large subsets of their customers – older people, white people, non-metropolitan men. You will never find a white middle-aged man in their adverts, even though that group has enormous spending power.
Why would they spend money trying to attract a demographic that is already well aware of their products?
Perhaps because you don’t want to make your existing customers think they’re weird, out of place and and unwanted when they use your product? It’s a teeny-weeny bit risky to dismiss the customers you already have.
Unless they are racist, these people know they are not weird. If you feel weird by seeing these adverts, well, we all know the reason why.
It might be better to have an intelligent conversation instead of slinging insults.
The demographic make-up (not just race) of Amex’s advertising is so far removed from the UK population and from its probable customer base that I can only conclude that Amex selects its actors primarily on the grounds of race and age. I find that disturbing and weird. Don’t you?
Given Amex’s marketing department seems to be obsessed regard race and age as a big issue in how Amex is to be portrayed, it feels out of place to be part of a group that they have deliberately singled out as not representing them. That’s not racist in any sense of the word that I understand.
A) Have you considered they might be trying to attract a consumer base that isn’t you? Why would they try to market to you if you already have their product?
B) Ask yourself honestly why you care. Is your ego too fragile to handle an ad that doesn’t reflect you? If so, that’s as weird as being racist IMO.
C) Did you conveniently ignore my above comment linking to an ad with a white male protagonist?Here’s a middle aged white man in an Amex advert for those triggered by the sight of people who don’t look exactly like them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IzUpBVuMs
Sh*te! Do we all look and act like him? God help us all then!!!
I can’t say that advertising elicits any kind of response in me, or as a middle-aged white woman I’d be purchasing funeral plans, incontinence pads, cruise tickets and whatever “Jane Plan” is. It’s a bit bizarre to consider getting a product just because the person in the advert shares some characteristics with you.
I’m probably an advertising department’s worst nightmare!
*I just watched that Amex ad out of curiosity and don’t think it’s wise to make financial decisions on what is clearly meant to be a comedy sketch. The guys are quite funny but would I want their advice about a financial product? I think not.
…
A) Have you considered they might be trying to attract a consumer base that isn’t you? Why would they try to market to you if you already have their product?That was precisely my original point, so I completely agree with what you are saying. Amex seems to want a new consumer base; I am warning that they need to be careful they don’t lose their existing base or their business model will be toast.
B) Ask yourself honestly why you care. Is your ego too fragile to handle an ad that doesn’t reflect you? If so, that’s as weird as being racist IMO.
I care because my values echo those of St Paul and the New Testament: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.” I hate division in society, and I hate a conscious choice being made to select actors on the basis of their sex or ethnicity. I would be equally concerned if Amex only marketed to men or to white people, as I dislike being associated with businesses that view their customers through the lens of sex or race.
C) Did you conveniently ignore my above comment linking to an ad with a white male protagonist?
Not ignored – my comment about no middle-aged white males was deliberately hyperbolic. England and Wales are about 80% white and 4% black, and about 2/3 of adults are over 40. Have a look at Amex’s website…does it remotely reflect the UK population?
Advertisers think very carefully about the faces they choose to represent their brand. In choosing to move so far away from the UK’s core demography, Amex is making a very deliberate statement. It’s not unreasonable for consumers to reflect, comment and act on that.
Your values include telling strangers you think non-white faces are a “very deliberate statement”?
If people decide to walk from Amex because they have black people on their website, they’re probably racist.
As much as you might not believe it — maybe you are too?
@executiveclubber, name-calling adds nothing to an argument. I don’t think you read anything that I said, so I won’t bother to respond.
I agree with @jj amd it’s not just Amex. I sometimes amuse myself with other companies’ advertisements too by asking myself ‘Who does tbis brand think is their customer’? Looking at some ads, I can reverse engineer their grid of “Oh look, yummy Mummy around 30-32 years old with 2 mixed race children, Afro absolutely on-trend hairstyle, let’s see how many boxes we’ve ticked there’. Then go on to do the same for the rest of the ad. I end up feeling lonely at the end as there’s no one like me included and that brand, which I may be an avid user of, is telling me so.
So yeah companies do need to attract changing types of custoners to stay alive but to still integrate their existing base and in the last 3 years or so the profiling incompleteness in ads and illustrations is so heavy handed and constant for so many brands.
Personally, for the UK, i think to be fair Indian subcontinent heritages are underrepresented in ads and illustrations. If they are going to profile so obviously, more advertisers could at least get this right for the UK.
Amex being American, it’s even possible the US guidelines have been rolled out to all English speaking countries without allowing sufficient local adaptation?
@executiveclubber, name-calling adds nothing to an argument. I don’t think you read anything that I said, so I won’t bother to respond.
I literally quoted some of what you said verbatim in my reply. Asking if you’re racist isn’t name-calling even if it may make you uncomfortable.
Under your veneer of statistics, hyperbole and values lies an overt and frankly pathetic racial bias that makes for uncomfortable reading — I don’t think it belongs on this site —
do GB News have a forum?Afro absolutely on-trend hairstyle, let’s see how many boxes we’ve ticked there
It’s sad that you feel the need to do this
@ExecutiveClubber sorry but you’ve got completely the wrong end of the stick. It is indeed box ticking and deliberately, if unfortunately unskilfully done, that draws my attention. I’ll always remember a fellow student, of Asian heritage, saying advertisers thought someone of African heritage represented her just because they were non-white and it was far more complex than that.
Coca Cola’s ads have been getting it right for at least 30-40 years. Amex, many other financial providers, and hotel groups, to give some examples, are laughably far behind. Supermarkets and mass market retail do it better but still not subtle. Look at Dove, a top moneymaker for Unilever, right from the beginning of that brand and still going strong and see how it’s done inclusively.
Lady London has it spot on (and JJ). Far more eloquently put than I could dream of. Fact remains the advertising in this country is so unreflective of the demographic of the UK it is laughable. Doesn’t make anyone ‘racist’ to point it out. It’s extremely tiresome that every time someone mentions race there is invariably a knee jerk accusation of racism that quite frankly I am always tempted to dismiss as pure virtue signalling.
Doesn’t matter what the context either and it’s not just adverts. It’s pretty much everything on screen and print. I just wish what’s presented to me as a reflection of life in the UK bore some relation to reality.@executiveclubber, name-calling adds nothing to an argument. I don’t think you read anything that I said, so I won’t bother to respond.
I literally quoted some of what you said verbatim in my reply. Asking if you’re racist isn’t name-calling even if it may make you uncomfortable.
Under your veneer of statistics, hyperbole and values lies an overt and frankly pathetic racial bias that makes for uncomfortable reading — I don’t think it belongs on this site —
do GB News have a forum?@ExecutiveClubber sorry but you’ve got completely the wrong end of the stick. It is indeed box ticking and deliberately, if unfortunately umskilfully done. I’ll always remember a fellow student, of Asian heritage, saying advertisers thought someone of African heritage represented her just because they were non-white and it was far more complex than that.
Coca Cola’s ads have beeb getting it right for at least 30-40 years. Amex, msny financial providers, and hotel groups, to give some examples, are laughably far behind. Supermarkets and mass market retail do it better but still not subtle. Look at Dove, a top moneymaker for Unilever, right from the beginning of that brand and still going strong abd see how it’svdone inclusively.
@executiveclubber, name-calling adds nothing to an argument. I don’t think you read anything that I said, so I won’t bother to respond.
I literally quoted some of what you said verbatim in my reply. Asking if you’re racist isn’t name-calling even if it may make you uncomfortable.
Under your veneer of statistics, hyperbole and values lies an overt and frankly pathetic racial bias that makes for uncomfortable reading — I don’t think it belongs on this site —
do GB News have a forum?Despite your ongoing insults (‘frankly pathetic’ instant expression that’s used in civilised conversation), I’ll assume you’re trying to engage in good faith and try to explain again.
I did not say that ‘including black faces’ was a ‘very deliberate statement’, so you misquoted me. I said that Amex clearly chooses its advertising faces on the basis of race, and that race-based profiling was a very deliberate statement.
I despise the practice of treating people differently according to their race. That’s why I don’t associate with Amex’s values.
This is not about whiteness. Where are the Asians in Amex’s adverts? That’s a much larger demographic than black people.
That’s all quite a diversion from the “Amex Offers Plummet” which was a simple statement of fact and one of many negative indicators to add to minimum income requirements, lots of application rejections, card closures, end of pro-rata refunds, reduced customer service. Everyone is now paying for Amex going even crazier than normal (perhaps in response to Barclaycard Avios) handing out even its flagship card to all and sundry with all the inevitable consequences. Additionally, as Amex prizes disloyalty over its core historically loyal cardholders (to keep the plates spinning) Barclaycard has made much better inroads.
For what is really a marketing machine, Amex seems remarkably uninterested in its cardholders’ views and just assume that what works in the US must work here. Amex UK needs to wake up, listen and think about the product or their relative performance will continue to worsen.
For what it’s worth I agree with @ExecutiveClubber. I really can’t understand why showing diverse people in advertising would make anyone feel excluded. For a very long time advertising only showed us attractive white people, including in majority non-white countries. As a fairly-soon-to-be white middle aged male I have no problem with AmEx’s advertising.
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