Visa to Evolve Brand to Better Reflect New Payment Opportunities
Visa International today announced plans to refresh and evolve its brand identity and structure. The changes include a new look for the famous blue, white and gold Visa logo and changes to card design features. A major communications campaign will take place between now and the end of the year when the first cards and merchant signage bearing the new logo will start to appear.
“Over the last several years the scope of our business has increased considerably. We were simply a consumer credit card company. Today, debit and prepaid products, commercial payment solutions and processing and authentication services are major components of our business,” said Christopher Rodrigues, president and CEO, Visa International. “We need to evolve the way the brand is used to enable consumers and merchants to distinguish between different Visa products and services while continuing to trust Visa to enable them to make efficient secure payments anywhere in the world. We are also taking this opportunity to refresh the look and feel of the brand to ensure it remains up to date and relevant.”
The updated brand will work better across new technologies and payment channels, such as the Internet, mobile phones and handheld devices. As well as a refreshed Visa logo on the card and at the point-of-sale, it will allow for a new card format that will complement the issuer's own brand. The well-known Visa dove hologram on the front of the card will be moved to the back and be integrated with the magnetic stripe, making card counterfeiting more difficult while allowing a larger part of the front of the card to be used for new issuer designs or communication. (…)
A brand structure or architecture shows how an organization's various brand marks relate to each other and to the customer. The Visa brand structure unifies all of Visa's products and services (such as Visa Gold, Visa Business, Verified by Visa, Visa contactless programs, etc) with a common look centered on a fresh, contemporary design. The new design continues to use many of the successful features from the current Visa design, including prominent use of the Visa brand name, the blue, white and gold colors, and the italicized typestyle. It differs from the Visa mark now seen on cards and at acceptance locations as follows:
The 'V' in Visa has been enhanced with a gold color to highlight the Visa wordmark's unique serif
The word 'Visa' is much more prominent, reflecting research that consumers respond to seeing the word 'Visa' more than to the mark
The banners used as borders in the current design have been eliminated. Research had shown these were confining and reinforced the impression of Visa as a card product. Today Visa is used for payment in multiple ways (in commercial systems, on the Internet, mobile phones etc)
Visa Electron will share the same new Visa identity on the card and at the point-of-sale but will be identified by the word Electron below the Visa logo
In some regions (Europe), 'V' will be used on its own with a different brand name, such as 'V PAY', for business opportunities that reflect new and different ways to pay
The new look highlights the unequalled strength of Visa as a brand name while continuing to utilize Visa's well-recognized blue, gold and white colors.
Source:
Visa Media Center
Visa Brand Information
Visa Brand Chronology [PDF]
