Branded characters are universal heroes that are created for better communication between the company and the consumer. Information from a fictional character is better perceived, so drawn images are often used in advertising products for children: Nesquik Rabbit, a family of penguins from “Kinder Pingui” advertising. For influence and better perception of women, companies use the image of a strong man who can cope with any difficulties: Mr. Proper, Mr. Muscle. However, there are also female images: Freken Bock is not only the housewife from Astrid Lindgren’s “Little Boy and Carlson”, but also the brand character of a cleaning products brand.
What is best remembered during advertising campaigns? A vivid image and a quality message. And to create a good image, you’ll need a carefully crafted mascot with an original personality. Corporate mascots are often the center of attention during any promotional events, television appearances, in print media, and on social media. Your brand will become more recognizable as audiences begin to identify the corporate character with your services/goods.
The branding agency KOLORO knows what catches the attention of the target audience and knows how to use it.
The benefits of a branded character:
- Increases consumer brand awareness and customer loyalty.
- Creates a positive image of the company.
- Attracts potential customers.
- The incentive for families and children to buy this particular company’s merchandise.
- Increases exposure in the media.
Character development is a fascinating process, which is handled by our designers and marketing specialists. The price and its formation is the competence of our manager (his contacts are here).
Brand personality: a tool for communicating with clients
A company’s brand persona is an image that evokes curiosity. A well-designed image can be the best sales and marketing tool for a small business. A fun, interesting mascot will attract more consumer attention than a classic logo. Mascots usually personify the brand, allowing the target audience to better remember and understand the company and its services. As timeless brand ambassadors, personas help the target audience develop a closer relationship with the business.
Read also: How creating a brand identity helps increase the price of your product.
Character development: features
COLORO’s team of branding experts can help answer many questions related to creating a brand personality. Before starting work, it is worth answering the following questions:
- Do you need a mascot with a nostalgic effect or a more modern one?
- Does your brand have specific signature colors that should be used for a mascot?
- What emotions should the character evoke, what impression should he or she make?
By answering these questions, you will get an idea of what a talisman should be and what functions it should fulfill.
The genre and style of the mascot should complement the typography, and the mascot’s dress code should be based on the uniforms worn by employees.
The design of the branded character should be disposable and, more importantly, original.
Every detail matters. Colorful mascots can breathe life into a simple corporate identity. A mascot can be an animal, a person or a personalized object. Its purpose is to build trust and brand recognition with a mascot that can be tied to everything from advertisements to business cards. It doesn’t have to be ornate or hyper-detailed.
Read also: 7 factors affecting the cost of brand building.
Sometimes it is easier to create mascots for individual products within a company. These mascots help sell the products, but they are not always associated with the parent company. The approach is useful if a company owns many products, each of which deserves its own brand.
For example, Zurb owns two brands, Foundation for Sites with their friendly yeti and Foundation for Email with their octopus.
It is good when the mascot is not the logo, but exists alongside it. For example, McDonnald’s logo is the golden arches and the mascot is Ronald McDonald.
A branded character doesn’t have to be universally recognized. For example, Zurb’s characters are far from well-known in every home. But they are familiar to people in the industry.
Energizer Bunny was introduced in television commercials in 1989 as the mascot of Energizer Holdings Inc. He does an excellent job of positioning Energizer batteries as more enduring – perhaps the most important benefit to battery consumers. Energizer credited the rabbit with 7% of its sales growth in 1992.
In branding agency KOLORO you can order a corporate style that will give your company recognizability. And the style attributes will become not just a business card, but an advertisement of your products and enterprise as a whole.
Stages of creating a branded character
Creating a character is a painstaking process that requires a responsible approach. The best characters are created this way:
- The company and its competitors, target audience and market conditions are necessarily researched;
- Image ideas are generated based on the data obtained;
- direct creation of a branded character.
Types of branded characters
The price of creating a branded character largely depends on the features of its appearance. Maskots are divided depending on realism and volumetricity.
- 2D and 3D characters. 2D characters are vector and bitmap. The first type is used for placement on POS-materials and logo. Raster character can be as detailed and realistic as possible. 3D characters are convenient to use in advertising campaigns, especially in commercials – no additional effort is needed to recreate the character’s movements.
- A realistic character is a person or an animal. But fantastic or mythical images, fairy tale characters or comic book heroes can also be used as a mascot.
How do you create a successful branded character?
The branded hero should be simple so that users can easily identify it, even if they only see a silhouette.
It’s also worth developing a character that can easily adapt to special events, such as New Year’s Eve or another holiday. Having an adaptable mascot allows you to create animated videos, gifs, infographics, t-shirts, stickers, and more.
Read also: Creativity vs common sense: How to create a UTP that works.
Effectiveness of branded persona in social media
How effective are brand mascots on social media? According to research, they are more effective than celebrities promoting a product. Synthesio investigated the level of social media hype generated by both celebrities and brand mascots and found that branded brand personas, on average, contributed to a significant increase in social media familiarity with that brand. While most celebrities increased brand awareness by only 3.9% branded characters showed different results: “Pillsbury Doughboy” contributed to a 22.14% increase in familiarity, Aflac Duck contributed 11.82%, and Flo from Progressive contributed 6.85%.
Another study showed that for most brands, the use of a branded character significantly increases brand value. For example, Charmin Bears contributed to a 585% increase in shareholder value, Tony the Tiger led to a 279% increase, and Mr. Proper led to a 182% increase.
The above research shows that branded personas are an effective social media tool. This is because consumers prefer to interact on social media with a likable, attractive character rather than a nameless, faceless staff or corporate exec.
Read also: Targeting audiences on Instagram: raw material for fashion retailers.
The most popular branded characters in the world
There are endless visual stimuli all around us. That is why companies, especially large ones, use mascots as part of their marketing strategy. And what was perceived 50 years ago “to the hilt” would look strange today. The names of characters, most of which we know from childhood, do not always correspond to the name of the company, but over time have become associated with products and with the company itself.
To keep up with the times and meet the visual expectations of the target audience, many companies have done character redesigns.
Michelin Man
Bibendum, also known as Michelin-Man, is the signature character of French tire manufacturer Michelin. The first design of the Michelin-Man character was rather sinister, but after later changes, it became cuddly and fun. Legend has it that the idea for the mascot was born 4 years before the actual realization of the mascot designs. When brothers Edouard and Andre Michelin were looking at a pile of tires, they imagined that if you attach handles to a pile of tires, you will get a funny uncle. And so it was. The first sketch was based on an unapproved drawing for a beer hall advertisement: there was a fat man with a mug of beer saying “Nunc est bibendum!” (“If you drink, then immediately!”, Horace’s “Odi”). Instead of beer, Bibendum poured nails and glass into the mug and signed that “Michelin tires ‘drink’ obstacles.” Since then, Michelin Man has “lost weight” by reducing the number of tires, becoming more masculine. The only thing that tells its age is the color. Until the 1930s, tires were light because they were made from natural rubber.
Pringles
The Pringles mascot is a man named Julius Pringles. He has a big moustache and a brown crab-like head of hair. And he appeared in 1968: Julius was a red-cheeked, red-eyed, primped gentleman, which has been slightly modified to the present day. In 1979, designers changed the red color of his eyes. In 1998, his cheeks disappeared and his face widened a bit, giving him a beautiful red bow. Did you know that the name Pringles turned into little half ounces and the shape of the chips is a hyperbolic paraboloid.
Milka
Inspired by the motto, “Make the familiar unfamiliar and the unfamiliar familiar.” Souchard decided to give Milka the cow a purple color. Previously, the cow was white and the background was purple. The unusual color choice was made to stand out from the competition and deliver the main message: the softness and gentleness of the brand’s products. It wasn’t until 1972 that the purple cow became the symbol of chocolate. Over time, the world-famous character has evolved, but the proportions, pattern, and bell have hardly changed. The last change the manufacturers made was to turn the cow’s head towards the viewer to establish contact.
Having a branded character has brought huge success to many companies that we now admire and draw inspiration from. To declare yourself, to fall in love, to captivate the minds and hearts of a brand’s target audience – that’s what a well-designed branded character does, and you can order character creation at KOLORO.
