New MasterCard Exec: Similar Products Can Serve Multiple Markets

How do you find a way to appeal to businesses small and large across an area as big and diverse as Europe? If MasterCard’s hiring of Andrew Buckley is any indication, you simply find someone who’s done it before.

MasterCard named Buckley as its new head of commercial products in Europe last week, and he comes  with an extensive work history in the technology and financial industries. Prior to joining MasterCard’s team, he had worked in diverse markets including the U.S., UK and Russia.

Europe is a vast region – not only in geography, but also in terms of lifestyle and legalities. Buckley has signed on to lead payment solutions across the giant market. With such diverse culture and consumer needs, how do payment companies tweak solutions to appropriately serve different markets and business sizes? Or do European markets and businesses have more in common than we initially thought?

Buckley will be working with MasterCard to provide services for small and large businesses across Europe. PYMNTS.com asked if there were major differences in needs for different sized companies and how Buckley planned to lead his team to tailor products to match those needs.

As it turns out, small and larger corporations actually share many common underlying needs.  

Buckley explained, “I don’t think there is actually a great deal of differences between small and large businesses, I think they have more in common that we sometimes think. However, I do think there is a spectrum of needs.”

He continued, “Smaller businesses usually want something which is simple and outside of the box, and they can get access to very quickly. Larger businesses have often invested a lot of money in big and complex systems. But in general they are actually very similar.”

Before joining MasterCard, Buckley worked at American Express where he was exposed to various European markets, including Russia. PYMNTS.com asked if there were common crossovers with consumer needs in different markets or if they were drastically different markets that required alternate approaches.

“I’ve had quite a diverse experience with bringing new products and driving new innovations with a lot of markets around the world, and I think through those experiences I’ve really come to see that there are a lot of underlying common needs. How you might do it might vary by region. Some markets for example are more advanced in certain areas,” Buckley said.

“There are also very specific differences. A lot of the needs are common, but I think the challenge for someone driving innovation through Europe is how do you have an underlying common approach but then able to very effectively and very quickly tweak to specific local needs?”

Buckley gave a few examples of how his teams have rolled out products to various markets. He explained they must tweak marketing communication and how they present product benefits to consumers.

“Whilst we did change them by market, we changed some of the benefits we had on the product. The underlying products are very similar across all the European markets. How we spoke about them was different and there were different tweaks for different markets.”

Buckley has been working in technology and the finance industry for several years and has presumably seen many new innovations and shifts in the market. PYMNTS.com asked Andrew if there was a pivotal moment or technology introduction that he recalled as having a significant impact on payments.

Buckley answered, “I think as innovation drives through society, there are very rarely big pivotal moments, I often think the biggest changes creep up on you.”

He continued to discuss the integration of online and offline banking technology, explaining,,”We will see channels merge and it will be difficult to say what is online and what is offline. We are seeing it in the retail area, you see and click and collect. I’m sure the same will happen in financial services. We will have a continuing expansion of the number of channels and touch points between banks and either their consumers or their business consumers, and we will see a real merging of those over the next few years, so that’s the biggest change I’ve seen and I think its still in progress.”

Buckley also shared what he was most looking forward to with his new position at MasterCard, and how he hopes to impact the future of the payments space.

“In terms of what I hope to see in the future and I hope to be involved in is this continued move towards electronic money. I think it’s hugely important for society that we really drive through the efficient of a world beyond cash and take the benefits of electronic transfer.”

To hear more Buckley on the European market, the convergence of online and offline banking and more, listen to the full podcast below.

*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.