Episode 13: Mastercard: Being human in times of crisis ft. Raja Rajamannar Global CMO

Eric Fulwiler continues his mission to learn how the world’s hottest fintech start-ups and most innovative financial service brands drive growth through modern-day marketing.

In the final episode in this series, he speaks to Raja Rajamannar, Global CMO at Mastercard. Raja joined in 2013 and immediately shook up the Mastercard brand, making it contemporary and raising it to 12th place in the top 100 brands in the world, by increasing its brand value by 30%, surpassing Coca-Cola, IBM, and Disney. He did this by, among other things, evolving the brand identity by changing the logo and dropping the brand name - to be one of very few brands in the world to be recognised by their logo alone; investing in experiential marketing and customer experiences via their Priceless campaign, including sponsorship of some of the world’s biggest sports and ESports competitions; and their commitment to their new sonic branding.

They also discuss Raja’s philosophy on marketing - that experimentation is necessary and not everything will work - but fail fast and fail cheaply and learn from the failings. And above all else, it’s incumbent on markers to be human first, and in no way exploitative, to be a friend to the customer and to help them out whenever possible - and in no time is this more valid than right now in the middle of a pandemic.

Let us know what you thought of series 1, we’d love to hear from you to help make the show even better! Find us @11FS or email podcasts@11fs.com

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