I think the Internet is changing the playing field. In the past, it was easy for a business to give a targeted promotion to selected customers, because the customers not selected would likely never know that other people had been given a better deal than they had. That is increasingly becoming no longer the case. Businesses now risk alienating their best customers, if those customers think that the companies now consider themselves to be "chopped liver". As a compromise position, I think businesses that use targeted promotion should also offer the same promotion to its non-targeted customers if the non-targeted customers ask for it.

Of course, this is still a problem with promotions like the AMEX one, where not only is it targeted, but the precise nature of the offer that is offered varies. I'm one of the ones feeling disgruntled, since I use my Hilton Hhonors AMEX as my first choice card, and was apparently not targeted for the promotion. I've been waiting to buy bonds until the right promotion comes along. I guess I'll wait a little longer.