What's in a name? Well, if a firm is looking to expand its identity, everything. MasterCard International's growth spurt has prompted it to change its corporate name to MasterCard Worldwide. What's the difference, you ask? Evidently, according to MasterCard Inc. officials, something more important than just five letters.
The rebranding of MasterCard's principal operating subsidiary, whose parent is based in Purchase, NY, also accompanied the unveiling of a new corporate signature and the adopting of the tagline, "The Heart of Commerce," to reflect the company's globally integrated structure and its vision of advancing commerce worldwide. "This is a corporate repositioning," explains Courtney Gibbons, group head of global brand strategy and development for MasterCard Worldwide. "We want the institutional clients to know everything we have to offer as a corporate brand, a three-tiered business model." Focus groups showed that clients found "worldwide" to be more global than "international." Go figure.
The three circles of the new corporate logo build on the familiar interlocking red and yellow circles of the MasterCard consumer brand, and reflect the company's three-tiered model as a franchisor, processor and advisor, notes Gibbons. As a franchisor, it markets a family of brands at more than 24 million merchant locations globally; as a processor, it enables commerce on a global scale through its network; and as an advisor, it provides insight to advance commerce through account teams and MasterCard Advisors, the only global consultant focused only on the payments industry.
However, MasterCard's familiar interlocking circles will continue to appear on all MasterCard-branded cards and at merchant acceptance locations around the world. MasterCard also will continue its Priceless advertising campaign, now seen in 106 countries and in 49 languages. "MasterCard Worldwide is a driving force at the heart of commerce, enabling global transactions and bringing insight into the payments process to make commerce faster, more secure and more valuable to everyone involved," says CMO Lawrence Flanagan. "The new corporate brand better represents the globally integrated structure and unique insights that MasterCard leverages to deliver business value to our customers, merchants, consumers and shareholders."
But the company's repositioning has less to do with the consumer and more to do with the commercial client. In fact, a business-to-business ad campaign hawking its corporate rebranding, as it heads into its 40th year, is expected to be launched by the end of the year, says Gibbons. "The launch of the new corporate brand identity follows an extensive analysis of the MasterCard brand and the value proposition it represents to constituents," notes Flanagan. "As we took a close look at the company's unique competitive strengths, we recognized that MasterCard Worldwide is a leader in advancing relationships, insight and commerce around the world. We developed a new corporate brand to reflect the company's strengths in these areas, as well as MasterCard's leading role in defining the industry playing field." MasterCard processes more than 16 billion payments annually.
In addition to the MasterCard brand, which appears on MasterCard credit, debit and prepaid cards, other brands include Maestro, the global PIN-debit brand Cirrus, the ATM brand, and MasterCard Advisors. These brands will not change. "We've had great success in nurturing brands that enjoy unsurpassed worldwide recognition and have represented us well to millions of consumers around the world," says Flanagan. "We will put that same level of expertise behind the new corporate brand, which will be part of an integrated brand platform that includes the existing MasterCard brands."
In 2005, net revenue for the parent firm was $2.9 billion, a 13.3 percent increase over 2004. Net income for 2005 was a record $267 million, compared to $238 million in 2004.
"[The rebranding] is kind of confusing to me," admits Aaron McPherson, research manager at Financial Insights, who covers the card industry. "Maybe they feel they don't get enough credit for their worldwide share of the industry? Or it's a way to draw people's attention that worldwide they are much stronger in Europe than they are in the U.S.?" The card business in the U.S. and Europe are so different that they seem to require disparate strategies, not a single global one, he says. "Isn't a rebranding a sign of a flailing business? If they're investing all this time and energy into rebranding, what are they not investing in? Are the banks going to feel better about them because they are now "Worldwide" instead of "International?"
