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Using Cartoon Characters to Promote Business

Don't laugh! Those silly little characters can mean big business. Consider the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Jolly Green Giant, the M&Ms characters, the Aflac duck and the Geico Gecko.

In fact, a cartoon brand mascot is the single most powerful marketing tool many companies can deploy. Most people, when starting a business, or introducing a new product brand, center their efforts around the logo, trying to build a brand around a simple graphic symbol. Maybe they prop it up with a snazzy slogan, but it's still a static symbol. It doesn't make eye contact (very important) and it can't talk and explain and educate anyone about anything. It doesn't wink and smile, giggle or dance, or do anything to be endearing. It doesn't create any "warm-and-fuzzies" and therefore, doesn't build relationships that translate into brand loyalty. Despite being viewed as the cornerstone for most brands, the effectiveness of logos still pales in comparison to a well-crafted cartoon brand mascot.

So why don't more companies use brand mascots? Quite simply it's been overlooked in traditional marketing circles. Name one college that teaches a class in developing brand mascots, let alone one that grants a degree in it. How many ad agencies do you know that specializes in it? It's just fallen through the cracks, and no one has focused on it as a specialty... until now.

Next time you look through a newspaper, ask yourself how many of the ads would do a better job of getting your attention if they featured a cartoon character staring you straight in the face, with a big bright smile, telling you "blah, blah, blah" (whatever the headline is)."

A good friend of mine pointed out that you could go through the entire automotive section, and look at pages and pages of dealership ads and hardly be able to tell them apart from each other. "But," he pointed out, "one with a cartoon character would completely stand out and be very memorable."


What businesses are appropriate for brand mascots?


Here's the rule of thumb for when and when not to use a cartoon brand mascot. Keep in mind, ALL rules are meant to be broken.

Cartoon brand mascots work best when the product or service you are promoting is:
1. Hard to differentiate
2. Price sensitive
3. A non-luxury item
4. In the mature life cycle stage
5. Involves education/training
6. Boring/irritating/embarrassing
7. A virtual commodity
8. Sold in a highly competitive market

A cartoon brand mascot may not be the best choice for:
1. Upscale luxury items associated with prestige (jewelry, champagne, furs)
4. Non-price sensitive items, very unique, hyper innovative
5. Services dealing with extremely serious matters (lawyers and funeral directors)

Selling anything is an exercise in story telling. The products that have super compelling, headline-grabbing stories, don't need a mascot to get attention.  In fact, might even detract from the real story. For the 99 percent of other businesses that have to fight through the average of 5,000 advertising messages people are exposed to on a daily basis, a cartoon mascot is the one thing that can help them stand out and separate them from the competition. "Oh that's right! You're the one that has that cute little..."

Here is a list of industries that cartoon mascots can be highly effective in:
Accounting, Advertising, Agriculture, Apparel, Appliances, Automotive, Baking, Banking, Beverages, Biology, Boating, Child Care, Communications, Computer Technology, Construction, Consulting, Counseling, Dentistry, Education, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Entertainment, Foodservice, Forestry, Furniture, Government, Health Care, Hospitality, Housing, Industrial Applications, Janitorial, Lending, Manufacturing, Marketing, Medical, Mining, Parts, Pharmaceutical, Photography, Plastics, Plumbing, Publishing, Real Estate, Recreation, Repair, Restaurants, Retail, Sanitation, Security, Sports, Textiles, Toys, Training, Transportation, Utilities Wholesale



Do’s and Don’ts for Brand Mascots

DO:

  1. Do have your mascot designed by a professional. A bad character can do just as much damage as a good character can do good. It's all a reflection on your brand. Just because your nephew got A's in art class doesn't mean he understands the nuances of character development.
  2. Do give your character a name and let people know what it is.
  3. Do have your character make eye contact with people.
  4. Do make your character smile a lot.
  5. Do make your character exude enthusiasm and a positive outlook.
  6. Do let your character speak up, whether it's in cartoon dialog bubbles or in live animation. Giving your character a chance to speak gives people a chance to know him and like him better.
  7. Do make your character say and do important things. His dialog will always be the first thing people read so use the opportunity to lead people where you want them to go, or to deliver key messages that support your brand strategy or positioning.
  8. Do be consistent. If you write dialog for him that incorporates Southern slang, use it every time.
  9. Do know what traits you want him to have so that you can be consistent with him. Is he a lovable, bumbler or a sharp-as-a-tack solution finder? Does he get over-the-top excited about things, or is he a more laid back, easy-going type of guy? Is he humble or confident?
  10. Do consider your customer base when choosing your character's traits. This doesn't necessarily mean MATCH your character's traits to your customers. Sometimes people like to see negative examples that can make them feel better about themselves. For example, for a financial adviser, a cartoon character that constantly makes poor financial decisions and has to be helped by the adviser might work well. The character could constantly be seen in situations where the advisor just saved him from making yet another mistake.
  11. Do give your character some type of flaw, phobia or on-going challenge. Hollywood calls it making a character more sympathetic. The Silly Rabbit is always struggling to get his hands on Trix. Lucky the Leprechaun is always running away from people trying to get his Lucky Charms.
  12. Do keep them smiling. Note the Silly Rabbit and Lucky Leprechaun always keep smiling in the face of adversity.
  13. Do limit the scope of subject matters for your mascot. If he's developed for promoting product A, don't let him talk about product B just because he's become so popular. Keep him focused. Keep him on a short leash.
  14. Do let him go home with customers. Whether it's on t-shirts, tattoos, frizbees or golf balls, your mascot does some of his best work on premium items.
  15. Do give him a trait that he will be recognized for such as: thoughtful, curious, intelligent, resourceful, likeable, sweet, clumsy, sassy.

DON'T:

  1. Don't let him share center stage with other characters. One of the reasons cartoon mascots stand out so well is their uniqueness. Don't let them be surrounded by similar objects - other cartoons.
  2. Don't ever make your mascot do or say anything mean or spiteful.
  3. Don't let just anyone write dialog for your character. That person needs to have a firm grasp of your character's personality profile and your brand strategy, and know how to weave them together into effective dialog.
  4. Don't let him speak about subjects outside his area of expertise.
  5. Don't let him show up just anywhere. Typically cartoon mascots are great sales and training presenters. They find good homes in sales promotions, packaging,  signage, merchandising,  training manuals, newsletters and advertisements. They are not necessarily the best choice for annual reports and communications with stockholders and institutional investors. You might see the Pillsbury Doughboy take a small role in the annual report, but I doubt that you'd find him filling the front cover like a Cosmopolitan supermodel.
  6. Don't let an amateur perform surgery on him. Don't let anyone combine your character with clipart by cutting and pasting. It will look amateurish and diminish the brand.
  7. Don't let your mascot show anger. It's OK for them to get frustrated as long as they do it with a smile.
  8. Don't orphan your mascot. In other words, don't just through him out on the street and expect him to grow up to be a wild success without your wisdom and guidance. He is an extension of your business - your child. He needs to be introduced properly - so talk about him, brag about him, tell his story, and give him a reason for living. He needs to be taught how to talk - so spend time thinking about how he thinks: what he might say, and how he might say it.
  9. Don't lose sight of his purpose. It's tempting to just have fun with a mascot sometimes, but remember they have a job to do. Their message should always serve a purpose such as: leading readers into the copy; pointing out a benefit; reinforcing a cultural quality; entertaining; building relationships; provoking curiosity, etc. Be able to justify what you have him doing in each application.
  10. Don't let him be sarcastic. It might be entertaining in some venues, but it's not a likeable trait.
Is Loyalty Really Dead?
One of the most critical challenges any business faces is how to differentiate itself from the competition. This is where brand mascots excel! Even if you have a one-of-a-kind offering, super-outstanding value, or a location-to-die-for, a mascot can be the catalyst that sends your business into hyperdrive.

Lets strip away all advantages you might have, and put you on a level playing field with your competition. Pretend you have a gismo to sell, and there are 10 other guys who have the exact same gismo to sell to the same group of people. The only difference is that you have a brand mascot as your assistant. He talks to your customers and has your sales pitch down to a fine art. He's a super salesman. Relentless. In fact, there are clones of him on every street corner. Everywhere you look, he's smoozing customers. The other guys don't have anything like it. Who's going to stand out? Who's going to get remembered? Who looks like the leader? Who's going to be able to command a higher price? Who is going to have loyal customers crawling out of the woodwork?

Now consider what a brand mascot can do working WITH the advantages you have in play. The combination could be incredible!



How to Differentiate?
 One of the most critical challenges any business faces is how to differentiate itself from the competition. This is where brand mascots excel! Even if you have a one-of-a-kind offering, super-outstanding value, or a location-to-die-for, a mascot can be the catalyst that sends your business into hyperdrive.

Lets strip away all advantages you might have, and put you on a level playing field with your competition. Pretend you have a gismo to sell, and there are 10 other guys who have the exact same gismo to sell to the same group of people. The only difference is that you have a brand mascot as your assistant. He talks to your customers and has your sales pitch down to a fine art. He's a super salesman. Relentless. In fact, there are clones of him on every street corner. Everywhere you look, he's smoozing customers. The other guys don't have anything like it. Who's going to stand out? Who's going to get remembered? Who looks like the leader? Who's going to be able to command a higher price? Who is going to have loyal customers crawling out of the woodwork?

Now consider what a brand mascot can do working WITH the advantages you have in play. The combination could be incredible!


The Big Misunderstanding
Many people have brand mascots all wrong - thinking they are just for selling silly cheap stuff to kids. Consider that MetLife (Snoopy), Aflac (duck) and Geico (lizard) each have highly successful brand campaigns built around mascots. Then ask yourself: Who buys insurance? Mature adults. How cheap is insurance? It's not. And how silly is insurance? Pretty serious stuff. There are just a couple professions that aren't suitable for a brand mascot: lawyers and funeral directors. If you're not part of that fun crowd, go for it!

Target Markets
The type of customer you're trying to reach is also important. Sure, kids are a no-brainer, but we're all part of the cartoon generation and people of all age groups are fans. Why do you think the Simpsons has become one of televisions longest running series (more than 20 years). You might think certain professions might be "above" cartoons but look how "The New Yorker" reaches the elite of the financial world, and is renown for its cartoon strip. We (Toons4biz) developed a custom character for a multi-billion dollar investment firm. Many huge pharmaceutical companies use cartoon characters (Nasonex's bee and Mucinex's flem guy) to reach physicians and consumers.

The Magic
 Toon4biz characters are designed with a winning formula. Eye contact is a big eye-catcher. That's why our characters have big, friendly eyes. Think about it. You can sense it when someone is staring at you from a cross the room. Big eyes staring directly at you command your attention. And when you look someone straight into their eyes, it's like looking through a window into their soul. It's how you can tell if they are telling you the truth or not; whether they can be trusted or not. It's all in the eyes. It's human nature - that's why we put so much emphasis on our characters' eyes.

No matter what else is going on, a friendly smile can brighten your day. That's why all of our characters have big, bright, friendly smiles. Again, this is human nature. Psychologist council patients struggling with depression to force a smile on their face for just 60 seconds because of the magical affect it has on their attitude and outlook. It works. Try it sometime when you're feeling down. It's the magic of smiling; and our smiling cartoon mascots can cast a warm-and-fuzzy spell of happiness on your customers.


Copyright 2007 Thompson Advertising, Inc. Reproduction of this article is only permitted if Toons4biz is credited and our Web site address is published along with it. "www.toons4biz.com"