Harmonizing
our brand identity
We all know the new logo—but the story behind it, which informed the design, is the same story that inspires everything we create at Mastercard. Whether we are designing collateral for an event, a new product for our customers, or commissioning photography for a campaign, there are certain things that all our creative outputs should share in common.
Why this is important
Customers and consumers look for value. But the trigger to action often stems from an emotional affinity that they feel with a brand. They want to do business, consciously or not, with companies they trust and with whom they can spot clearly shared values.
Establishing who we are and what we stand for goes beyond the functional benefits of our products. As a company undergoing a digital transformation and expanding our offering beyond payment processing technologies, a common brand story will serve to differentiate us emotionally as well as rationally with customers and consumers.
Of course at the heart of our brand is the promise—the importance we place on connecting people with Priceless possibilities. So, our design must speak to this promise—not just something we say, but what we seek to deliver in what we do.
Leadership brands reinforce their position in the marketplace by fully leveraging all aspects of brand communication. The product, packaging, print communications, and digital interfaces all collaborate to deliver a total brand experience that reinforces who we are as a company.
So, yes, our brand is comprised of more than our logo and our name. Every creative and design choice should embody our promise, values, and personality as a brand. Here are the steps that will help you make those choices.
Know the brand story
From the beginning, Mastercard has been a brand of connections — connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, and businesses. And enabling them to use electronic forms of payment instead of cash and checks.
Today those connections are even wider and stronger. In 210 countries and territories, we're making digital payments more convenient, more secure, and more efficient. We're applying our data, insights, and expertise to bring new products and services to market. And we're connecting with new partners—like governments and transit authorities—to develop groundbreaking solutions.
The value we deliver is evident in the positive impact we bring to society. Helping governments achieve economic goals. Bringing people into the financial mainstream. Creating more efficient transit systems. Increasing merchant sales and customer loyalty through data-driven insights. Making appliances smarter. And securing the future of payments with new, safer technologies.
This is a very different Mastercard from the one that existed just five years ago. We've helped drive more payments innovation in the past five years than the previous 50.
As a technology company, we fundamentally believe that innovation starts from within and that experiences matter more than things. We're committed to making life simpler, safer, and more secure. To creating once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. To helping everyone join the marketplace. And to achieving our vision of a world beyond cash.
Through these efforts, we're giving people access to greater opportunities. Connecting people to technology and solutions that enrich lives and livelihoods around the world.
Connecting people to Priceless possibilities.
Amplify our positioning and core values
Our brand positioning is a declaration that communicates a brand's unique value to consumers in relation to our competitors. Priceless may have started out as a campaign, but it has become the spirit of our brand, something that's uniquely ownable and expressive of the benefits our technology provides to customers as well as consumers. From unique experiences and seamless payments to technology that transforms the lives of underbanked consumers, we make the connections that enrich lives.
Tied to our positioning statement are our brand value pillars, which express the things that we care about most as a brand. Our value pillars can also be seen as key areas we want to talk about and express in our communications and experiences.
OUR BRAND POSITIONING
Connecting people to Priceless possibilities
WHAT WE CARE ABOUT
Inclusion
We believe in being a force for good where the underbanked benefit from the safety and convience of our technology and network.
Innovation that matters
We believe in making dynamic connections grounded in human needs lead us to solutions that help business and consumers thrive.
Safety in the world
We believe in continually advancing the security and integrity of our technology, products, and services so we can bring a peace of mind to all of our stakeholders, everywhere.
Enriching experiences
We believe that experiences matter more than things and will take every opportunity to enable services and experiences that enrich how we live.
Reflect our brand personality
To support our promise in design and throughout all aspects of our brand identity system, whether our layouts, the colors we use, or the tone of voice, we use expression attributes—code for our brand personality.
These help ensure that the decisions we make reflect the personality of the brand. Our expression attributes are true to our behaviors and motivations, taken as a whole they help our brand be differentiated tonally from our competition, and therefore, create a much more distinctive brand expression that we take to the world.
Forward-thinking Relatable Sophisticated Inclusive Courageous
Forward-thinking
Progressive, Modern, Innovative, Dynamic
To us, technology is a catalyst for lifestyle, seamlessly and intuitively integrated into our world. When it serves a true need, it can bring joy, open doors, and vastly improve the way we live. We feel driven to uncover new possibilities, to stay constantly in motion looking for innovative solutions that truly matter, with style that brings true delight.
Relatable
Human, Warm, Genuine, Authentic
Connecting people with priceless possibilities starts with connecting with people. Understanding their needs, appreciating their unique values, and ways of living. It's also important for us to be authentic and genuine in everything we do—to bring warmth and a human touch to our partnerships and the way we do business.
Sophisticated
Smart, Simple, Craft-driven, Worldly
In a world where everything fights for our attention, the things that bring delight are a direct measure of their value. Whether an intangible experience or a new product or service, an idea is just another idea until we bring it to life with purposeful execution. By marshaling our knowledge and ingenuity, along with an attention to craft, we can create things that will truly bring priceless possibilities.
Inclusive
Open, Connected, Collaborative, Global
In a world of increasing complexity, we are a global community, harnessing our reach in pursuit of a safe, secure, and smarter society. Driven by a deep respect for diversity and inclusion, we aim for an openness, clarity and transparency in the way we do things. We also believe that true partnership and collaboration will makes us more creative, connected, and better than we are on our own.
Courageous
Assertive, Risk-taking, Fearless, Experiential
Meaningful experiences matter more to consumers than the accumulation of things. That's why the spirited pursuit of exceptional experiences lie at the heart of everything we do. And it comes through in the way we allow ourselves to take risks in pursuit of new innovations, the intent behind the consumer value of our products, and the unique and extraordinary experiences we curate that enrich consumers' lives.
Want to better understand how to translate these expression attributes into design?
We have created a special guide meant to clarify the boundaries of expression and how they might be applied in a variety of creative contexts. Look for the "Harmonizing our brand identity" guide in the asset library.
Go to the asset library