Amex case study

Essay by nigelsmithUniversity, Master'sA-, August 2005

download word file, 12 pages 3.0

Question #1- Which segments exist today in the US credit card market and which new ones will open up to AMEX as a result of this court ruling?

The US credit card market is one of the most dynamic and important financial sectors, worth $2.1 trillion. Visa has about a 50% share, MasterCard a 29% share, AMEX a 13% share, and others a 8% share; The US credit card market can be broken down in many different segments using a process called market segmentation. Each segment contains consumers with similar characteristics.

The US credit card market contains the following segments:

1. The US consumers segment. US consumer spending is estimated to have grown by 35 percent, reaching $5.8 trillion in 2002 and the subset of consumer spending on credit card and debit card is estimated to have grown by 89 percent, to $1.9 trillion, almost one-third of all consumers spending.

American consumers still use cash or checks to pay for 59 percent ($4.8 trillion) of the $8.2 trillion annual consumer spending. The Nilson Report forecasts consumer spending will grow by 28 percent between 2002 and 2007, consumer debit and credit card expenditure will grow by 54 percent, and credit card spending alone is expected to grow by 45 percent. More than $1.5 trillion worth of card transactions took place in 2002 and is projected to grow to $2.8 trillion by 2006. That means that there will be almost $650 billion in new credit card spending. The US Consumers segment contains two sub segments: A) High-spender segment. According to the 2000 Census Bureau, data shows that about 7.48 million American households have an income level of $125,000 or more. They are prime individual consumers, super prime consumers and small business owners. B) Mass market segment.

2. The Small business segment. The...