MasterCard – Company Overview

MasterCard is one of the most prominent payment solution partners available out there in the world. This is a multinational financial services corporation that is based in the United States. The global headquarters of the company is based in New York. 

The main business line of MasterCard is to facilitate payments between merchants and banks. In addition to that, the company is working along with card-issuing banks as well. The MasterCard branded credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards are being used by millions of people who live around the world. It was able to become a publicly-traded company in the year 2006. It has got strategic partnerships with more than 25,000 different financial institutions that are located around the world. It offers a variety of branded cards through this partnership. 

MasterCard was previously called Interbank. It has been offering the services under this brand name between 1966 to 1969. It changed the name into Master Charge and retained the name from the year 1969 to 1979. This was created in response to a request that was made by the bank of America. 

History of MasterCard

Bank of America initially created MasterCard. It was launched in the year 1958. The company started to generate profits from the year 1961. However, information related to MasterCard was not made public. It was kept a secret until the year 1961. They wanted to keep the MasterCard brand away from the competition. That’s the main reason why the company wanted to keep everything a secret. 

MasterCard was able to develop a strategy by the year 1966, and it launched MasterCard. Along with it, 10 different credit cards were launched as well. The brand became quite popular back in the day. Hence, lots of people from different parts of the world were able to start using the cards. 

The name was officially changed to MasterCard in the year 1979. Since then, they have been using the same brand name. In the year 1997, they were able to go ahead and acquire the Access Card. The access brand was then retired.

The year 2002 was a prominent one for MasterCard. That’s because they could internationally merge along with Europay International, which is a leading credit card issuing association located in the country. The name of MasterCard International was changed to MasterCard Worldwide in the year 2006. This is where they introduced a new corporate logo as well.

The e-commerce capabilities of MasterCard were enhanced by the year 2006. Along with that, lots of people started purchasing MasterCard. The company was teamed up along with Apple back in the year 2014. This is where they could provide support and assistance in developing a new mobile wallet feature. This mobile wallet feature is made available in the iPhone models. 

Prepaid debit cards offered by MasterCard

MasterCard is offering numerous prepaid debit cards. The affiliate entities offer these prepaid debit cards. The very first prepaid debit card was offered along with a partnership with the Comerica Bank in the United States. It provides a variety of consumer protections as well.

In the year 2013, MasterCard was able to get into a partnership along with British Airways. Along with that, the company started offering executive multi-currency passport services for the clients. People who had a Passport card are provided with the chance to load up to ten different currencies. When using the card, people could withdraw money with the exchange rate of the local currency. 

Advertising of MasterCard

The advertising campaigns of MasterCard are quite popular. In fact, the tagline of the company is Priceless. This brand’s slogan is “There are some things that money cannot buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard”. The brand promotion technique of the band contributed heavily to its market reputation. 

These advertisements were initially run in the 1997 World Series. Along with the series, the company was able to take the brand promotion to the next level. The brand could end up securing a massive number of customers with ease.

The main objective of the MasterCard promotional campaigns was to position itself as a friendly credit card. The promotional campaigns were promoted along with a sense of humor. 

The MasterCard marketplace

As of now, you can find an excellent marketplace behind MasterCard as well. This marketplace can be used to get a variety of products and services. In fact, it provides a personalized shopping experience for the people who are in need. The web shopping mall became quite popular in the past as well. You can still find how a large number of people are purchasing what they want from the marketplace.

Business payment service 

MasterCard is currently offering a business payment service as well. This was launched in May 2020. Along with that, businesses were able to accept payments with minimum hassle. In other words, financial transactions that take place between suppliers and buyers were streamlined as well.

The service has the ability to create a directory of suppliers. It provided the ability for the suppliers to go ahead and publish the payment rules. Along with that, they were provided with the ability to control the payment acceptance with ease. On the other hand, it was possible to enable the suppliers to effectively publish their payment rules so that they could control the process of obtaining payments conveniently.

As of now, MasterCard is currently offering sports sponsorships as well. For example, the New Zealand Rugby Team sponsorship is offered by MasterCard. Likewise, the brand is offering sponsorships for numerous other sports teams as well. We can see how the MasterCard brand is expanding along with time. It will be able to become one of the most prominent service providers in payment solutions in the future.

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