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In terms of consumer marketing and the promotion of the national POS networks, 1994 will probably be remembered as the year networks tried different methods to see what works in getting consumers to use debit cards. Meanwhile, 1995 will be the year they really put those techniques to work.
Both Visa, owner of Interlink, and MasterCard, owner of Maestro, used 1994 to begin testing the promotion of regional and national debit card use on a region-by-region basis. Now convinced that the time is right to tell consumers about debit cards, both expect to expand those effos around the country this year.
MINNESOTA DEBUT
Indeed, Interlink, which launched marketing efforts in North Carolina, Colorado and Louisiana in 1994, plans to take its marketing show on the road to Minnesota this year, a state that has not had a shared on-line debit program before. Working with Minneapolis-based issuers First Bank Systems and Norwest Bank, Interlink will begin a market launch there next month with 22 Cub Food stores and 10 Byerly's markets.
Maestro also expects to take a marketing program it began in Massachusetts and California in 1994 to other parts of the country, but has not revealed what regions are on its itinerary.
All-in-all, 1994 was productive for the two national networks....