How can you build a strong brand identity in the tough banking cards market?

Preliminary note: This article will only cover Visa and Mastercard, as these two brands are the most widely used worldwide and the more interesting from a advertising and promotion standpoint.

3 billion Visa and Mastercard cards are issued in the world, leveraging these brands are worldwide first card issuers and lagging American Express and Discover at the 3^rd and 4^th position.

Differentiating each other is not easy though: competition is tough and marketers first included new services to distinguish each other and generate new sources of revenues and loyalty.

In spite of this new marketing effort, new features and services to our banking cards were not sufficient enough. Visa and Mastercard felt the need in the 90s to design an “outside of the box” brand identity that make sense to cardholders and enhance their loyalty to the brand.

In 1997, Mastercard launched its “Priceless” campaign fulfilling the following goals:

- Launching A globalized campaign: one message fits for all - align branding and communications objectives. (Note : Priceless ads run in 110 countries and in 51 languages)

- Creating A one-word message: easier to keep in mind

- Focus on emotions – we all know cards are linked to money, let’s find new avenues to customer's sensitivity

Mastercard ad

As a response to that, Visa has launched localized campaigns. In France, it has been based on love and then on the sort of risks you can face if you do not use your Visa to pay for a bill.  It hasn’t been as successful in terms of branding - due to a lack of alignment and coherence over the years and countries, making the message conveyed by Visa confused.

Visa ad

In spite of Mastercard communcations, Visa is still having the biggest market share … but “Priceless” campaign has been very profitable for Mastercard, as they have captured consumers making them move away from checks and cash to cards, regardless of the amount of money they spend.

We think as well that Mastercard has constantly improved its branding since “Priceless” has been launched. The introduction of “Priceless cities” for example, an exclusive Mastercard service, is a relevant example of “on-brand improvement”, focusing on “once-in-a-lifetime”, priceless experiences.

Mastercard Priceless campaign at Ski Dubai - November 2014

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL6s4jlN5rI : Culture Pub, November 2010
http://www.benzinga.com/news/14/01/4192418/visa-vs-mastercard-which-is-the-better-bet
http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/05/07/visa-mastercard-still-charging-forward/
Non-aligned Visa branding : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc97SI8p2LU (2000)
                                       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRddwLORPMo (2014)

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