Visa 2008 Annual Report Download - page 15

Table of Contents
Our customer and business partner marketing consulting services provide customized advice and support to improve our customers' cardholder
acquisition, cardholder retention and product usage efforts. We conduct strategic reviews of our customers' marketing activities and portfolio management
practices, help them develop acquisition and retention programs, provide training on industry best practices, develop marketing for new products, conduct
market segmentation analysis and perform other consultative services.
We also provide marketing support to our customers through our support of Visa co-branded and affinity card programs. Co-branded cards are payment
cards bearing the brand marks of an issuer and a marketing partner, usually a merchant, while affinity cards generally bear the marks or logos of charitable,
professional, educational or civic organizations.
Our merchant marketing activities bring added value to our merchant partners through the development of marketing programs customized for specific
merchants and industry segments. These programs, which we develop in conjunction with merchants, generate awareness for new acceptance channels and
locations and increase cardholder spending and merchant sales revenue through special offers and promotions.
Merchant Acceptance Initiatives
Merchants play a vital role in our payments network, and we work continuously to build our merchant acceptance and enhance our relationships with
merchants that accept Visa-branded cards.
We aim to maintain and expand our merchant base by focusing on the needs of merchants and consumers and enhancing our programs to increase
acceptance in attractive and fast-growing segments, such as bill payment. Our efforts to address these needs include supporting the development of
technological innovations, delivering value-added information services, such as the Visa Incentive Network, and evaluating potential modifications to our
operating rules and interchange rates to enhance the value of our payments network compared to other forms of payment. In the United States, for example,
the Visa Small Ticket Payment Service provides a special interchange rate category and No Signature Required programs eliminate the requirement for a
cardholder signature for certain small-value transactions in a number of everyday spend categories, including quick-service restaurants, movie theatres and
public transit. Under this program, the merchant will be protected against no signature chargebacks. We believe these initiatives have resulted in a faster
check-out process, a reduction in merchants' operating expenses, increased merchant acceptance and greater transaction volume in these categories.
We enter into arrangements with certain merchants under which they receive monetary incentives and rebates for acceptance of products carrying our
brands and increasing their payments volume of products carrying our brands or indicating a preference for our cards.
Customer Standards
Our customers are generally required to be financial institutions or other deposit-taking institutions organized under local banking laws or wholly-
owned by such institutions. Certain of our customers participate in the full range of functions available to participants in the Visa network, such as soliciting
cardholders and issuing cards, soliciting and signing merchants and acquiring merchant transactions. These financial institutions may also sponsor other
financial institutions for more limited participation in our network.
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