Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard and author of *Quantum Marketing*, shares insights on the future of advertising. He discusses the shift from traditional interruptive ads to engaging, story-making experiences. Raja emphasizes building consumer affinity over loyalty, advocating for meaningful interactions. He highlights innovative marketing successes, like immersive brand experiences, and the importance of permission-based strategies in today's landscape. Mindful marketing and personal wellness are also explored as essential elements for effective engagement.
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insights INSIGHT
Affinity Over Loyalty
Consumers are not inherently loyal to brands, despite loyalty programs.
Focus on building affinity, or positive associations, instead of expecting loyalty.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Modern Ad Consumption
Raja Rajamannar finds YouTube's interruptive ads annoying, highlighting a poor user experience.
He uses ad blockers and streaming services like Netflix to avoid ads.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Storymaking
Shift from storytelling to storymaking by creating memorable customer experiences.
When customers share these experiences, it's more impactful than traditional ads.
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Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers
Josh Childs
Raja Rajamannar
Quantum Marketing by Raja Rajamannar and Josh Childs is a comprehensive guide that helps marketers understand and adapt to the unprecedented disruptions in the marketing world. The book outlines the evolution of marketing through four significant stages and introduces the Fifth Paradigm, which involves a revolutionary change driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and 5G connectivity. It provides practical strategies and examples on how to integrate brand building with data and analytic rigor, respecting consumer privacy, and leveraging insights from sciences like behavioral economics and neuromarketing. The book is designed to help marketers and business leaders drive growth, build brands, and establish a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing world[2][3][4].
Raja Rajamannar: Quantum Marketing
Raja Rajamannar is Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard, and president of the company’s healthcare business. He also serves as president of the World Federation of Advertisers. Raja has held C-level roles at firms ranging from Anthem to Humana, and has overseen the successful evolution of Mastercard’s identity for the digital age, from its Priceless experiential platforms to marketing-led business models.
Raja’s work has been featured in Harvard Business School and Yale School of management case studies, and been taught at more than 40 top management schools around the world. He is the author of Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers*.
In this conversation, Raja and I discuss the reality that traditional advertising as we know it is ending. He also invites us to rethink how we’ve traditionally thought about customer loyalty. Instead of telling stories about our brands, we should be doing the work to create stories along with our customers.
Key Points
Organizations need to engage in permission-based marketing to be credible to consumers.
It’s helpful to think about relationships with consumers as affinity instead of loyalty.
Most of what we call advertising today is interruptive to consumers and a poor experience. It’s not entirely dead, but certainly heading that way.
Invite consumers into unique experiences by making the transition from storytelling to story making.
Create experiences that are scalable and economically viable and sustainable.
Smaller firms can seek out opportunities to create partnership that will help them make stories that are purposeful.
Resources Mentioned
Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers* by Raja Rajamannar
Interview Notes
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