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Weve seen black cards. Gold cards. Platinum cards. Pink cards. Now, Amex is debuting the first credit card thats a mirror. The new, limited edition Platinum Mirror Card is a piece of metal polished to a reflective finish. In an increasingly digital world, its an industrial design object intended to redefine what a premium credit card meansbut owning it also unlocks an exclusive (and ever-so modernist) UX in Amexs own app. In 2024, Amex hit record revenues of $65.9 billion, which is projected to grow by 8-10% in 2025. That’s no small feat for a legacy payments company. Much of its success is due to the positioning of its Platinum Card. The card comes with a hefty $695/year fee. But despite the price, it boasts 98% year to year retentionand 75% of the people signing up are Millennials and Gen Zers. It’s part of a greater premium credit card race, and a bid for Amex to distinguish itself in a competitive businessagainst JPMorgan in particular. Amex is courting younger customers by positioning itself, not simply as a credit card to buy stuff, but as an all-access pass for experiences, ranging from cutting the line to buy concert tickets to hanging in dozens of exclusive airport lounges it runs worldwide. The company is building these perks through partnerships, but also key acquisitions: Amex bought the digital reservations company Resy in 2019 to get its customers into restaurants more easily. The strategy matches what airlines, amusement parks, and others are doing more and more: Charging a bit more to offer those with an expandable income a VIP version of everyday life. Designing the Amex Platinum card [Photo: Courtesy of American Express] While a reflective slab of metal is a simple enough idea, its still somewhat enchanting to behold, as far as credit cards go. Its core concept also reinforces the brand ethos. According to Reanna Gross, VP and head of American Expresss internal creative agency OnBrand, its built to be a portal to experiences. It reflects things youre, and even your own face while having them. When I call it the selfie card, Gross offers a polite laugh. (I’m only half kidding: what better way to woo generations that grew up on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok?) Designed in-house, the project required several months of development and testing. The team landed on UV lasers to etch customer names and numbers on the card, while printing elements like the brands centurion logo in ink. It experimented with several finishes to protect the surface to resist smudges and scratches, and then, the team attacked it mercilessly with keys. We actually had prototypes and tried to, like, really, really break them and use them and smudge them, and then iterated from there, says Gross. Translating the card to the app [Photo: Courtesy of American Express] From the earliest stages of development, the Amex team knew that the card had to be more than a card, and Gross worked closely with Evan English, VP of Product Design and Research at American Express, dropping into her office for long whiteboard sessions on how this unified strategy could work. Members will see that in the newly designed Amex app, which for Platinum users, will shift from Amexs beloved blue to white during the day, or a more stoic black with gunmetal highlights at night. Truthfully, its a pretty typical Dark Mode approach to UX. But as English explains, it intentionally creates a vibe that the user ladders up to Platinum, a sort of graphical implication of a business class experience. The app has also been redesigned to deprioritize spending information lower on the screen. Instead, the user is greeted with a graphic of their Platinum card, and a large lifestyle-centric photo that teases all of the experiential benefits (dining, travel, etc). Amex wants its users to explore the benefits they can sign up for, caroseling through various registrations, to communicate the services its providing front and center. But if you scroll down, youll still get to that typical transaction data youd expect, along with information about someones upcoming reservations. We’re on a rolling path forward to start bringing a lot more content into this screen that really reflects that membership value, says English. Branding the VIP experience [Photo: Courtesy of American Express] As a final step, Amex is translating the entire reflective idea to its own brand marketing. Teasers have been running for weeks, capturing bits and pieces of the card with an almost iridescent intensity. Soon ads will run across social that captures the card set at a beautiful cafe table, reflecting the flowers of al fresco dining. Another add shows two mirror cards toasting like wine glasses, with a metallic clink. All-in-all, nothing Amex has executed across these designs is out of reach for most big companies. Its just a highly coordinated system, drawing a clear brand narrative across physical product, to UX, to advertising. Its certainly filigree, but its also a most certain vibe, reimagining a forgettable piece of plastic as a path to posh adventure. And for Amex, positioning its value is important. Rumor has it that Amexs Platinum subscription is set to increase significantly, again, in the coming year or two. With a cost thats more in line with a cellphone plan than a credit card, Amex needs to keep convincing you that its worth it to spend a little more. Theres just one potential flaw. If credit card debt keeps rising and the middle class tires of feeling left out, all of these VIP experiences and fancy cards may feel less like a perkand more like a social liability.
Category:
E-Commerce
Cracker Barrel reported earnings Wednesday for the first time since the company ignited a cultural firestorm by revealing a modern rebrand of its old-timey logo in August. Julie Masino, the restaurant chain’s CEO, referenced the ordeal repeatedly in Wednesdays earnings call, noting that Cracker Barrel is working to regain its footing as it grapples with declining foot traffic from the rebranding controversy. The feedback we’ve received from our guests in recent weeks on our brand refresh and store remodel has shown us just how deeply people care about Cracker Barrel, Masino said on the call. We thank our guests for sharing their voices and love for the brand and telling us when we’ve misstepped. Cracker Barrel plans to tread carefully for future changes and will introduce a new front porch feedback plan to check in with its customers more often. Masino said that while traffic is down since 8/19the day of the infamous rebrandloyalty signups are soaring. Impact from the backlash expected Cracker Barrel expects to see the fallout from the August controversy show up in its next quarter results. The company revised its expected 2026 fiscal year revenue down from previous estimates, from $3.5 billion to $3.45 billion, noting that it anticipates a 7% decline in store traffic. The company said that its over-55 customer base has remained mostly consistent, but that it has seen declining traffic in younger cohorts, particularly in the Southeast. Cracker Barrel on Wednesday reported $868 million in revenue in the quarter that ended on August 1, prior to its logo fiasco. Same-store restaurant sales were up 5.4% from a year ago, with retail sales dipping by around 1%. While the company bested revenue estimates of $855 million, it fell short on earnings per share. Shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (Nasdaq: CBRL) dropped after the earnings report and were down about 7.6% in premarket trading Thursday as of this writing. Not yet over the barrel Designed to modernize a drab brand and bring in new audiences, Cracker Barrels $700 million marketing overhaul instead became a lightning rod among traditionalists who denounced the cleaner logo and rejected updates to make its cluttered dining spaces brighter and more welcoming. Among the offenses, the restaurant even tweaked the language on the iconic peg game that customers play while they wait for their food, removing the classic text that declares a poor player an “EG-NO-RA-MOOSE. Conservatives slammed Cracker Barrels planned update as woke and soulless and framed it as cultural capitulation, a pushback that dented the companys value by $100 million. The backlash escalated all the way to the president of the United States, who waded into the furor to decry the changes. Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before, President Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, adding that if the company played its cards right it would have a billion dollars in free publicity. On X, Trumps deputy White House chief of staff said that he had spoken with the companys leadership, which thanked Trump for expressing his opinion of the rebrand. Shortly after Trump weighed in, Cracker Barrel said it would roll back the update, restoring its 1977 logo featuring the old timer known as Uncle Herschel and vowing to reverse aesthetic updates at a handful of its 660 locations. We want longtime fans and new guests to experience the full story of the people, places, and food that make Cracker Barrel so special, Masino said on the call. That’s why our team pivoted quickly, switched back to our old timer logo, and has already begun executing new marketing, advertising, and social media initiatives, leaning into uncle Hershel and the nostalgia around the brand. The incident may ultimately prove to be a win for Cracker Barrel, a brand thats more accustomed to being a background feature in Americas endless landscape of mediocre chain eateries than a topic of national conversation. The rebrand flopped spectacularly, but it sparked a massive outpouring of nostalgia for the corporate chain in the process. More than a month later, were still talking about Cracker Barrel.
Category:
E-Commerce
For a tiny device that clips onto your key ring, the Kodak Charmera makes an oversize impression. At least to me. The newest compact digital camera believes it is a 1980s Kodak Fling disposable camera, which itself was like a 120 Ektachrome film box with a lens and a viewfinder. It looks the part so well that it feels like a portal to my childhood. I imagine it smells of my dads cigarettes, just by looking at it. For most of the people from this century who are attempting to buy the Charmera, however, its design will be more than a way to quench the thirst for a faux past they never had. Kodaks newest camera is a perfect remedy to partly overcome the phone ban in schools that is taking place all over the worldfrom California and Madrid to Beijing and Sydney. Kodak may have introduced what might be 2025s best digital gadget for . . . you know, for kids. With no screens, no internet, no apps, and no notification tsunamis, the Charmera only lets you point and shoot. You can review each shot in a postage-stamp-size 0.8-inch LCD on its back, sure, but not many people will be using the display for that. Its simply too tiny to see any detail clearly. [Photo: Kodak] The real photo “developing” and editing must happen anywhere you can access a device with a USB-C port and a big screen, suck all the photos off the cameras virtual film, and review them. This is, I believe, something positive for the user experience, too. If you have to wait a few hours to get your image on a screen big enough to appreciate its value, your Instagramming, TikTokking, and WhatsApping will logically get much better. Time makes you see things from a different perspective, trust me. Plus, no Dean Ed Rooney trying to spoil your Bueller time. A bare-bones model Inside its 2.3-by-1-by-0.8-inch box sits a 1/4-inch CMOS sensor recording 1.6 effective megapixels at 1440-by-1080 pixels, paired with a fixed-focus 35-millimeter f/2.4 plastic lens and a built-in flash unit. The way you use it is by putting your eye to its optical viewfinder. The camera shoots JPEG photos and video at 30 frames per second, stores two still photos internally (I was hoping for 24, like the Fling), and accepts microSD cards from 1 GB to 128 GB for virtually unlimited shots. A 200 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery, charged via USB-C, powers the whole rig, and a key chain clip turns it into a bag charm. Kodak leans even harder into nostalgia with date stamps, four vintage Kodak frames, and seven pixel-art filters. But the final twist that may turn this into a bestseller is the blind-box distribution. You buy the box without knowing which of its seven retro designs you will get (plus a transparent secret edition that has 1 in 48 odds). Each box sells for $30 per mystery box. You can also buy a six-pack guaranteed to include all standard designs (minus the secret design) for $180. No matter what, you will have to buy a lot more to get the transparent model. [Photo: Kodak] No phone, no problem The device cant arrive at a better time. Despite wide usage among young people and kids, smartphones are increasingly being viewed as noxious, sometimes lethal devices for young people. Often, they are channels that throttle up bullying. Most of the time, they just suck your brain and make kids dumber (adults, too). Thats why phones are vanishing from schools worldwide at a high pace. Florida banned them in classrooms in 2023, and by 2025, 35 states plus Washington, D.C., have restricted student phone usemore than a dozen imposing full bell-to-bell bans to curb plummeting test scores and mental health crises. New Yorks statewide ban for 202526 and Californias 2026 mandate point to a broader crackdown. Europe has pushed even further. Madrid barred personal digital devices for 550,000 preschool and primary students this year, imposing age-based screen limits from zero hours for toddlers to two hours weekly for 12-year-olds. That doesn’t mean phones are allowed then. Rather, it refers to two hours a week of screens like tablets for educational use. France piloted a “digital pause” in 180 middle schools before expanding nationwide in 2025. The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Hungary enacted their own bas, and China, the earliest mover in 2021, tightened its rules again in 2023. This year, Chinese officials will further restrict screen and social media usage for kids to stop addiction and the increase of a common new dangerous syndrome that some doctors I know call You are really getting so dumb with that phone of yours, Steve. Sure, there are helicopter parents worried about emergency access (even while they grew up with no cellphones themselves and apparently survived), but most normal people are happy about the expanding bans. I know that almost all my fellow school parents are ecstatic about it. Many students dont like it either, of course. (Greek students protested after 6,000 suspensions.) And experts warn that bans alone dont solve social media addiction. But facts are hard to ignore: The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that phones cost students 20 minutes of focus per distraction, reinforcing policymakers resolve. The stats also tie increasing phone usage to an increase in bullying. (And vice versa: This study shows that banning phones decreased bullying). Im sure that some will be able to find nefarious usages for the Kodak Charmera. Or some kids will get obsessed with retro photography. But it sure beats the alternative. [Photo: Kodak] The Kodak Charmera offers a holiday shopping snapshot The Charmera is already sold out everywhere. Maybe Reto Production Ltd.the global licensee for the Kodak brand responsible for the Charmera and other retro camera modelshas limited access on purpose to make it a coveted product in the social sphere. Perhaps they couldnt anticipate such a strong appetite for a tiny, attractive way to capture images anywhere without a cellphone. I asked the company, but it did not respond. It doesnt really matter. At $30, it is the perfect stocking filler. My Spidey sense tells me that it may end up being the hottest thingamajig you will try to buy this holiday season.
Category:
E-Commerce
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