Let´s start with; What is a mascot?
A mascot, which is different from a logo, does not directly represent the business, it serves the people, culture, and values. Mascots personify a brand by building a relationship with its audience by usually using a symbol or character that is chosen by the company.
- In other words, a mascot makes a company more fun and lively!
The most famous mascots we all know of
M&m´s Spokescandies
There are six Spokescandies; The Sarcastic Red, the Cool Blue, the Paranoid Orange, the Alluring Green, the Simple Yellow and the Authoritative Ms.Brown. On Facebook, they have over 10 million fans.
The Laughing Cow
The laughing cow was first featured in 1921, and is still in use. All of their products have the laughing cow on them, which makes the brand highly noticeable. The cow makes people think of dairy products as well as making the audiences relaxed as it is always illustrated laughing. This strategy has proved to be highly effective for the company.
Julius Pringles by Pringles
Pringles, the super successful chips company has a mascot that many might not know the meaning of, but everyone recognizes it. The head is shaped like a piece of chips, which implies that every chips piece inside is equally sized. The mustache delivers a feel of professionalism and maturity.
In July/August 2019 Pringles had a collaboration with H&M, where hoodies and T-shirts had pictures of the mascot. Every product from the collection is rated 5 stars, which indicates that fun and successful mascot works - as people pay money to promote Pringles! Take a look:
What´s a Mascot for?
1. It develops an emotional connection with your viewers
“Brand mascots reflect a deeply rooted human tendency to understand the world through anthropomorphic objects.” This implies that humans are inbuilt to see the humane side of everything. That's just how we operate and see everything around us. We like allocating human characteristics to animals and objects because it helps us create an emotional connection with them. We can register them better when we have clear similarities. It’s now obvious to see why mascots are so successful in capturing people’s hearts and emotions. Mascots are faces that we can trust, and therefore understand - two qualities that give businesses a personality. When we need a reason to connect with a brand, the mascots can be a very welcoming way of engagement.
2. Mascots can build your social media
Let's look back at M&m´s Spokescandies - they have over 10 million fans on Facebook, with an extremely high level of engagement per post. The Facebook page allows M&m to show how friendly the brand is, and target unique audiences through their diverse characters. Imagine having an amazing social media strategy backing every single mascot. Engagement and entertainment can easily be done on social media, which will build a personality - all this can be difficult through a “corporate” social media.
3. Appealing to the masses
Mascots are unique - they have personality and they draw attention wherever they go. A mascot can have an outstanding mass appeal and open up your brand to numerous markets. New customers will be in a position to relate the brand mascot, allowing for broader and greater engagement for your marketing message. This leads to extra brand name recall which can unlock licensing possibilities to put the mascot on merchandise.
What are some of your favorite mascots? Let us know in the comments below!
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