“Member since”: the 2 words worth billions

So I’m lacing up for a Sunday run, tracking app open, and it flashes up the numbers: a 10K done, one very slow half marathon behind me, 2 years of Sunday runs to show for it (my knees would like a word). I’ve never once cared about my fastest pace. I care about the number that says I’ve kept showing up.

American Express figured out how to sell that feeling on a piece of plastic, decades before Strava existed.

The smallest line on the card might be doing the heaviest work:

MEMBER SINCE.

2 words. One year.

There is no points balance or discount code attached to it; its financial value is impossible to see. Yet remove it and the card loses something.

What did American Express add?

American Express added the “Member Since” date to its cards around 1963. We can place it there because the company celebrated the line’s 50th anniversary in 2013.

The detail still matters enough that American Express tells members moving countries they can keep their original date on a new card.

That is an odd promise if the year is merely admin.

Rory Sutherland worked on the American Express account and tells a great story about it. He says staff inside the company told him the line had been worth billions... BILLIONS... because it made long-standing members more reluctant to cancel.

I couldn’t find public financial evidence for that number. So treat “billions” as an insider claim passed to Rory, rather than a number we can verify.

The behaviour behind it is still worth examining.

What does the research say?

Consumer research uses the term “psychological ownership” for the feeling that something is mine, even when the thing is partly symbolic or intangible.

That feeling can become tied to identity, belonging and personal history.

“Member Since 93” records a relationship that has lasted more than 30 years. It says something about the cardholder, and perhaps about what they could qualify for when they first joined.

The date turns time into an asset you can see.

Cancelling now carries a small psychological cost. Any replacement card starts the clock at zero.

None of this proves the line kept American Express customers from cancelling, only that it gives Rory’s story a plausible mechanism.

What’s my take?

The genius is that American Express records tenure on the object the customer carries.

Lots of companies know how long you’ve been with them. The date sits buried in a database where it does nothing for the customer.

American Express makes it visible, portable and mildly status-laden.

A payment card becomes proof of membership.

There is a lesson here for any business with repeat customers:

Show people what they have built with you.

That might be years of membership, projects completed, places visited or skills earned.

The marker has to mean something. A shiny badge for opening an app 4 times feels naff because the customer didn’t build much.

Tenure works when it carries memory.

And the best part? The brand doesn’t need to shout about loyalty. It can hand the evidence back to the customer and let them feel it.

What have your best customers built with you that you’re currently keeping invisible?

Mark