OPEN: More than a card…

Posted at August 11, 2009 // Promotion, Public relations, Strategy / Tactics

American Express OPEN posted an interview with Seth Godin yesterday. In case you didn’t know who Seth Godin is, he is a marketing guru with many successful books and writes one of the most widely read marketing blogs.

I’m not a small business owner, so I was not familiar with the OPEN forum till this article was brought to my attention. Upon playing around for a bit, I found this forum most interesting, and it isn’t just because it hosted a variety of interesting contents.

Credit, at the end of the day, is a commodity. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, etc., offer basically the same thing. So, how do you differentiate? You offer something more. In the case of American Express OPEN, they offer information small businesses can use, about finances and otherwise. In this case, marketing and running a business in this economy. This feeds right into their position of being the credit solution for small business owners.

Now, how valuable is this information to small business owners? Are they really reading it? Are they truly interacting with it?

Does it matter?

Maybe not.

It’s not the fact that they are providing the information to small business owners that’s helpful in their positioning. It’s the fact that they are establishing themselves to be dedicated to providing the information to small business owners that is truly differentiating. It doesn’t just position OPEN to be the expert in small businesses, it also positions OPEN to be a partner for small business owners.

This creates a positive feedback loop. The better their consumers do, in part because of the information OPEN provides, the more business they can afford to do with OPEN. The more relying they are to the information OPEN provides, the more loyal they are to OPEN. Then, more small business owners think and act this way, the bigger share OPEN has within this segment. With the bigger share, OPEN can more effectively serve this segment.

So, are you dedicated to go that extra mile, to help your consumers with their specific needs?

Photo credit: I Scream, originally uploaded by voteprime.