American Express began as a freight forwarding company in the 1850s, then repositioned as a travel agency, a financial and consulting services company. By recognizing that technology has changed the way people communicate and transact with one another, American Express understands the scope and role of internet technology on the travel market. The corporation turned itself into the booming sector of online services and became an interactive business player in a wide array of services. Today, American Express, known as Amex, is a multi-billion dollar corporation that has reshaped its services and operates more than 1700 travel service locations in over 130 countries across the globe.
First, this paper analyzes the travel agency services, and focuses on the organization of the Internet site, the innovative marketing techniques, the type of advertising campaigns, and the external promotion of the web site. Second, the author evaluates the technology employed by the company, and the security used to secure their web site.
The Web site
American Express (Amex) is a global corporation that used advanced internet technology to reposition and diversify its marketing methods to attract a larger market. To keep its status of the largest travel agency around the world, the company took the challenge to expand its travel agencies through a well-developed web site. In 1995, American Express launched ExpressNet, a web site dedicated to travel services; then in 1996, the corporation introduced American Express Travel on the Web.
The main website www.americanexpress.com, offers an apparently discrete and simple site map. The services and products are reachable from clickable words or icons. When a customer is accustomed with the website, he o...
... middle of paper ...
...rieved July 1
BBC Sport British Broadcasting. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/brighton/8753418.stm
Chenault, K. The New York Times, Saturday, July 3, 2010. Retrieved from http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/american-express-to-buy-revolution-money/
Computer World Report, Special Report, 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2010. Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com/spring/bp/detail/717
Costco. Retrieved from http://www.costco.com/Service/FeaturePage.aspx?ProductNo=11492592
Havir, E. on LinkedIn. Retrieved from http://www.linkedin.com/in/ehavir
Mivar Press, 2004 Pioneering Captive Centers. Retrieved from http://manexiny.com/manexiny/americanexpress.pdf
The Newsletter of National Car Rental – Middle East. Retrieved June 29, 2010 from http://www.national-me.com/downloads/nlpdf/N_Newsletter_No5.pdf
Values of Arrow/Schweber (A/S): Being as the subsidiary of the No.1 distributor of electronic parts company Arrow Electronic, A/S is able to provide customers low price electronic parts and add-value system design solution. A/S also creates demand and provides the inventory buffer for suppliers. The Customer benefits from A/S of low cost parts, technical support and short delivery lead time. And suppliers benefit from A/S of hassle-free sales. Internet trading service Express creates one more level to the existing value chain (Exhibit 1). Express allows A/S to have opportunity to sell product to potential customers. And customers can place order on different distributors. But whether this business model is valuable to the customer especially to small OEM and CM is questionable. Although transactional customers are price sensitive, time to market is also critical to them. They prefer to place entire order within one company to make sure the short delivery lead time. Under this circumstance, jumping into the Express boat is not a wise decision for A/S.
American Express has been known as a commodity to most business travelers. In order to build its customer base, other consumers need to see the card as an indispensable convenience in their lives. American Express offers convenient methods to obtain account information, pay bills, find discounted products, and even make travel plans via the Internet. The Internet site offers these options, as well as other services, such as on- line help and assistance for small businesses. American Express realizes the need for many consumers to save time and money, but to still feel important and respected. The ingenuity and thought put into the services offered on the web site shows that American Express is genuinely concerned with the satisfaction of its customers.
Slowly but surely Quantum started providing more services and eventually changed its name to American Online in 1991. By 1994 AOL had 1,000,000 members and had bought Redgate Communications, NaviSoft, BookLink Technologies, and ANS. (Who We Are, 2001) Similarly in 1996 AOL had set up in France, United Kingdom, and Canada, with plans to be in Japan. Now with more than seven million members, a deal is reached for unlimited use per month for $19.95. For the last four years the business has grown into a giant corporation. As of this year AOL has exceeded 31 million members and merged with Time Warner. (WWA, 2001) With this many members, it shows AOL must have an outstanding internet service.
Amway is a multi-level marketing (MLM, also known as network marketing) company founded in 1959. The company's name is an abbreviation of "American Way. Its product lines include personal care products, jewelry, dietary supplements, water purifiers, air purifiers and cosmetics as well as other products from top brands.
Throughout its history, FedEx has been a leader in the transportation and information industry. In 1965, Yale University undergraduate Frederick W. Smith wrote a term paper about the passenger route systems used by most airfreight shippers, which he viewed as economically inadequate. Smith wrote of the need for shippers to have a system designed specifically for airfreight that could accommodate time-sensitive shipments such as medicines, computer parts and electronics. In August of 1971 following a stint in the military, Smith bought controlling interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales, located in Little Rock, Ark. While operating his new firm, Smith identified the tremendous difficulty in getting packages and other airfreight delivered within one to two days. This dilemma motivated him to do the necessary research for resolving the inefficient distribution system. Thus, the idea for Federal Express was born: a company that revolutionized global business practices and now defines speed and reliability. Federal Express was so-named due to the patriotic meaning associated with the word "Federal," which suggested an interest in nationwide economic activity. At that time, Smith hoped to obtain a contract with the Federal Reserve Bank and, although the proposal was denied, he believed the name was a particularly good one for attracting public attention and maintaining name recognition. The company incorporated in June 1971 and officially began operations on April 17, 1973, with the launch of 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport. On that night, Federal Express delivered 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities from Rochester, NY, to Miami, Fla. Company headquarters were moved to Memphis, Tenn., a city selected for its geographical center to the original target market cities for small packages. In addition, the Memphis weather was excellent and rarely caused closures at Memphis International Airport. The airport was also willing to make the necessary improvements for the operation and had additional hangar space readily available. In the mid-1970s, Federal Express took a leading role in lobbying for air cargo deregulation that finally came in 1977.
The Internet boom of the 1990’s gave rise to the popularity of America Online AOL and Time Warner saw themselves at a crossroads where old and new media would become one. The histories of both AOL and Time Warner are extensive and have not always been successful. Time Warner itself was created by two mega-mergers. The first merger was in 1989 between Time Inc., publisher of many magazines such as Time Magazine, and Warner Communications. Both companies have histories stretching as far back as 75 years or so. In 1996, this company merged with Turner Broadcasting, which brought CNN with its founder Ted Turner. These two mergers created a company ready to lead in any form of media. The company launched the HBO television network. Time Warner, headquartered in New York, had $27.3 billion in revenues in 1999 and a market value of $112.6 billion. On the other side of the merger there is new media giant AOL, today the biggest, richest, and most successful internet company in the world. It was founded in 1985 as Quantum Computer Services and by 1994, after changing its name, had a million subscribers. In its early years, it almost fell because of the problems associated with introducing unlimited access for a fixed monthly fee. As its number of users increased, so did its capacity problems, which made many customers angry because they could not get a connection. The problem was solved when AOL made a deal with MCI WorldCom, which led merge with its rival CompuServe.
American Express (AE) traditionally found it difficult and expensive ($250) to find new customers. Affluent areas were selected and everyone within the neighbourhood received a mail shot. AE specifically target the high end market with their value added personal cards that offer additional products and services to the cardholder.
Some acquisitions were Tiger International Inc. in 1989 and Evergreen International Airlines. With the former, Federal Express “became the world’s largest full-service, all-cargo airline” while the later gave it “aviation rights to the world’s most populous nation” of China. On a global scale, Federal Express serves and operates in over 220 countries and territories. However, the name FedEx was not incorporated until 1998 with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. It was through this that we came to have FedEx Express, FedEx Ground (RPS), FedEx Global Logistics (Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology), FedEx Freight (American Freightways and Viking Freight) etc. Many more acquisitions have also been part of FedEx’s history. However, let us now discuss the executive leadership team behind
Amazon has recorded a magnificent success in its business throughout the years that it has been in operation. It has attracted almost all people to use it when necessary. Amazon has built its success in business methodically and slowly. Amazon has made much success because of its ability to read market trends and diversify its operations. It started as an online book selling company. However, it changed its operations and started selling other products. Currently, many large retail shops use Amazon to host and power their websites, for instance, sears and virgin megastores. Amazon now attracts over fifty million visitors in a period of one month. Amazon has tried to make their services fit each individual user. It has based its services on the end user. It has shipping discounts, customer product reviews and a credit card with bonuses. It also has prime membership, product forums and 1-click ordering system among other services. The company has tried to make a remarkable experience for customers and visitors (Thomas, 2006).
American Express is a world wide travel related service company. American Express works with both consumers and business with their financial planning as well as offers numerous amounts of credit card products and travel assistance. They have many products and services that are used throughout the world by consumers and businesses. As American Express moves towards the future, like most credit card companies, they want to be competitive and responsive to the needs of the consumer.
There are factors which are affecting the consumer behavior in Tourism are Safety and mature consumers, Web, Pricing and tourism studies. The web is considered one of the important factors, which have been argued by the authors about its importance in terms of its influencing acknowledgment.
From being able to book online to social media being free advertisement, the Internet has taken traveling to a whole level. Travelweb.com emerged in 1994 as the first comprehensive catalogue of hotel properties around the world. Booking capabilities were added a short time later. In 1996, still popular Expedia.com was launched and its website offered online bookings for hotels, air and car rentals all in one. Later in 1996, a site known as Travelocity was launched. The Internet allows consumers to search, buy and share destinations in the touch of a button. New opportunities emerged to provide travelers with more information about hotels they were booking as the development of the Internet accelerated. The Internet has had many affects on the travel agent. Closure of many small agencies, tour operators merging, the web being easier to search for holidays and quicker to book are just a few ways the travel agent has been affected by the introduction of the internet. Though the Internet did, at first, somewhat replace the travel agent, agencies have found ways to grow with the
Unlike Visa and MasterCard, American Express and Discover are not joint ventures, but are investor-owned, for-profit corporations. They issue all of their respective brands’ cards and they alone determine the pricing and other features of those cards...
FedEx is best known for its by-line of “when it absolutely, positively has to get there”. This is but one reason FedEx is the leader in the industry. Fred Smith founded FedEx in April of 1973. Smith incorporated such management principles that have made FedEx an overnight success. These principles have made FedEx employees show unprecedented dedication to their work and to their company. On August 20, 1997 – Federal Express Corp. distributed an approximate $20 million Special Appreciation Bonus to nearly 90,000 U.S. operations employees in recognition of their extraordinary efforts. It’s no idle boast to say that they are a family.
In August of 1971, Smith started his venture by buying controlling interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales. While operating his new firm, Smith recognized the tremendous difficulty in getting packages delivered within one- to- two days. This dilemma motivated him to do the necessary research for resolving the current inefficient distribution system. Thus, the idea for Federal Express was born: a company that revolutionized global business practices and now defines speed and reliability1.