Branding Information

Mascots - The Killer Promotional Concept


Mascots are the unique dolls or puppets that help identify a sports team or a company. These carry the unique property of "Stickiness". Your great customer support and product quality sticks only so long. You got to remind folks often that you are there alive and well waiting for the next business transaction. The cheapest and effective way is creating and promoting a mascot for your company. Television Ads could have this mascot as the central theme or as an add-on. These typically tend to stick to the audience than your product or company name. This is both good and bad; a good mascot tends to make the customers take ownership of the mascot. Meaning they like to display and talk about it to others, a copycat cheap mascot brings in the wrath of the customer. So make a good Mascot for your company or team.

The tough part is the initial concept creation, a concept that will make the Mascot a hit rather than a road-kill. There are professionals who can help you with this. Your advertisement company may have a few experts in-house as well. So the next time you sit in the promotional discussion board, bring this topic to the forum. You will be amazed how much your colleagues, agents, employees and customers like being associated with some good Mascot. This is a powerful branding strategy, have you seen the GEICO ads or the Disney shops. They associate themselves with powerful characters which serve as mascots for their companies. They are the killer ad concepts.

People who are new to the branding field don't understand the entire Mascot concept. They just choose one animal and then paint them in a different color and claim a job done. Some of them even don't take the time to check if it is registered by another company or not. More so often it fails than it succeeds as they have not grabbed the concept and they are just trying to create something that is "Cool". Mascots should mean something as I said earlier people tend to associate your team or company with that Mascot. A Bull mascot for stock companies rock, if it was some new person they would have designed a red ostrich which would completely mean differently. This needs a lot of brainstorming and research in which animal or character fits your company's long term branding strategy.

Once an initial concept is done and approved then next part is identifying the best manufacturing company who can produce these mascots at preset sizes in bulk or on demand for you. You can look at the resource list at end of article for some help. The company you choose should have the right resources to do good customization for you. Don't settle for imitation puppets with a different logo on top. This typically doesn't go well. Uniqueness in style, color, texture, font, quality and the overall appearance matters. Well of course budget is the king and you can try to squeeze in the best qualities inside your tight budget. Once you have these worked out you are all set to give them off for free to your brand ambassadors - your existing customers. These keep reminding them of your company. Don't miss the free repeat sales.

You can find more resources for mascots in puppetuniverse.com. Author does freelancing for many companies and can be reached in the no fee free freelance website freelancefree.com.


MORE RESOURCES:

NFL PLAYERS Launches 2008 Branding Campaign: 'Football Doesn't ...
MarketWatch - 8 hours ago
"The new micro site builds on our vision of implementing cutting-edge technology to expand upon the successful NFL PLAYERS brand," said Andy Feffer, ...
James Brown Talks NFL, Sports Broadcasting Washington Post
all 10 news articles


Re-branding globalisation
Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt - 9 hours ago
Under the old brand of globalisation many assumed that the world will be united under US hegemony, in an end-of-history kind of way. ...


Tightwad Bank: A Lesson in Branding
MSNBC - 13 hours ago
Tightwad isn't the only bank with a strange, name-brand appeal. There's also the Fifth Third Bank, a Midwestern bank headquartered in Ohio. ...


Is the AIG PR Crisis a Branding Advantage for St. Regis Resort in ...
Mosnar Communications Inc Blog, GA - 10 hours ago
The bad PR move on behalf of AIG now becomes a branding association problem for the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, or does it? ...


Independent Agent 2.0: Branding Through Blogging and Beyond
Insurance Journal, CA - 11 hours ago
Rick Morgan is a senior associate with the branding consultancy, The van Aartrijk Group. He has worked on independent agency technology for more than 30 ...


P&G’s Stengel: Make purpose your star
Bizjournals.com, NC - 11 hours ago
It must first be geared toward helping others, and in turn elevate the brand. Only then is the effort authentic, and therefore worthwhile. ...
P&G ad chief touts "purpose-driven brands'' Cincinnati.com
all 9 news articles


Gumas Embraces Cultural Branding and Reveals a New Look
MarketWatch - Oct 9, 2008
"It's the perfect time to take our own branding to the next level, with a dynamic new style, updated content, and a primary focus on Cultural Branding ...


Operation Branding Iron planned Saturday in Citrus Heights
Sacramento Bee,  USA - 6 hours ago
Area residents are invited to protect their vehicles from catalytic converter theft by participating Saturday in Operation Branding Iron in Citrus Heights. ...


Web Hosting Tutorial Firm Re-Branding Service Discounts, Debut at ...
WebSite Host Directory (press release), OR - 13 hours ago
Although the reasons vary, usually it's because the hosting company has changed their image or logo, and wants the branding in their flash tutorials to ...


Product Reviews

T-Mobile G1: Apple vs HTC Branding
Product Reviews, UK - 13 hours ago
Branding is a big thing when it comes to any product; this is the same for the T-Mobile G1, the Apple iPhone as well as HTC. When you do a search on any of ...
Smartphones sales shoot up: will stocks follow? Phones Review
all 2 news articles

Branding - Google News

home | site map
© 2006