American Express

Previously, American Express was concentrating all its attention only on a limited customer segment so they decided to expand into a variety of financial service categories but after they faced increased pressure from their competitors like MasterCard and Visa they rebranded their Small business services division as OPEN, they also added benefits to it to create a separate section for small business owners, so that they could attract more consumers increasing their consumer base by bringing in less affluent clients. They furthermore added a new card for the younger more tech savvy generation. Basically American Express was leading in the industry but increased competition by its competitors made it feel at risk that it could lose its current position. So the company decided to diversify by creating new products and adding new consumer segments that it didn't formerly cater to. Their competitors were taking control of new trends in the market so Amex also introduced two marketing campaigns which attracted new set of consumers. Many analyst, during the financial crisis of 2008, said that 'the company grew too fast'. Also the recession really hurt the company as there were increased default payment, credit losses etc. Still the company was ranked in the Fortune magazine as the one of the 30 'Most Admired Companies'. This showed that by appropriate research and planning American Express was able to not only uphold but also improve its position as a brand leader in the industry; by addressing the needs of the company’s established customer, along with new, potentially valuable customers.