American Express: Brand Presentation

History- Founded in 1850 in New York by Henry Wells, William G. Fargo, and John Butterfield, the American Express company (Amex) was much like FedEx, providing delivery services of money and goods between the east and west coasts. Most of its business clients were banks, which might be what inspired the company to start providing financial services. In 1882 American Express started offering money orders, and offered in 1891 the world’s first traveler’s cheque. Then, the company started establishing relationships in Europe and its international banking operations officially began in 1903. In 1906 American Express was given an exclusive contract to provide currency exchange to immigrants coming through Ellis Island. Finally, the first American Express credit card was issued in 1958.


Nowadays, this international group is present in travelling and in 4 domains in financial services:
- Business travelling & Exchange
- Corporate cards (issuing payment cards for Corporate companies)
- Payments cards for individuals and small business
- Monitoring the merchant network accepting Amex cards
Moreover, the company employs more than 60 000 persons around the world (130 countries).

The Brand - Not only is Amex an important company, but it is also a powerful brand. As a matter of fact, the group is the 24th international brand, according to the Interbrand ranking. To achieve this result, Amex has defined a vision and several values.



The vision: "We work hard every day to make American Express the world's most respected service brand"



The values also called the "Blue Box Values"

1.        Customer Commitment

2.        Quality

3.        Integrity

4.        Teamwork

5.        Respect for People

6.        Good Citizenship

7.        A Will to Win

8.        Personal Accountability

This vision and values are guidelines for all Amex employees but there are especially
strong elements of the American Express brand.

Concurrence & added-value - Contrary to its concurrents Visa and MasterCard, Amex is viewed as a high quality credit card service provider and its brand is associated to luxury.  Indeed, Amex cards are not aimed at everyone because apart from the high annual fees, the main eligibility criterion is the annual revenue. As a consequence, to understand the brand positioning, we need to get familiar with its products. Let’s take the example of individual credit cards in the French Market. 

The products

	PRY - American Express only					Cobrand - Air France KLM/ Amex
	Blue	Green	Gold	Platinum	Centurion	Silver	Gold	Platinum
Eligibility criteria: annual revenues	20 000 €	35 000 €	50 000 €	80 000 €	More than 100 000 €	20 000 €	30 000 €	65 000 €

The American Express cards are more than credit card because they provide many services and advantages. Here is a short list of them: 

•  Exclusive access to concerts, restaurants, private sales, private lounges (Airport lounges, Disney World lounges)

•  Access to special offers

• Access to a dedicated travel agency

• A Concierge Service that can help managing clients projects such as a trip organization or a wedding planning

• Gaining Miles® with the co-branded Air France KLM cards

To conclude, all these elements highlight American Express brand strategy. 

Sources : http://about.americanexpress.com/oc/whoweare/