“Despite tectonic changes in the consumer landscape, it remains equally relevant today,” he said at the time. “Once you find your truth, the key is to adapt the manifestation appropriately to the current environment.”
2. Multisensory Marketing
One of Rajamannar’s boldest moves came in 2019, when he removed Mastercard’s name from its logo, leaving only two interlocking circles.
“Reinvention in the digital age calls for modern simplicity,” he said at the time, adding the company “felt ready to take this next step” in its brand evolution.
In the same year, Mastercard debuted a sonic logo, a unique 1.3-second sequence of notes presented at checkout. Mastercard said the chime had boosted trust and made customers 80% more likely to return to a merchant utilizing the sound.
A Mastercard album followed in 2022, then in 2024, Mastercard announced during Brandweek that it was launching a haptic logo, a distinctive series of vibrations that customers can feel via their phone when shopping online or using a payment terminal.
Rajamannar said the innovation represented a “new frontier” for marketing. “We’re literally defining a new boundary and field altogether,” he said, adding that the tactile branding has driven a points increase in customer satisfaction within the tune of the “high teens to low 20s.”
3. Bringing Purpose to ‘Priceless’
