Card Loyalty and 'prestige'

eagle

Astaroth wrote:

Others have made the same mistake.... we are talking about the "account" colour rather than the physical colour of the piece of plastic - though traditionally these matched for prestige cards with all "classic" or standard cards just being a colour approriate to the brand

Astaroth, I think you may be misunderstanding the phrase "black is the new platinum". We know (I do at least, can't speak for anyone else) that you are referring to 'account colour' rather than colour...

By my phrase 'black is the new platinum', I meant:

Platinum cards were once quite exclusive to have: they had annual fees, you had to earn a certain amount every year in order to even be considered for one of these and you did get some perks for having a 'Platinum' card.
But these days most card companies offer at least one Platinum card or the other (more often with less perks and benefits) and so those that had the original Platinum cards have begun to push their even more exclusive 'black' cards, with all the trimmings, with exclusive invitation-only ways to join, and even higher annual salary required to be considered in order to keep the original 'Platinum' market.

Hopefully, I've cleared up a few things now and that this phrase won't be misunderstood.

eagle

Bernard_Coleslaw wrote:

Erm..that was Mint.

Their advertising worked on you, then!

You are quite right!!! Must overdose on caffeine on a Monday morning before posting!!!
Smile is the one with the, er... smiley face logo, whereas Mint is the weird shaped one.

CopperPlate_2

eagle wrote:

Astaroth, I think you may be misunderstanding the phrase "black is the new platinum". We know (I do at least, can't speak for anyone else) that you are referring to 'account colour' rather than colour...

By my phrase 'black is the new platinum', I meant:

Platinum cards were once quite exclusive to have: they had annual fees, you had to earn a certain amount every year in order to even be considered for one of these and you did get some perks for having a 'Platinum' card.
But these days most card companies offer at least one Platinum card or the other (more often with less perks and benefits) and so those that had the original Platinum cards have begun to push their even more exclusive 'black' cards, with all the trimmings, with exclusive invitation-only ways to join, and even higher annual salary required to be considered in order to keep the original 'Platinum' market.

Hopefully, I've cleared up a few things now and that this phrase won't be misunderstood.

Understood. You are quite right in that 'Black' cards (as in the account type, not just the colour of the card) have the same 'status' that Platinum cards probably had about ten years ago.

Black coloured cards - &MORE for example - are only trying to cash in on the black-card "status symbol". From my original post, I was trying to see how many people are influenced by the clever marketers who pitch standard-offering cards which are nothing spectacular, but make them black or platinum (or whichever is the de riguer colour of the day) in order to make them appear to be a 'cut above' the bog-standard piece of plastic.

It seems that there are some who buy into the idea that the piece of plastic in your pocket tells others about who you are, where you are 'from' and the lifestyle you lead?

Good to hear the replies - keep them coming

eagle

Interesting... found this today by accident. Slightly pointed towards AmEx, but I think it's still relevant to the thread:

http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/blackcard.asp

CopperPlate_2

Yes, I'd say so. I remember reading earlier last year about the White AmEx card. From memory it was in a paper that Posh and Becks had been given one and that there was only a specific number of cards that would be in circulation at any one time. 1000 springs to mind, worldwide. Think the initial criteria was that you had to be super-rich and famous in the extreme and AmEx were giving you one rather than inviting you. Think there might've been a picture of it too.

Wouldn't want one anyway...after 6 months the silver embossing would've worn off and it'd be a grubby grey colour too...cheap n' nasty... :rolleyes2

eagle

Wouldn't want to know about it if Posh and Becks had one!! :rotfl:

Interesting post about Centurion on the FlyerTalk forums. Someone talks about retailers not knowing that the Centurion card is actually real, so it has been refused in some stores, resulting in conflict! Other posters report being asked for proof of ID!!! How ironic is that?

Stompa

Seems to me that they're fast running out of colours, perhaps transparent ones next!

Afahmaep

My recently renewed Amex Blue is transparent

eagle

Afahmaep wrote:

My recently renewed Amex Blue is transparent

Absolutely! I tell everyone that it's the 'acid' card...

Phoenix79_2

Afahmaep wrote:

My recently renewed Amex Blue is transparent

I thinl it looks horrible! My dad has just had his through the post.