American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), unlike their competitors, has had its finger on the pulse of its customers mobile and social use for some time. The company is quite savvy to say the least.
The company used a number of strategies to integrate their brand into the growing social media lives of their customers in a profitable and sustainable way. Monday saw American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) enter into a relationship with Twitter that will allow their cardholders, once their card is synced with twitter, to make purchases simply by tweeting a specific hash-tag. In a Groupon manner, American Express will be providing their customers with special deals each day. If a customer is interested, he/she only needs to tweet the specific hash-tag. Following this step, the cardholder will receive a request for confirmation via Twitter. Once the customer confirms the purchase, his or her card will be charged and the product will be shipped immediately.
Following this announcement, it’s no surprise that the news was not going viral on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Rather, and this makes a tremendous amount of sense, Twitter became the moderator for this debate. This debate includes a number of questions from the practical to the ethical.
Firstly? Do your followers want to see what you are purchasing? Yes and no. Let’s say you follow LL Cool J, a recent over-the-top Twitter promoter as he hosted the Grammy Awards on Sunday, it’s clear you care what this person is saying. Following that logic, it’s not difficult to imagine that the same follower would be interested in his purchases. At the same time, my followers are probably not nearly as interested and will find this Tweet trite and of no value to them. This is to say nothing of the confirmation tweet that follows and will probably annoy.
This, however, for American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) just works alright. Twitter will undoubtedly go a long ways towards building knowledge of the specials on offer and sales should follow.
The ethical question, in my opinion, is moot. Won’t this make it too easy to make impulse purchases? No. Easy? Certainly. A wise man once suggested that ” a fool and his money are soon parted,” and he was right. It is after all his money and ask yourself…..is it foolish to purchase a Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire HD for $149.99, which currently ranges from $199 to $240 on Amazon.com? Asking this question about impulse purchasing is like saying McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is responsible for keeping you thin and should make their Big Mac fat and gluten free. There is no ethical conundrum.
Details of the deal were not disclosed but my Kindle Fire is on the way to my house.
