The Shame of American Express

I have to admit that I have always been a bit of a sucker when it comes to the cache associated with having an American Express Card. As a marketer myself, I know that I have been taken in by very clever marketing that makes its card holders feel like exclusive club members. Very clever and very effective.

So imagine how disappointed I was in the brand when I read the following paragraph:


"In some instances, if it (American Express) didn’t like what it was seeing, the company has cut customer credit lines. It laid out this logic in letters that infuriated many of the cardholders who received them. “Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped,” one of those letters said, “have a poor repayment history with American Express.”

I could hardly believe my eyes. American Express was cutting customers' credit lines because they shopped at the same place as someone who defaulted on their repayments. How could they possibly do something so ludicrous? Severing relationships with perfectly good customers because there was a slim chance that in the future they just might default on a payment?

Instantly, my love affair with American Express ground to a halt. All the good will that I had felt towards them over the years, vanished in an instant. Luckily for American Express I don't have a card with them at the moment, or I would be canceling it on the spot.

They obviously completely failed to see the damage that this would cause to their brand and that the 400 or 500 clients they might have sent such ill conceived correspondence to, would soon turn into many thousands if not millions of people who knew about it - word of mouth guys, remember?

Barbie is Clearly Into the Botox!

I just read an article called 'Bring on the Botox - Barbie Hits 50'. The article focused on all the celebrations that were taking place to celebrate her 50th birthday, but to my mind one significant thing was missing. An iconic Barbie to celebrate her coming of age that looked like a stunning 50 year old! I can see that to some people that might be a little 'icky' - after all we are so used to seeing Barbie looking like an impossibly thin 19 year old, but still it could have been a big hit. I am not saying make her wrinkly and squishy, after all there really are some amazing looking 50 year olds - but rather celebrate the joys of becoming 50 and perhaps even partner with a company like Dove that has embraced the use of 'real women' in its advertising.

In my personal opinion, it would have made Barbie seem more real and approachable, rather than a left over icon of the 1950's where women had to be perfect in every way.

The invisible Rebate!

I am dying to meet someone who has actually received a rebate from a cell phone company. Well, perhaps I should amend that to say anyone who has received a rebate without having to scream down the phone at the people in charge of handing out the rebates! You have to admit that it is a great sales gimmick. You go to the cell phone store and they quote you an incredibly attractive price on the phone after you have received your invisible rebate. In the back of your mind you realize that you still have to pay the full price up front but it won't be so bad once you get 50% of your money back.

So you pay up and off you go with your fancy new phone. Now I have to admit that a couple of times I have forgotten to even fill out the rebate form - something I am sure that the cell phone companies are counting on. However, there have been at least 2-3 times when I have laboriously filled the thing out thinking 'I'm going to make them give me the rebate this time'. Off it goes in the mail and then I forget about it (this is something that I think the cell phone companies are also hoping happens).

So, perhaps twice over my relatively long history of cell phone ownership, I have bothered to follow up. After a good hour on the phone with the rebate center I am near screaming point. Eventually I get someone on the phone who mumbles that it must still be in their system and to try back in another couple of weeks. You have to ask yourself 'is it worth it?' The benefit of the rebate seems like some long distant memory compared to the benefit of staying sane. Staying sane requires that I no longer have long, painful conversations with the rebate center at the cell phone company.

So they win! No rebate for me - again. Let's be honest here - this is a great sales tool. The invisible rebate. It get's me every time.

The Novelty of Lay Away

Everywhere I go, I see stores offering Layaway Plans - something that almost vanished until the economy started to go south. What a novel idea. We have to regularly put some money against the item we want to purchase rather than just shoving it on a credit card.

When I was down in Mexico a few years ago, my husband and I got sucked into listening to a very convincing sales pitch for a time share at a five star resort. We asked if we could return to North Carolina and think about it and were told 'no'. The sales person was even transparent enough to mention that 95% of their sales were made on the spot and that if potential customers went away to think about it, they inevitably decided against buying it. After a mere 30 seconds of second thoughts, we went ahead anyway. Put it down to the sun and a couple of tasty margeritas. Oh well.

If you apply the same dynamic to the difference between layaway and credit, we all would probably buy 50% less stuff. Shopping is often a slightly frenzied activity of seeing something and feeling like you have to have it - right now! Putting it on a credit card allows you to have it right now and worry about the credit card statement later. Putting something on layaway means that you have to adopt a sense of discipline and recognize that you are not going to get the item for quite a while - or at least until you have done some serious saving.

I think that stores are smart to offer layaway again now that everyone is feeling the economic pinch. However, I wouldn't be surprised to find that they aren't selling as much, now that people have the chance to go away and think about whether they really need the item that they are planning to purchase. Defaulting on the layaway is probably cheaper than paying off the credit card bill and accompanied with a few bonus 'that was a lucky break' emotions.

I wish I could have put that time share on layaway because then we could have had a moment to regain our sanity when we returned home.

Liquidation Sale Nonsense

The average American consumer is pretty used to sales these days. Most recently, both before and after Christmas, consumers were able to go to stores and expect discounts of 40%, 50% and even 60% off. So knowing that this is most consumers' frame of reference, what is it with these liquidation sales? I am very sorry for all the people who work at a company that is going out of business - it is very scary and disruptive all around. However, when retailers go out of business it seems like the next step is to announce a liquidation sale, which most people flock to in the hope of getting a bargain that they couldn't get anywhere else.

However, my experience with liquidation sales is that by the time they offer you a discount worth considering, all that's left to buy is a few store fixtures.

My husband and I foolishly decided to try our luck at the Circuit City liquidation sale on Saturday - us and a few thousand other people who live in the area. As we were pulling into the parking lot, I observed that most people were leaving empty handed - not a good sign. Anyway, we still went in - once a lemming, always a lemming. Not only were they only offering discounts of 10% - hardly worth getting out of bed for - but it seemed like they had put up the prices in order to offer the supposed 10% price break.

The whole thing was so frustrating and such a waste of time that the only rationale that I could come up with was that there is a 'liquidation handbook' out there somewhere that says 'offer your poor, hapless customers 10% for the first couple of weeks, and then when they are on the point of giving up, go to 20%' and so on and so forth.

Having said that I guess that someone out there hits the liquidation sales at just the right moment so that they get the best merchandise for the lowest price, but it is never me.

Could someone explain to me how to get something out of a liquidation sale that is more than a bad headache?

What's a 'Missy'?

I was in conversation with a female buddy of mine earlier today and we started comparing notes regarding the way that most apparel retailers name their different women's clothing departments. Our conclusion - most retailers are desperately out of touch with the female mindset.

For a start, who wants to be thought of as a 'missy'? It reminds me of an old black and white movie in which a crusty grandfather says to his granddaughter 'you mind yourself little missy'. Or words to that effect. It makes no sense whatsoever, and rather than encouraging women into the department, we find ourselves sidling in and hoping no one sees us.

A more sensible name for this 'average sized' department would be 'womens', however this label now seems to have been handed to plus sized women. But they aren't happy either. Research has shown that women who do wear larger sizes don't want to be segregated off into a dark corner of the store with a large fluorescent arrow pointing down that says 'fat women shop here'. I mean good grief! Most women, whatever their size want the same range of quality styles and designs that are well made and comfortable. Old Navy is an example of a store that has very cleverly pursued a strategy of not deviding up juniors, womens/missy and womens/plus size. They have a range of styles that you can get in everything from an XS to an XXL. Good thinking Old Navy. No one has to slink off to a dusty corner this way.

Okay, so back to the department naming discussion. The department name 'juniors' is also horribly inappropriate. Most teenagers and young twenties that I have come across are dying to be seen as mature and grown up. They don't want to think of themselves as a 'junior', and why should they? Their male equivalents don't have to shop in a 'juniors' department. In fact, speaking of which 'junior' seems more appropriate to young boys than to young girls - wasn't there a young boy in a Leave it to Beaver type movie that was called Junior. Perfect - let the guys have the name. We give it up with pleasure.

So what's my solution? Copy Old Navy. Have different collections in the store represent different fashion needs - corporate, party, casual etc. - but leave our relative sizes out of the equation. We all want to shop together, just like we do everything else together - regardless of our size.

The One Item Sale!

I was driving along the road on Saturday morning and I saw a sign outside a home that I was approaching. It had all the characteristics of a Garage Sale sign but when I got closer I saw that it said 'Lazy-Boy Recliner' for Sale. Hmmm....I thought - the one item garage sale. Which got me thinking about the whole science of choice. I realized that if there had been many items for sale I might have stopped to have a browse, and I might have bought the Lazy-Boy. However, since there was no choice and no opportunity to browse, I had little desire to stop. I am inclined to believe that although many articles have been written in the past few years about the fact that consumers are now faced with an over-abundance of choice, that in reality we rather like it. At Factor 9 - my marketing to women group - we have identified one of the factors that affects a woman's product and brand choices as what we call 'the find'. This is all about our desire to not just buy an item, but actually go through the process of searching out just the right thing. Many people finding this searching part of the process quite exhilarating, and if we are denied this part of the overall process because there isn't a large enough selection to choose from, we will often decide to buy elsewhere. So I personally, am not convinced that there can be too much choice, especially for women. As long as the products and brands have a clear brand identity and are laid out in a way that is pleasing to the eye, I tend to have the belief that 'the more choice the better.'

The Science of Returns!

Having just returned from the holidays, the issue of 'returns' is fairly top of mind. Not that it dominates every waking moment, but just that it is capable of putting a damper on an otherwise rather fun time of year. Not having actually worked directly for a major retailer, I have no hard data to back this up, but my guess is that handling returned merchandise is fairly near the bottom of most stores' priority list, since their main focus is getting merchandise out of the store rather than taking it back.

However, I believe that when it comes to really making a retail brand appealing to women, far more emphasis should be placed on making returns an easy and stress-free experience. Women are far more likely to take note when a store 'solves a problem' for her without making it difficult, than they are when they are in the process of making a regular transaction.

One of the retailers that I had to make returns to over the holidays made me stand in line twice. Firstly, I had to stand in the freezing cold foyer of the store while they logged my merchandise into a mini computer and created a sticker to put on the things I was bringing back. It took ages and there was a near uprising in the line caused by the universal sense of frustration at the antiquated process. Once one had dragged oneself through this initial line, one then had to stand in another line at customer service. The whole thing nearly put me off ever going back to the store for anything.

Retailers take note - making it easier to bring stuff back, makes women more likely to buy more stuff next time!