American Express Company: Do More campaign

Mark Lane

In 1996, American Express launched a new advertising campaign to address its declining market share to its main competitors Visa and Mastercard.

American Express Company: Do More campaign

Mark Lane

OVERVIEW

The American Express Company (AmEx) was long associated with the celebrities whose appearance in print campaigns was meant to position "membership" in its credit-card brand as the domain of a privileged few. But AmEx's elitist brand image became a serious hindrance in the 1980s and 1990s. Rivals such as Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International had been using their own marketing to exploit the fact that their card brands were accepted more universally than AmEx, and by 1996 their gains had significantly eroded AmEx's market share. The launch of a new umbrella...

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