Posts Tagged ‘American Express’
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
 Technology companies claimed half the slots on Ponemon Institute’s annual top 10 list of the most trusted companies for privacy. Hewlett Packard ranked second, Amazon, third, IBM, fourth, eBay ninth and Intuit tenth.
American Express (AMEX) continued to reign as the most trusted company among the 217 orgazations rated.
New tech entries on Ponmon’s top 20 most trusted list included Microsoft at 17, and Mozilla at 20.
In addition to ranking the most trusted companies, the Ponemon study reported that only 41 percent of consumers feel they have control over their personal information, down from 45 last year and an overall drop from 56 percent in 2006.
Identity theft a top concern
The survey also noted that identity theft is a top area of concern among consumers with fifty-nine percent of the respondents indicating that fear of identity theft was a major factor in brand trust diminishment, while 50 percent said notice of a data breach was a factor.
That could give impetus to the changes in U.S. immigration law proposed by a bipartisan group of Senators this week, although it’s identity card idea is already meeting with opposition from some.
The Ponemon rankings were derived from a survey of more than 100,000 adult-aged consumers who were asked to name up to five companies they believe to be the most trusted for protecting the privacy of their personal information.
Consumer responses were gathered over a 15-week period concluding in December 2012 and resulted in a final sample of 6,704 respondents who, on average, provided 5.4 discernible company ratings that represent 25 different industries.
Tags: Amazon, American Express, ebay, Hewlett Packard, IBM, identity theft, Intuit, Microsoft, most trusted companies, Mozilla, Ponemon Institute, privacy
Posted in Amazon, Internet/New Media, IT, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Thursday, November 29th, 2012
 A first-of-its-kind study of the customer experience of mobile apps and websites of 17 major financial services companies shows little difference between them and a lot of opportunity, says experience analytics firm ForeSee.
Only credit unions, measured in aggregate, meet the threshold for excellence with a score 80 on the 100-point scale of the ForeSee Mobile Satisfaction Index: Financial Services Edition, which measured satisfaction of the customer experience with banks, credit unions, credit cards, and brokerage companies.
American Express and Wells Fargo follow credit unions in the banking industry category at 79, while American Express and Discover top the credit card industry with the same score. Charles Schwab is alone on top of the brokerage industry, also scoring 79. The aggregate score for the financial services Index is 77. Banks and credit unions (78), credit cards (76), and brokerages (77) are tightly grouped.
Future of customer engagement is mobile
ForeSee’s research shows that apps provide a superior experience to mobile websites and may be the key to competitive differentiation and growth. However, all companies measured have a ways to go to provide a compelling mobile experience: traditional websites (as experienced on personal computers) still provide the best customer experience for financial services companies.
“As consumers put the power of the Internet in their pockets and purses in record numbers, there is no doubt that the future of customer engagement is mobile,” said Eric Feinberg, ForeSee’s director of mobile, media, and entertainment.
“The mobile experience represents the biggest opportunity—and the biggest challenge—for financial services companies because consumers are getting more comfortable managing their finances via mobile devices. The company that can best understand how to meet the needs of the mobile consumer is going to succeed, and that’s going to require the right kind of insight. Right now it’s anyone’s game.”
Thus far, there is little differentiation between competitors, since satisfaction with all measured companies’ mobile experiences range between 73 and 79. A full set of scores is below:
| Customer Satisfaction with Mobile Experiences: Financial Services |
| Aggregate: All Financial Services Mobile Experiences |
77 |
| Mobile Banks and Credit Unions: Aggregate |
78 |
| Any Credit Union |
80 |
| American Express (Bank) |
79 |
| Wells Fargo |
79 |
| Chase (Bank) |
78 |
| US Bank |
78 |
| Bank of America (Bank) |
76 |
| Citibank (Bank) |
76 |
| Mobile Credit Cards: Aggregate |
76 |
| American Express (Credit Card) |
79 |
| Discover |
79 |
| Capitol One (Credit Card) |
76 |
| Citibank (Credit Card) |
75 |
| MasterCard |
75 |
| Visa |
73 |
| Mobile Brokerage: Aggregate |
77 |
| Charles Schwab |
79 |
| Fidelity |
78 |
| E*TRADE |
77 |
| Scottrade |
77 |
| TD Ameritrade |
76 |
Mobile website more important than apps
When comparing highly satisfied users of mobile websites and apps to less satisfied users (consumers who scored their experience 80 or higher compared to those scoring 69 or lower), the study found that highly satisfied visitors are more likely to prefer the brand, recommend the mobile channel, use the channel again, or use the mobile channel before any other information resource.
“Apps are an important tool for serving financial services customers, but the mobile website is going to be more important as a mobile channel for serving prospective customers,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee.
“This underlies the importance of measuring customer satisfaction, which can help a company improve its customer experience. App store customer ratings and 5-star scale reviews might be interesting and entertaining, but they don’t provide the kind of insights necessary for companies to distinguish useful feedback from the squeaky wheel.”
The study is based on 4,500 customer surveys collected in October 2012.
 PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1vgGc)
Tags: American Express, apps, Chase, credit unions, customer satisfaction, financial institutions, ForeSee, mobile websites, US Bank, Wells Fargo
Posted in Analytics, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
 With the holiday season rapidly approaching, more small-business owners are making Small Business Saturday (Nov. 24th) an integral factor in their holiday sales plans. And, American Express is providing a myriad of free traditional and online marketing tools to help merchants make it a success.
The marketing materials even include free geo-targeted advertising and business Facebook page templates.
According to the inaugural Small Business Saturday Insights Survey, released today by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and American Express, 46 percent of independent merchants plan to incorporate Small Business Saturday as part of their holiday strategy, and the majority (67 percent) of them say they will offer discounts on November 24th.
Of those small business owners planning to promote Small Business Saturday, 80 percent expect a year-over-year boost in sales on that day, and discounts and special offers for consumers are one of the key incentives to drive consumers to ‘shop small’.
Small Business Saturday falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday and serves as the traditional kick off to the holiday shopping season for independent retailers and restaurateurs.
The day was created in response to small business owners’ most pressing need: more customers.
“Research has shown that American consumers have a deep trust in, and admiration for, the small business community.
Small Business Saturday gives them a chance to show their appreciation – and help America’s essential job creators in a very real way – by patronizing small shops, restaurants and service providers,” said NFIB CEO Dan Danner.
“And anything that helps with sales is certainly appreciated by small business owners, many of whom have struggled to stay afloat in a rough and uncertain economy.”
While many small business owners will be focusing on driving value to customers through discounts, there are a number of ways that they are planning to take advantage of the opportunity to drive consumers to “shop small.” According to the Small Business Saturday Insights Survey:
- · 46 percent will create coupons for future offers or discounts;
- · 25 percent will offer free gift wrapping;
- · 23 percent will giveaway prizes or hosts contests; and,
- · 20 percent will give away free items with purchase.
The Small Business Saturday Insights Survey was created to provide a window into the 2012 holiday planning for small business owners. Other survey findings include:
- · 81 percent say Small Business Saturday would be more effective if their communities came together and hosted events;
- · 34 percent say Small Business Saturday is the most important shopping day during holiday season, compared to 24 percent who cited Black Friday and 14 percent who cited Cyber Monday (37 percent said they were all equally important);
- · 28 percent intend to increase the number of employees who will work on Small Business Saturday; and,
- · 87 percent will be active in social media channels to promote Small Business Saturday:
o 96 percent of those will be using Facebook (33 percent will use Twitter, 15 percent will use Google+ and 15 percent will use Pinterest).
 “In just three years, Small Business Saturday went from an idea to help Small Business find more customers, to a permanent fixture on the holiday shopping calendar,” said Susan Sobbott, president, American Express OPEN. “According to the research, we are seeing the small business community take ownership of the day and make it their own.”
American Express remains committed to helping all small business owners amplify their Small Business Saturday promotional activity. For the third year in a row, American Express is offering a merchant toolkit on www.ShopSmall.com that includes:
- · Free Downloadable Marketing Materials – This Small Business Saturday, business owners will have turnkey assets that they can customize to better promote their businesses. These tools (available at www.ShopSmall.com/marketing-resources) include:
o Online banners and logos – Digital offerings to promote small businesses on their blogs, websites or anywhere else online;
o Signage – Two 11”x17”pieces of signage (professionally printed for free at FedEx Office®) to help attract customers in-store or around town. Small business owners can visit shopsmall.com/fedexoffice to access the Small Business Saturday posters. FedEx Office will also provide additional discount printing offers to small business owners when they pick up their posters;
o Social media and email templates – Preloaded posts, blog examples, tweets and emails to help drive traffic;
- · Free Geo-Targeted Online Advertising – New this year, small business owners can personalize an online geo-targeted ad – to appear on a number of online advertising platforms– to reach consumers in their area. Small business owners can learn more at: www.ShopSmall.com/business-advertising(Supplies are limited);
- · Success Stories – Small business owners can get inspired by what other entrepreneurs did last year to make Small Business Saturday a success. Success stories include a “What We Did” and “The Results” section and are available here: www.ShopSmall.com/success-stories;
- · “Rally Your Community” – A new section of the site (www.shopsmall.com/#involve_community) designed to connect consumers and small businesses as well as inspire local events on Small Business Saturday.
Free tools from American Express
 In addition, American Express is providing small businesses access to free tools and offers to attract customers beyond Small Business Saturday. A small business can use these tools and offers to:
- Easily create a Facebook business page;
- Enhance its Facebook business page with customizable professional templates by Pagemodo;
- Create a customized website through Yola;
More information can be found at the “Free Biz Tools” tab on www.facebook.com/ShopSmall.
Tags: American Express, downloadable tools, free geo-targeted advertising, Free marketing tools help promote small business Saturday, Nov. 24, signage, social media templates
Posted in Events, Facebook, Internet/New Media, Mafia Wars | No Comments »
Monday, October 22nd, 2012
 Business leaders admire Warren Buffett by a wide margin in Speakeasy Trust Survey. Business people tend to trust the news media more than politicians, according to the 2012 Speakeasy Trust Survey, and that’s saying something, considering that news media only scored 3 percent of the votes.
Politicians? No one voted for them.
The survey showed that the most trusted business leader is Warren Buffet, no surprise there, considering his public candor, and the most trusted company is Google.
Speakeasy, Inc., a nearly 40-year old executive communication consultancy that helps business leaders to develop more powerful and strategic communication, conducted the 2012 Trust Survey among business people at varying levels of responsibility within a broad range of industries, in September 2012.
asked to select who they trust most when receiving communication, respondents were given a choice between business associates, politicians, salespeople, celebrities or news media. The most votes were received for people we know personally, with 97 percent of respondents selecting business associates.
“Given the choices, it stands to reason that people would most trust the coworkers they see and interact with on a daily basis,” said Scott Weiss, CEO, Speakeasy.
“The real surprise is that politicians scored no votes while the news media scored three percent of the vote. What this says to me is that politicians need to take a good look at what they really represent in the public eye. Exacerbating the issue is the disturbing need to run every word uttered by a politician through a fact-checking process in order to validate their honesty.”
Buffett top business leader
Asked to provide a write-in answer for which business leader they trust most and why. Warren Buffett was the overwhelming winner, with 14 percent of respondents writing in his name. Among the reasons: “he is plain spoken,” “he is authentic,” and “it’s clear that his motivation is not just about money.
Other business leaders named in the survey include S. Truett Cathy (Chick-Fil-A), Bill Gates (Microsoft, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and Richard Branson (Virgin), each of whom earned six percent of votes. Regardless of the leader who was named, the reasons why didn’t differ much. The most common themes, says Speakeasy, were the leaders’ abilities to inspire people, their authenticity, their transparency, and their abilities to connect on a human level.
asked to provide a write-in answer for which company they trust most and why. Google, scoring eight percent of votes, edged out Starbucks, which was named six percent of the time. A common theme around Google was its customer focus. Google is “motivated to create useful products,” “is focused on the customer” and “values honesty.”
“Delivering consistently high quality products and customer service is the hallmark of a successful company, but in order to build enough equity to be named the most trustworthy, companies must bring something more to the equation,” added Weiss.
“Google and Starbucks are ubiquitous and reliable, and both have very public social programs with which people like to align themselves.”
Other companies that received multiple write-in votes in the survey were American Express, Target, State Farm, Chick-Fil-A and Amazon.
Tags: Amazon, American Express, Bill Gates, Chick-fil-A, Google, Richard Branson, Speakeasy Trust Survey, State Farm, Target, Warren Buffett
Posted in Google, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
 Within the next decade, smart-device swiping will have gained mainstream acceptance as a method of payment and could largely replace cash and credit cards for most online and in-store purchases by smartphone and tablet owners, according to a new survey of technology experts and stakeholders.
Many of the people surveyed by Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project said that the security, convenience and other benefits of “mobile wallet” systems will lead to widespread adoption of these technologies for everyday purchases by 2020.
Others—including some who are generally positive about the future of mobile payments—expect this process to unfold relatively slowly due to a combination of privacy fears, a desire for anonymous payments, demographic inertia, a lack of infrastructure to support widespread adoption, and resistance from those with a financial stake in the existing payment structure.
Here at the TechJournal, we recently interviewed an e-commerce expert for a top firm and he said once mobile payments are the norm, digital commerce will explode. So this is probably the next crucial step in the increasingly important world of e-commerce and mobile commerce.
As always with these Pew reports, the full text is worth reading. Here are a few excerpts:
A number of financial services and technology firms have set their sights on integrating mobile devices into the broader, multi-trillion-dollar retail economy. As a result, the infrastructure and tools for safe, reliable mobile purchasing has been advancing rapidly in recent years.
These mobile payment and transaction solutions currently take a number of forms. Some allow merchants and businesses to accept “on the go” credit card payments from customers using a special card reader that plugs into a smartphone or tablet computer.
Others facilitate direct person-to-person financial transfers using mobile devices—either by physically touching phones or exchanging electronic credentials such as a phone number or email address.
Google Wallet
Other solutions go even further, placing mobile phones at the center of users’ financial lives as an all-in-one payment device, identification system, coupon book and financial planner. In late 2011, Google launched Google Wallet in partnership with Citibank and MasterCard. Based on a technology known as near-field communication (NFC), Google Wallet allows users to store payment information in the cloud and pay for goods at participating retailers by tapping their phone at the point of purchase.
Another consortium (including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Visa, American Express, Discover and MasterCard) will be piloting a similar NFC-based mobile payment system known as ISIS starting in select cities in mid-2012. PayPal and Visa have also announced plans for mobile wallet systems, and many analysts predict that Apple will announce its own virtual wallet service in the near future.
Tags: American Express, AT&T, Discover, Elon University, Google wallet, Imagining the Internet, Mastercard, mobile payment systems, payment consortiums, Pew Internet in American Life Project, T-Mobile, Verizon, Visa
Posted in Google, Internet/New Media, IT, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech life/Culture | No Comments »
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
 The way we shop is rapidly being influenced by scores of innovative young companies who are helping retailers, brands and consumers fundamentally reshape how goods and services are bought and sold. A new report says mobile, online and in-store shopping are quickly converging and startups are disrupting the traditional retail ecosystem.
Architect Partners, the M&A advisory firm exclusively focused on Internet, mobile and digital media clients, today published “The Evolution of Shopping“. ”Shopping is at the early stages of profound change,” according to Eric Risley, managing partner of Architect Partners.
“Our newest report, The Evolution of Shopping, highlights why this evolution is happening, offers a framework to describe a very complicated ecosystem and features some of the most innovative companies making things happen.”
Consumer centric strategies emerging
“Retailers and brands are leveraging these changes to devise and implement strategies that are more consumer-centric. An entire infrastructure is emerging to support their efforts,” according to Dr. Phil Hendrix, Director of IMMR, a research consultancy and contributor to The Evolution of Shopping.
“We stepped back to the fundamentals to help us understand the innovation we’re seeing,” explained Steve Payne, Partner with Architect Partners. “We crafted a seven step framework describing how products are bought and sold. We then mapped over 300 companies against this framework.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. retail sales exceeds $4 trillion annually. Much of this spending is likely to be influenced by this evolution.
Incumbent suppliers to retailers and brands such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, NCR, Epicor, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and many others have major stakes in the outcome.
Disruption is emerging from a new set of competitors such as eBay, Amazon, Salesforce.com, Google and Apple. Many emerging companies will also be important disrupters.
“Marquee M&A transactions have already occurred within this area, according to Tom Brehme, principal with Architect Partners. “I’d highlight eBay’s M&A appetite which has included the acquisitions of Hunch, Zong, Magento, WHERE and GSI Commerce for a total of over $3 billion just in the past year.
“We’re aware of over 75 significant M&A transactions under the theme, evolution of shopping, announced since the beginning of 2010.”
Entering the holiday shopping season tangible signs of this evolution are clear. IBM’s Cyber Monday Report 2011, demonstrated online shopping continues to register strong growth, up 33% from 2010. Also, mobile device initiated purchases are beginning to become meaningful, representing 6.6% of Cyber Monday 2011 sales.
Access to The Evolution of Shopping presentation is available on Architect Partners’ website.
Tags: Amazon, American Express, Apple, Architect Partners, Bay, Epicor, Eric Risley, Evolution of Shopping report, Google, IBM, M&A activity, Mastercard, Microsoft, NCR, Oracle, Salesforce.com, SAP, Tom Brehme, Visa
Posted in Acquisitions, Amazon, Apple, Internet/New Media, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
 Coke is it! Especially on Facebook says Covario Inc., the nation’s largest independent provider of global search marketing services and technology solutions, in a just released white paper reporting on how leading global advertisers are faring with their fans on the world’s largest social media platform.
With the number of global Facebook users exceeding 750 million, its importance as an advertising medium is undeniable and growing fast. In a Covario study focusing on the Facebook health of 100 leading advertisers, Coca-Cola ranked the world’s No. 1 brand.
Coke has a huge following on Facebook of more than 34 million fans, which is growing at a monthly rate of nearly 3 percent. The leading beverage brand also has strong fan engagement, typically seven posts a month that each garners more than 235 comments and nearly 1,750 “likes.”
Coke came out on top
Coca-Cola came out on top, slightly ahead of second-place Hyundai. Rounding out the top five brands were MTV (Viacom), Disney and Bayer. The study included the top 100 spending advertisers as reported in Advertising Age magazine.
The study broke out Facebook leaders by vertical industry segments, including automotive, consumer packaged goods — sundries (Johnson & Johnson), consumer packaged goods — food and beverage (Coca-Cola), entertainment and media (MTV/Viacom), financial services/insurance (American Express), pharmaceuticals (Bayer), restaurants (Wendy’s), retailers (Victoria’s Secret), technology (Hewlett Packard), and telecommunications (DirecTV).
Covario used a proprietary, weighted model to profile each brand’s reach (number/ growth of followers), engagement (monthly posts, likes, comments and applications), technical aspects of its Facebook page (brand name usage, linkage to a brand’s website, use of the word “official,” etc.), and reputation (particularly negative, user-generated Facebook sites about a brand).
“Reach and engagement are particularly revealing,” said study co-author Craig Macdonald, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Covario. “Several advertisers — Bayer and SC Johnson — have built followers, but their engagement statistics are relatively low. This is a huge branding opportunity for the firms.”
“There is another situation with advertisers like AT&T, Wal-Mart, Dr. Pepper and, surprisingly — given their business — Fox, where they have excellent engagement, but lower than expected reach statistics,” Macdonald continued. “This is a content generation opportunity.”
Wal-Mart ranked on top for overall engagement. The nation’s largest retailer has huge engagement with its Facebook fans. Wal-Mart receives an average of 7,390 comments and 726 “likes” on every post, which far exceeds all of the other advertisers in the study.
Interestingly, Apple is the only company among the nation’s top 100 advertisers that does not have an official Facebook page. The top Apple listing is a user page with 188,000 followers.
The white paper concludes with insights for driving Facebook interaction and engagement.
- Having many outbound posts is not an optimization factor. Less is more with Facebook. Quality is what counts.
- Quality is measured by the number of “likes” and comments received per post. The best brands at engagement obtain upwards of 750 comments and 1,500 “likes” per post.
- There is no magic to the type of posts being run by successful brand advertisers. While promotions are rampant in advertiser posts, often posting generalized questions is more successful than hard promotions.
Tags: American Express, AT&T, Bayer, brands on Facebook, Coca Cola, Covario, Craig Macdonald, Dr. Pepper, Hewlett Packard, Hyundai, MTV, Victoria's Secret, Wal-Mart ranks on top for overall engagement, Wendy's
Posted in Facebook, Internet/New Media, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Monday, September 26th, 2011
 Apple's iPad2 Can Amazon’s new tablet computer, reportedly a souped up version of its popular Kindle e-reader, compete with Apple’s iPad? Thus far, would-be tablet competitors have not fared well against Apple brand power and the iPad.
Motorola, Acer, and Blackberry maker Research in Motion all tried to grab a piece of the tasty looking tablet computer market, but their efforts failed to make a real dent in Apple’s iPad share. Motorola did manage to see off its TouchPads, the most recent entry in the market, at fire sale prices of $99 each (and may make more available next month).
But the New York Times says a competitor is on the verge of introducing “the best-placed challenger of all: Amazon.com.” Quoting analysts, the Times says the Amazon tablet will undercut Apple’s price by about half and sell for around $250. It will have a 7 inch touch screen, with a bigger screen model coming in a year.
The Amazon device, while possibly not quite as powerful as an iPad, will handle the uses most people want from a tablet computer, easy access to email and the Web, and to Amazon’s vast store of books, music, and videos. It is the only Apple rival with the later advantage.
Whether it is a serious iPad competitor or not, it will certainly give Barnes & Noble’s color Nook some grief in the marketplace. B&N is striving to switch to digital before it ends up in the same place as its competitor, Borders, which will soon be completely gone.
One analyst quoted by the Times expects the Amazon tablets to sell as many as five million devices initially.
TechMediaNetwork nabs $33M financing to broaden reach
-TechMediaNetwork Inc. a technology media company that produces news and reviews in the technology and science verticals, today announced a $33 million Series B financing from ABS Capital Partners, a leading growth equity investor. Existing investors Village Ventures and Highway 12 Ventures also participated in the round.
TMN will use the funds to increase its acquisition program, further expand its growing news organization, enhance its monetization strategies and increase the distribution of its content. As a result of the financing, ABS Capital General Partner Ralph Terkowitz and Principal Paul Mariani will join TMN’s board of directors.
“Both organically and through complementary acquisitions, we are constantly looking to strengthen and broaden our expansion in the technology news market,” said Jerry Ropelato, CEO and founder of TechMediaNetwork. “The increased reach and influence of our network will continue to deliver more value to our readers, affiliates and advertising partners.”
TechMediaNetwork delivers technology news and product reviews across its 16 different web properties, featuring such flagship sites as LAPTOP, SPACE.com, TopTenREVIEWS and TechNewsDaily. TMN connects consumers, small publishers, advertisers and ecommerce vendors through a network of trusted information, revenue opportunities and audience reach. T
The Company has syndication partners, including Yahoo!, MSNBC.com and the websites of Fox News and CBS News, and advertisers such as American Express, AT&T, Canon, General Motors, HP, Kodak, Sony, Symantec, Toyota and Warner Bros.
Tumblr cranks the wheel on $85M funding
Tumblr, the blogging platform that soared from 2 billion page views a month earlier this year to $13 billion now, and boasts 30 million blogs generating 40 million posts a day, has raised a massive $85 million funding.
Led by Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners, the round included The Chernin Group, Sir Richard Branson, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures and Sequoia Capital.
WordPress, by comparison, supplies the platform for more than 59 million websites.
Tumblr also surpasses both Wikipedia and Twitter in pageviews and does about half as many as AOL and Craigslist, according to TechCrunch.
More than 299 million people view more than 2.5 billion pages each month on WordPress.com, according to the site’s own statistics page.
Do you know why Tumblr generates so many pageviews? It’s because they make it easy to connect to other blogs and bloggers and scroll rapidly through page after page of posts. I sometimes look at 100 pages in half an hour. — Allan Maurer
Tags: ABS Capital Partners, Amazon Kindle, American Express, Apple iPad, AT&T, Barnes & Noble Color Nook, Greylock Partners, Highway 12 Ventures, HP, Insight Venture Partners, New York Times, Sir Richard Branson, Sony, Spark Capital, Symantec, TechMediaNetwork, The Chernin Group, Toyota, Tumblr funded, Union Square Ventures and Sequoia Capital., Village Ventures, Warner Bro.
Posted in Amazon, Blogging, Internet/New Media, IT, Money, social media | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
 DigitalMR analysed thousands of customer comments about high street banks for the month of June 2011. Over half of these customer views are negative, compared with 45% being about positive customer experiences. Citibank fared particularly poorly, mostly due to being hacked in June, while American Express posted the highest net sentiment score.
The four most mentioned banking brands, with the highest number of consumer comments were: CitiBank (32%), Bank of America (23.50%) followed by American Express and Wells Fargo (both 17%).
There was, however, a large difference between the positive and negative mentions that these banks generated. American Express (30%) and Bank of America (23%) attracted the largest proportion of positive posts but Bank of America also attracted the second highest number of negative comments (24%). By comparison the bank that had the highest proportion of negative posts was Citibank (44%).
Taking the difference in positive and negative posts into consideration the clear winner for June was American Express with a Net Sentiment Score (NSS) of 58% followed by Capital One with 19%. The high NSS score for American Express shows an overall high satisfaction level for users of this service.
The two banks with the lowest net-sentiment score were CitiBank (unsurprising, perhaps, given its proportion the total negative posts) with a NSS of -52% and US Bank which achieved a score of -59%.
CitiBank’s higher rating is attributed to the fact that although they were the subject of the highest amount of negative comments they also were the subject of 17% of all positive comments about financial service providers. Much of the negative commentary was related to the June revelation that hackers had accessed 200,000 Citibank account holders’ details.
The banks with the highest and lowest rated NSS scores remain unchanged from April, the date of our last syndicated report, when American Express led the group, and US Bank brought up the rear.
Majority use social media to criticize banks
The US Banking Sector should take note that of the ten banks we analysed conversations about, seven have either a neutral or negative NSS. This means that overall the majority of people were using social media far more to criticize than compliment their banking service.
DigitalMR’s report (powered by SocialNuggets) analyses thousands of customer comments posted via a range of relevant finance related websites and open access social media platforms. It measures not only the number of comments posted by consumers on the internet, but also sentiment – whether these posts are positive or negative.
Results are based on comments posted by consumers on the major US banks: CitiBank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, American Express, HSBC, Capital One, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase Manhattan and US Bancorp.
Ryan Rutan, President of DigitalMR USA commented: “the findings indicate that American consumers who utilize social media platforms are voicing frustrations about their banking experience at a higher rate than positive experiences, but that certain brands are achieving a net positive sentiment”. This tells us that although the balance of comments are on the negative side, it is not strictly an outlet for dissatisfaction. This is easily seen in the divergence of the findings related to CitiBank and American Express.
While conversations about CitiBank accounted for nearly a third of all mentions of companies in the sector (suggesting a wide exposure), they were negative 76% of the time. By contrast American Express should be pleased to see while they accounted for a lower total volume of posts, that 79% of comments about their bank were positive. Amex has, for the second time this year, the highest net sentiment score of all banks we monitored.”
1) Net Sentiment Score (NSS)
Most of the banks we measured, achieve a negative Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for June. NSS provides an overall percentage score of net positive posts. A positive score means a bank attracts more positive than negative posts, while a negative score suggests a higher proportion of negative posts.
The average NSS taken across all banks measured is -10%, which shows that US consumers continue to see social media as a space to share experiences of frustration and unhappiness with the service they had experienced. This is a lower NSS however than the results from our December 2010 analysis which showed in the four months from July – October the cumulative NSS for US banks was -28%.
Net Sentiment Score ranking
1st American Express (Amex): 58%
2nd Capital One: 19%
3rd US Bancorp: 7%
4th JP Morgan Chase Manhattan: 0%
5th Wells Fargo: -2%
6th Barclays: -11%
7th Bank of America: -12%
8th HSBC: -34%
9th Citibank: -15%
10th US Bank: -51%
2) Features and Services
DigitalMR measured thousands of customer posts across June regarding the services and features that banks offer. Services attracting a much higher proportion of positive mentions to negative ones were: Credit Card Incentives (18% positive vs 1% negative).
The service attracting a higher proportion of negative comments was Credit Cards with (26% positive vs 19% negative) This was followed by conversations about mortgages which displayed a negative sentiment being 17% of all negative conversations regarding a particular service.
3) Click here to view customer comments in their own words
Tags: American Express, AMEX, Bank of America, Citibank, consumer sentiment about banks, DigitalMR, financial services, online consumer sentifment, Wells Fargo
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
 WASHINGTON, DC – Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) are among companies joining Startup Amerca.
Google will contribute $100 million in advertising services to startups. American Express is contributing $125 million in purchasing discounts and business services. Cisco offers training for 6,000 entrepreneurs.
Steve Case, chair of Startup America, the Obama Administration’s attempt to focus attention and some resources on entrepreneurship, offers a video update on the program, citing new partners, hiring Scott Case as CEO, and more.
Tags: American Express, Cisco, Google, Startup America, Steve Case video update
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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