Not all heroes wear capes… Or do. why brands need heroes. Some have long tails and funny ears, some are sarcastic and very cute. These are all mascots – characters of the brands Mascot character talisman: why brands need heroes that represent them on the market.
I’ll tell you more about who they are, why they are needed, and how to create a mascot later.
What is a mascot
A mascot is a brand hero with corresponding bahamas phone number data values, character traits, and behavior. These characters came to marketing from sports competitions – each team has a mascot that raises morale and entertains spectators. And it also allows you to make a big profit by selling souvenirs.
There has never been a case in history where marketing specialists have not used a working trick from another sphere for the sake of profit. This is how the mascot became the main character in advertising communications. And it is not only a familiar pair of pills or a bald man who, with a wave of a magic bottle, will wash everything in the apartment. Heroes are also used by companies from a more “serious” sphere, for example, insurance: in Geico protecting sites with the help of ssl Gecko it is a gecko traveling around the USA and clearly illustrating insurance cases, constantly getting into them. He is so cute that it is simply impossible not to believe him.
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A mascot is a brand in itself. It needs to be south africa numbers developed and promoted, it evolves along with the company. Therefore, in 2021, when brands do not have million-dollar budgets for promotion, as was the case 15 years ago, character development is often not even considered.
But the mascot fully pays for the investment, making the brand alive and special.
Why does a brand need a mascot?
Advertising communications on behalf why brands need heroes of a character without generalizations: “we”, “our brand”, “we have” look cooler, but this is not the only reason why a company needs a hero:
- Shows how to use a product or service. The mascot quickly and simply tells and demonstrates what to do to make the product as useful as possible. This can be used by brands with a complex consumption process: for example, Kingston is a company that produces memory modules and data storage devices. On the website and in social networks, Techno and his assistant Kin tell how to choose the best solution for your equipment, what is the difference between different devices, and also joke and share the daily life of gamers. The stereotype that mascots are not suitable for complex products because they are too simple is incorrect. Everything depends on how correctly you analyzed the audience and understood its needs.
- Allows you to be naughty. If the mascot is a separate brand and a creature in general, with its own character and distinctive features, you can create interesting and bold communications. A separate story is the Duolingo page on TikTok . The familiar green owl is having a blast there and showing brands how to communicate with the audience. A closer example is a digital guy for the Digital-chill unconference. He showed all the “pains” that a digital specialist faces during his work, and told how you can forget about everything and chill.
Communicates with the audience and strengthens the emotional connection
Tells stories
The very storytelling that brands are chasing. The hero fits into this concept because he himself shares stories. For example, the character of the Flint brand, a funny bread, tells how to forget about everything, celebrates Halloween with subscribers, plays games. Together with the audience, he lives life and shows how harmoniously the brand exists in it.
- Makes the brand unforgettable. Literally and just like first love. Companies that have characters immediately stand out from the competition, are remembered by consumers and, thanks to this, earn more. At the beginning of its history in the mid-20th century, Mr. Proper (a familiar melody immediately played in my head) became the leader in the cleaning products market and holds the lead to this day.
I urgently need such a useful marketing tool! How to make it?
How to create a mascot
You can give the designer a technical task and hope for success, or you can do it like this:
- First, analyze. From theses to marketing strategies, everything starts with analysis. Study the needs of the audience, what they expect, what emotions the character should evoke, what the brand’s defining feature is, what the competitors have.
- Forget about trends. A mascot is with a brand for a long time, creating it according to trends means redoing it in a few months at best. This rule is irrelevant if we are talking about a situational hero for one event.
- Choose a character type. Real or fictional, hero or lovable loser – it all depends on the needs of the audience and the characteristics of the brand. Character types deserve a separate article, because they are divided according to several methods, even according to Jung.
- Develop a communication model. While the graphic designer is thinking about what you ordered from him, write down the character’s and communication style. As stated above, a mascot is a separate brand that should have the corresponding attributes.
- Link the character and the brand. Introduce the audience to the mascot on social networks, create a sticker pack, conduct a large-scale media campaign. If there is no connection between the company and the hero, then another cool character will appear on the network, on which money was spent.