Marketing Strategies fitted to Company Culture

One of the obstacles that our team constantly face is to determine whether lowering annual fees and merchant fees should be proposed as part of AMEX's marketing strategy for its small business card range in the Australian market. Kotler et al. (2009, p. 68) state that "company's marketing strategies must fit with its company culture" in order for successful implementation of the strategies.

Our market research (although not representative of the population) have established that members would like to see lower annual and merchant fees. However, this seems to contradict with AMEX's culture; its reputation for exclusivity and prestige (which lies with the higher than competitors' annual fees AMEX charges). If marketers decide that AMEX should lower its fees to meet customer's demands, this move may be resisted by AMEX employees who identify the brand with its reputation for exclusivity and prestige. Thus, marketers must be careful when they develop marketing strategies so to fit well with the company culture and image.

As for our team, we are still trying to see whether lowering annual and merchant fees is the right move for AMEX small business card range in Australia...