Inspired Execution

Timestamps: 
0:50 - Welcome to today’s episode with guest Raja Rajamannar
1:44 - One phrase to sum up the power of marketing
2:42 - Raja’s career journey
6:17 - Experience discovering what marketing really is
10:06 - “It takes a team of Leonardo da Vincis” 
14:59 - Mastercard album called Priceless & the power of "sonic branding"
22:02 - Raja’s book called Quantum Marketing
26:31 - Who has inspired Raja most on his journey (hint: it involves shopping with is mother in India)
28:30 - Rapid-fire questions

Today, we are joined by one of the brightest minds in marketing, Raja Rajamannar. He is the CMO of Mastercard, as well as President of their Healthcare Business. For more than 30 years, Raja has influenced large enterprises across the globe with brands like Unilever, Citi, and now Mastercard. You can read all about his fresh perspective on the future of marketing in his WSJ bestseller, Quantum Marketing. In today’s episode, we talk about how Raja went from a degree in chemical engineering to being named one of the world’s most influential CMOs, how it takes a team of Leonardo da Vincis to build a marketing machine, and so much more! 

To kick off today’s episode, Raja describes marketing in one word as “priceless.”  He says you can replicate sales or products, but the one thing that really sets companies apart is marketing. Raja started off as a chemical engineer and then received his MBA, but he specialized in studies in policies and ended up getting an internship at Lakmé in India. He was working on a project on logistics and he described how a woman’s character was called into question based on their appearance. He took a piece of paper and wrote a headline that said “Is it bad to look good?” The chairman of the company used it in their campaign and very early on, Raja started specializing in marketing because he thought his innate skills were there. To continue, Raja describes how when he worked at Asian Paints, they were already a market leader but there was no formal marketing department. That started off Raja’s interviewing of what marketing looks like in each company. He learned the art of forecasting at Citibank and at each company, he started to learn something different. 

Raja has been quoted saying, “It takes a team of Leonardo da Vincis to build an innovative marketing machine.” He describes how there are three key pillars of marketing: creativity, technology, and data. Typically, human beings specialize in either the right or left brain. Raja describes how you need to create an ecosystem that functions like Leonardo da Vinci. You will never find people that are great at all three pillars, but you can find people that are good at 2 out of the 3 pillars, then mix and match them within your company. 

In addition, Raja talks about Mastercard's album “Priceless.” He explains how jingles have been around forever and that music has a lasting power on our memory. He says that the medium of engagement for consumers is sound. He discovered the science of sound and how sound has an impact on your emotions and feelings. He created a 10 layer architecture for their sonic identity which includes a melody, a mnemonic, a transaction noise and songs in pop culture. They are creating a platform where they launched these songs with the same melody from Mastercard. 

Also, Raja describes his best-selling book, Quantum Marketing. He says it’s about the new way of doing marketing that will be intensely driven by technology, dominated by data, and impacted by tectonic cultural shifts. We need to reimagine marketing. His favorite chapter of the book is called “Loyalty” and he says according to data, the vast majority of people are not loyal. Therefore, we should not expect people to be loyal to a company. He says companies need to look at this as stickiness, not as loyalty. He suggests having preference management systems with consumers’ choices. He also describes how product manifestations are benefits; they should not be viewed as loyalty. 

Lastly, Raja describes how his mother has inspired him the most because she first introduced him to the concept of shopping. He learned from her how she would bargain, make choices and decisions, stand up for gender balance, etc. She instilled the idea of working very hard - with honesty - in Raja. 

Thank you for listening and please don’t forget to like and subscribe! 

Links:
Learn more about Raja Rajamannar. 
Find more episodes of Inspired Execution here.