VISA Presentation

VISA is a brand of credit card from Visa International Service Association. 
VISA is also known as the common firm compounded of 21000 financial societies (banks, credit instituions). 
The major competitors of VISA are American Express and MasterCard.

VISA was created in 1958, when Bank of America launched the BankAmericard. The most of local and regional banks joined either BankAmericard, either Master Charge.

The card took the name of VISA in 1977 in order to make easier the spread of this card in the whole world. In fact, this name doesn’t imply national identity, can be pronounced in every languages and doesn’t make reference to a bank.

In 1987, Visa made an agreement of 5 million of dollars for a part of 33% in the system of automatic cash-flows and became the second bigger ATM network in the United-States.

In 1992, the Gold Card became the credit card the most used in the world. 1993 was a record year for Visa with a global revenue of more than 500 billion of dollars

In France in 2013, with 39 million of cards in circulation, more than 1€ on 5, that is to say 22% of spends, are realized by Visa card.

Visa can be used in 160 countries and more than 26 million of points of sale.


Currently, Visa facing the issues of e-marketing and more in particular, real-time marketing.Visa has a strong brand positioning, a strong brand strategy. All its e-marketing strategy has to be coherent with its brand positioning and its other marketing actions, partnerships.

How does Visa make a difference with its competitors?
What are the main issues faced by Visa?

Visa offers a very large range of cards in order to cover demands as more as possible. They have in general their counterparts in American Express and Mastercard.

Visa Infinite

The Visa Infinite, in black colour, is the payment card the most top-end model offered by Visa.

It targets customers whose annual incomes are upper to 100 000€.

Competitors:

- Centurion American Express

- World Elite MasterCard


Visa Platinum

Launched in 2011, this high-end card is positioned between the Visa Premier and Visa Infinite.


Competitors:

- Platinium Mastercard
- Air France - KLM American Express Platinum 

Visa Premier

Well known thanks to its gold colour, the Visa Premier is also a high-end card. It targets customers whose the purchasing power is quite high and travellers.

Competitors:

- Air France - KLM American Express Gold
- Gold Mastercard


Visa Classic

The Visa Classic is a middle-class payment card.

It's one of the most popular card in France with the Mastercard Classic.Some banks rename it and give a different commercial name, for instance Cléo for LCL.

 Competitors:

- Air France - KLM American Express Silver
- Mastercard Classic


Visa Electron

The Visa Electron is a low-end card, very specific as it triggers an authorization demand for each use, regardless of the transaction amount.Like its competitor Mastercard, Visa offers prepaid cards, either type of Visa, debit Visa or Visa Electron.

It is cheaper than the Visa Classic, although its use is more expensive for banks and stores (because of the systematic demand of authorization).

Some banks rename it, for instance Realys in La Banque Postale or Sensea in Caisse d’Epargne.

Competitors:

- Maestro or "Mastercard online" 

- No American Express equivalent.

V-PAY

The V-PAY card is a new low-end model payment card delivered by Visa.
It presents the particularity to be only usable in Europe, in SEPA zone.

The E-Blue Card is a card that is only aimed at paying online.It is an option associated with Visa and Mastercard.

 Prepaid Visa

- European Maestro of MasterCard
- No rival for American Express

 

In 2014, Visa is the 69th most known brand in the world.
Consumers' trust of the brand, and wide business endorsement place Visa in a strong position.Combine that with big data at its heart and it is clear that Visa has the potential to be a big player in the Age of You.


Source : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/VISA_International_Service_Association
http://www.bestglobalbrands.com/2014/visa/
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/visa-spends-least-third-its-marketing-budget-digital-155761