Branding efforts surge as financial services take share fight upscale; Credit cards: AmEx Blue begins the shift to expand capabilities.(Brief Article)

Credit-card marketers have raised the ante in a crowded field with higher advertising spending and a growing number of new products catering to upscale and technology-savvy consumers.

Branding is becoming crucially important in the $1.3 trillion credit-card market as the bank-card association leaders, Visa USA and MasterCard International, face new marketing heat from American Express Co. and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.'s Discover Card.

INTERNET SHOPPING

One of biggest successes has been AmEx's computer chip-equipped Blue card targeted to Internet shoppers. Launched in September 1999 with a $50 million campaign, Blue is held by up to 2 million …