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ONE love, blood, life
The AmEx Chief Providing Backing for Bono
American Express is part of a quartet of companies supporting the U2 singer's Aids in Africa campaign
Jane Martinson
The Guardian
When Bono walked into the head office of American Express 18 months ago, the company practically laid out the red carpet. The campaigning rock star had something that one of the world's biggest financial services groups was very much looking for: a way of reaching the growing band of so-called "conscience consumers".
This month, Amex launched its RED card, part of an initiative in which consumer companies are backing Bono's Global Fund, which helps women and children affected by HIV and Aids in Africa. Amex's contribution is to donate 1% of all spending on the card to the charity. The woman charged with making sure the launch of the card in Britain is a success - with the plan then to roll it out globally - is Laurel Powers-Freeling, the American head of Amex's UK consumer card business.
Powers-Freeling says the company, more often associated with power lunches than global poverty, had an immediate meeting of minds with the singer. "It was an interesting moment for us because one of the things we at American Express have been observing for a while is this trend towards what we now call the conscience consumer. The people saying, 'I have to spend money anyway, so if there's a way of using the power of my purse for good, great, but I don't want to give up anything to do so.' "
More exciting for Amex perhaps was the chance to reach a whole new market. Since joining the company just over a year ago from Marks & Spencer, Powers-Freeling has sought to make Amex more of an "everyday" card. Last summer it reached an agreement with the 14 million-strong Nectar loyalty scheme.
(PRODUCT) red - as the initiative likes to be known - offers something potentially far more valuable than a large target market: the chance to become worthy by association. "What I want is obviously more Amex cards and for more people to feel it is part of their lives, that they have an affinity with it," Powers-Freeling says in her no-nonsense voice, which still bears the twang of her midwestern upbringing after 20 years in Britain.
The principle of paying more - or at least doing without Air Miles or loyalty bonuses - to feel good about yourself is not new. Amex estimates there are already 1.5 million "conscience consumers" in the UK, people who buy products associated with a social or ethical benefit, be it Fairtrade coffee or organic bananas. This is expected to swell to 3.9 million within three years.
"There is a group of people who want to do good things and will go to farmers' markets at the weekend but will pop into Tesco Metro on the way home because they need to," says Powers-Freeling, speaking in her windowless office near London's Victoria.
Cool and sexy
To reach these people, Amex has decided to change the way it markets itself for its new scarlet-hued card. Although it has spent money on advertising in papers such as this one, it has eschewed more traditional means of launching new cards through direct mail and television advertising. Instead, it has used the association with rock stars and charities to spread the word, be it through the internet and blogs, or via other "viral" marketing.
The involvement of U2's lead singer is a key part of the company's aim to be "cool and sexy", terms not normally associated with a piece of plastic. More than a month after the launch of RED at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, the head of Amex UK is still singing the rock star's praises. "Bono said this beautiful thing in Davos. He said that this card - he was holding it up - is not about what you have, it's about who you are."
Bono himself has come under fire from aid campaigners and others for involving big corporations - the three other launch brands associated with RED are Gap, Converse and Armani. In explaining the decision to work with big business, he has said: "We're fighting a fire. The house is burning down. Let's get the water. You end up beside somebody who lives up the road who you don't really like. Do you care if he's polishing up his image by putting the fire out?"
Powers-Freeling herself, a 49-year-old veteran of some of the world's biggest financial services organisations, has no qualms about mixing business and aid.
"People would like to do something positive for charities. It just requires effort. This way you don't have to think very hard to do it. Just use the card." Does she use hers? "Absolutely. I absolutely use my RED card."
Indeed, the mother-of-two describes herself as "so the target market, it's absolutely tragic". "I go out and buy organic and Fairtrade and have for a while. Yet I don't want to make unnecessary trade-offs."
The only area of life she accepts any "trade-offs" is that of juggling a successful career and home life. "You just have to recognise that you don't do everything perfectly," she says.
Her combination of toughness and hard work extends to her home, where she tries to sit down in the morning with her 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to discuss the day's priorities.
"There will be days where you have got to make sure that everybody understands what pressures there are for the day," she says. "You've got to have transparency. Communication with all the parties involved."
Tall and slim, she gets by on four or five hours' sleep a night. "Is that unusual?" she asks, when I express admiration. She relaxes by sewing, making her own evening bags and curtains. At my increasingly stricken face, she admits she "sometimes does it while watching Strictly Come Dancing".
"It's how I relax. It's a physical thing. What I do in my job is mental."
McKinsey rapport
Life became slightly easier 15 months ago after her high-flying British husband Anthony took early retirement from McKinsey. He now frequently drives to meet her at the station near their Hertfordshire home.
They met while working with the sort of team that has given the consultancy firm its reputation as a kind of corporate Opus Dei. She shared an office with Roger Holmes, who became her boss at Marks & Spencer, and along the corridor sat the pensions tsar Adair Turner, the future Tory leader William Hague and the head of the LSE, Howard Davies.
Now a non-executive director at the Bank of England, Powers-Freeling arrived in the UK by chance after a planned McKinsey secondment to Sydney fell through with just three days to go. She joined the consultancy with a masters in management from MIT and a degree in economics and physics from Columbia University.
After a stint as an investment banker, she was made director of strategy at the Prudential in 1991, when seven months pregnant. She calls the staid insurer "pretty gutsy" for promoting a woman who turned up to her first board meeting wearing "the reddest maternity dress ever". She took just six weeks off for the birth and then tragedy struck when her mother, back in Michigan, died of a brain tumour. She describes this time as "very, very hard".
After the interview, she sends a long email to justify her choice of this period as the worst in her career. "I suppose it was a real test of both my commitment to the work and my general stress tolerance," she writes. "Happily, the Prudential were very supportive and, in the end, we developed a great strategy that laid down the lines for how the company would develop over the next several years."
She enjoyed working at M&S, where she was in charge of financial services until it was sold to HSBC in 2004. Her £502,000 pay-off helped her become one of only five women ever to earn more than £1m. "I think my time at M&S was so fulfilling because I saw the beginning, middle and end of the project - through the initial 'can we really teach this old dog new tricks?' stage (answer: absolutely), through ... to the successful sale."
Her time at M&S was not without controversy. The retailer was rapped over the knuckles by the Office of Fair Trading in 2003 for sending its new credit card to holders of store cards without their consent. Powers-Freeling is not one to dwell on such matters. After pointing out that 3 million people are still M&S cardholders, she ends the conversation by saying: "It's old news."
Last week, she used her RED card to buy the M&S pin-striped skirt suit she is wearing when I meet her. Does she regret the sale of the business during a fraught takeover battle? "In a way, it was like giving up a child," she admits.
Asked why so few women make it to the top in business (under 10% of FTSE 100 directors are women), she is typically matter of fact. Noting that several female directors are rising through the ranks, she adds: "Most people, of either sex, don't make it to the top."
Powers-Freeling on Powers-Freeling
What are your tips for success?
RED has been a fulfilling experience - not only because of the potential it has for our business but also for the potential it has in the larger global community at Prudential at a personally difficult time. I was seven months pregnant and my mother died shortly after I went back to work. The job was a success but it was very hard and emotionally taxing work
Recognise that you will make mistakes and don't beat yourself up about it. Make sure your support network understand what your pressures are, and vice versa
What was the best time in your career?
Launching the &More credit card for M&S. Working on RED has been a fulfilling experience - not only because of the potential it has for our business but also for the potential it has in the larger global community
And the worst?
Being made a board director at Prudential at a personally difficult time. I was seven months pregnant and my mother died shortly after I went back to work. The job was a success but it was very hard and emotionally taxing work
What did you want to be when growing up?
A concert pianist
American Express is part of a quartet of companies supporting the U2 singer's Aids in Africa campaign
Jane Martinson
The Guardian
When Bono walked into the head office of American Express 18 months ago, the company practically laid out the red carpet. The campaigning rock star had something that one of the world's biggest financial services groups was very much looking for: a way of reaching the growing band of so-called "conscience consumers".
This month, Amex launched its RED card, part of an initiative in which consumer companies are backing Bono's Global Fund, which helps women and children affected by HIV and Aids in Africa. Amex's contribution is to donate 1% of all spending on the card to the charity. The woman charged with making sure the launch of the card in Britain is a success - with the plan then to roll it out globally - is Laurel Powers-Freeling, the American head of Amex's UK consumer card business.
Powers-Freeling says the company, more often associated with power lunches than global poverty, had an immediate meeting of minds with the singer. "It was an interesting moment for us because one of the things we at American Express have been observing for a while is this trend towards what we now call the conscience consumer. The people saying, 'I have to spend money anyway, so if there's a way of using the power of my purse for good, great, but I don't want to give up anything to do so.' "
More exciting for Amex perhaps was the chance to reach a whole new market. Since joining the company just over a year ago from Marks & Spencer, Powers-Freeling has sought to make Amex more of an "everyday" card. Last summer it reached an agreement with the 14 million-strong Nectar loyalty scheme.
(PRODUCT) red - as the initiative likes to be known - offers something potentially far more valuable than a large target market: the chance to become worthy by association. "What I want is obviously more Amex cards and for more people to feel it is part of their lives, that they have an affinity with it," Powers-Freeling says in her no-nonsense voice, which still bears the twang of her midwestern upbringing after 20 years in Britain.
The principle of paying more - or at least doing without Air Miles or loyalty bonuses - to feel good about yourself is not new. Amex estimates there are already 1.5 million "conscience consumers" in the UK, people who buy products associated with a social or ethical benefit, be it Fairtrade coffee or organic bananas. This is expected to swell to 3.9 million within three years.
"There is a group of people who want to do good things and will go to farmers' markets at the weekend but will pop into Tesco Metro on the way home because they need to," says Powers-Freeling, speaking in her windowless office near London's Victoria.
Cool and sexy
To reach these people, Amex has decided to change the way it markets itself for its new scarlet-hued card. Although it has spent money on advertising in papers such as this one, it has eschewed more traditional means of launching new cards through direct mail and television advertising. Instead, it has used the association with rock stars and charities to spread the word, be it through the internet and blogs, or via other "viral" marketing.
The involvement of U2's lead singer is a key part of the company's aim to be "cool and sexy", terms not normally associated with a piece of plastic. More than a month after the launch of RED at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, the head of Amex UK is still singing the rock star's praises. "Bono said this beautiful thing in Davos. He said that this card - he was holding it up - is not about what you have, it's about who you are."
Bono himself has come under fire from aid campaigners and others for involving big corporations - the three other launch brands associated with RED are Gap, Converse and Armani. In explaining the decision to work with big business, he has said: "We're fighting a fire. The house is burning down. Let's get the water. You end up beside somebody who lives up the road who you don't really like. Do you care if he's polishing up his image by putting the fire out?"
Powers-Freeling herself, a 49-year-old veteran of some of the world's biggest financial services organisations, has no qualms about mixing business and aid.
"People would like to do something positive for charities. It just requires effort. This way you don't have to think very hard to do it. Just use the card." Does she use hers? "Absolutely. I absolutely use my RED card."
Indeed, the mother-of-two describes herself as "so the target market, it's absolutely tragic". "I go out and buy organic and Fairtrade and have for a while. Yet I don't want to make unnecessary trade-offs."
The only area of life she accepts any "trade-offs" is that of juggling a successful career and home life. "You just have to recognise that you don't do everything perfectly," she says.
Her combination of toughness and hard work extends to her home, where she tries to sit down in the morning with her 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to discuss the day's priorities.
"There will be days where you have got to make sure that everybody understands what pressures there are for the day," she says. "You've got to have transparency. Communication with all the parties involved."
Tall and slim, she gets by on four or five hours' sleep a night. "Is that unusual?" she asks, when I express admiration. She relaxes by sewing, making her own evening bags and curtains. At my increasingly stricken face, she admits she "sometimes does it while watching Strictly Come Dancing".
"It's how I relax. It's a physical thing. What I do in my job is mental."
McKinsey rapport
Life became slightly easier 15 months ago after her high-flying British husband Anthony took early retirement from McKinsey. He now frequently drives to meet her at the station near their Hertfordshire home.
They met while working with the sort of team that has given the consultancy firm its reputation as a kind of corporate Opus Dei. She shared an office with Roger Holmes, who became her boss at Marks & Spencer, and along the corridor sat the pensions tsar Adair Turner, the future Tory leader William Hague and the head of the LSE, Howard Davies.
Now a non-executive director at the Bank of England, Powers-Freeling arrived in the UK by chance after a planned McKinsey secondment to Sydney fell through with just three days to go. She joined the consultancy with a masters in management from MIT and a degree in economics and physics from Columbia University.
After a stint as an investment banker, she was made director of strategy at the Prudential in 1991, when seven months pregnant. She calls the staid insurer "pretty gutsy" for promoting a woman who turned up to her first board meeting wearing "the reddest maternity dress ever". She took just six weeks off for the birth and then tragedy struck when her mother, back in Michigan, died of a brain tumour. She describes this time as "very, very hard".
After the interview, she sends a long email to justify her choice of this period as the worst in her career. "I suppose it was a real test of both my commitment to the work and my general stress tolerance," she writes. "Happily, the Prudential were very supportive and, in the end, we developed a great strategy that laid down the lines for how the company would develop over the next several years."
She enjoyed working at M&S, where she was in charge of financial services until it was sold to HSBC in 2004. Her £502,000 pay-off helped her become one of only five women ever to earn more than £1m. "I think my time at M&S was so fulfilling because I saw the beginning, middle and end of the project - through the initial 'can we really teach this old dog new tricks?' stage (answer: absolutely), through ... to the successful sale."
Her time at M&S was not without controversy. The retailer was rapped over the knuckles by the Office of Fair Trading in 2003 for sending its new credit card to holders of store cards without their consent. Powers-Freeling is not one to dwell on such matters. After pointing out that 3 million people are still M&S cardholders, she ends the conversation by saying: "It's old news."
Last week, she used her RED card to buy the M&S pin-striped skirt suit she is wearing when I meet her. Does she regret the sale of the business during a fraught takeover battle? "In a way, it was like giving up a child," she admits.
Asked why so few women make it to the top in business (under 10% of FTSE 100 directors are women), she is typically matter of fact. Noting that several female directors are rising through the ranks, she adds: "Most people, of either sex, don't make it to the top."
Powers-Freeling on Powers-Freeling
What are your tips for success?
RED has been a fulfilling experience - not only because of the potential it has for our business but also for the potential it has in the larger global community at Prudential at a personally difficult time. I was seven months pregnant and my mother died shortly after I went back to work. The job was a success but it was very hard and emotionally taxing work
Recognise that you will make mistakes and don't beat yourself up about it. Make sure your support network understand what your pressures are, and vice versa
What was the best time in your career?
Launching the &More credit card for M&S. Working on RED has been a fulfilling experience - not only because of the potential it has for our business but also for the potential it has in the larger global community
And the worst?
Being made a board director at Prudential at a personally difficult time. I was seven months pregnant and my mother died shortly after I went back to work. The job was a success but it was very hard and emotionally taxing work
What did you want to be when growing up?
A concert pianist
