If you think about it, there are a lot of brands that define what they do or how they sell based on their names. This week at CES, Mastercard announced they would be dropping the words of the name from their logo. It’s a smart move considering how the financial world is moving away from physical cards and more towards digital payment solutions.
This is not just an example of a brand trying to get ahead of the disruption in their industry. It is also an admission that the future of what the Mastercard brand could become is uncertain. The entire story might encourage you to ask the same question of the things that you’re working on. Is the way that you name those things already forcing you into a narrow-minded definition of what something might be? And if so, perhaps it’s time to follow the lead of Mastercard, go more visual and drop the name altogether.
