Retailers, especially smaller ones, were stopping accepting Amex, because they charged a premium over competitive cards.
Amex said this was because the people who carried Amex tended to be richer and spent more money.
But that was also the problem.
Amex had an image as only for the rich, not for the sort of people who shopped in small shops.
Small shops tended to think they didn’t need Amex.
Amex needed to repair the damage to their image among smaller businesses.
All at a time when smaller businesses were really being hurt by the financial meltdown.
Amex saw a way to put the two things together.
They launched “Small Business Saturday”.
A day when everyone would be encouraged to use small local shops.
They chose November 27th as the day.
The reasoning was that it was directly between ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’.
The two big shopping days in the US.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, when all the sales start, and everyone goes to the big stores.
Cyber Monday is when everyone who’s been window-shopping on Friday gets back to the office, and opens up their laptop to see how much cheaper they can buy it online.
Amex figured they could capitalise on this by choosing the Saturday directly between those two dates.
And helping small, local businesses is very much the mood of America.
For every $100 spent in small, local businesses, $68 of that recycles into other small, local businesses.
It stays in the area.
Whereas every $100 spent in big businesses disappears, straight out of the community.
So Amex advertised their ‘Small Business Saturday’ initiative.
They opened forums on Facebook, for people to write in with recommendations about their favourite small, local store.
They bought space on Facebook, and gave it away to local retailers for customised advertising.
They gave $25 vouchers away to everyone who shopped small.
They offered marketing advice to help small businesses take advantage of it all.
They even offered downloadable signage to help small businesses attract customers.
It began to take on a life of its own.
Helping small, local businesses was something everyone wanted to be seen to be part of.
Even the big guys like Hertz, CBS, FedEx, Delta, Yahoo, Verizon, The NY Post, Costco, Hewlett Packard.
And politicians were falling over themselves to show support.
Across America, 41 elected officials made speeches on TV, and thousands of news broadcasts across the US carried the stories.
How successful was it all?
Now Small Business Saturday is an annual event, everyone has a vested interest in making sure it’s a success every year.
But was it a success for Amex?
Certainly it changed Amex’s image amongst small retailers.
From a greedy corporate giant to a business that also cares about the little guy.
But, at the end of the day, business is business.
Did they give retailers a reason to accept Amex?
Well, the most important statistic of all is the one they can quote in all future communications.
There was a 28% boost in sales for small retailers who accepted Amex.
In other words, sales up nearly a third.
Which justifies the premium many times over.
