Freequent Flyer brings up an interesting point in his most recent post when he asks whether Amex’s new Everyday cards will cannibalize Amex’s other cards, such as the Hilton and Delta cards.
I find this interesting because different product groups within a company sometimes find themselves competing against each other. If the Everyday card were to take market share from other Amex cards, we could see some pretty good sign-up bonuses from the other Amex cards coming later this year.
It all depends on how Amex organizes its card operations and what the management incentives are like. Presumably different people are responsible for hitting the numbers for the different cards under the Amex umbrella. If Amex puts out a new card that increases total credit card profits, that’s great for Amex, but if it’s at the expense of the Delta or Hilton cards, that’s bad news for the careers of whoever’s managing those cards.
Those poor VPs could point to the Everyday launch and argue that expectations should be revised downward for the cannibalized products. Would the upper brass buy that argument? Maybe, maybe not. If they don’t buy it, then you’ve got product managers in the second half of the year who are desperate to make their numbers even if it comes at the expense of future profits.
And that’s when you’d start seeing sign-up bonuses for 100,000 Skymiles or HHilton HHonors PPoints.
I doubt we’ll see that, since as best I can tell the Everyday is going after a different market segment, plus I don’t know a darn thing about how Amex is run. But still, speculating is fun.
It beats real work, anyway.
“It beats real work, anyway.” Great punch line.
I want to chime in with what some commenter said earlier this week. Your writing is punchy and fun to read. I check for my fix daily and usually get a smile out of it. Keep it up.
Thanks Neil! As always, I appreciate the kind words. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “When it comes to compliments, bloggers are ravenous blood-sucking monsters always wanting more… more… more…”