Clad in a pink nightgown, seven-year-old Jessica scans the
cereal boxes lined up on top of the refrigerator. Her eyes
light up as she reaches the brown box at the end. She leaps
in the air and flaps her arms wildly.
"That's what I want!" she yells, "I'm cuckoo for Cocoa
Puffs!"
And she is cuckoo as she sloshes milk over the small brown
spheres in her cereal bowl. As I'm certain the exorbitant
sugar content cannot have reached her blood yet, I know her
behavior is the result of clever branding. Although cereal
has little to do with birds, Sonny the Cuckoo Bird has been
selling breakfast cereal on television commercials since
the early 1960s. And he is quite an effective salesman. Not
only is the cereal a core brand for General Mills, but the
term "Cocoa Puff" has earned itself a significant cultural
reference.
Strange as it may sound, when packaged products take on a
personality that consumers can relate to, sales increase.
Products come to life when a mascot or animated figure
gives the product a face-not just a brand-to trust. This is
why children beg a breakfast of Cocoa Puffs, despite its
low nutritional content. But certainly naïve children are
not the exclusive targets of branding.
When it comes to choosing cleaning products, how many of us
picture grim-faced scrub brushes scouring our tubs? Can a
competing brand perform as well? We think not, as we drop a
bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles into our shopping basket. Mr.
Clean, with his sparkling bald head and sailor's physique,
has been mopping floors across the globe since the 50s. A
brand's personality can offer the single most important
reason why one brand is chosen over another. Personality
gives the consumer something to relate to that can be more
vivid than the perceived positioning of the brand.
Furthermore, a strong identifiable personality makes it
easier for customers and prospects to understand what the
marketer has to offer.
This is why Ronald McDonald sells more hamburgers, why the
Kool-Aid Man leads in punch sales, and why the Jolly Green
Giant dwarfs his competition. This is why we picture
companionable lizards when considering which car insurance
to buy. When building brand it is well worth the while to
assign a mascot to carry the image of the brand.
When considering mascots, it is critical that you convey an
image that will appeal to your target audience without
alienating or offending part of the population. This was
the unfortunate situation that Aunt Jemima found herself
in. Aunt Jemima began selling pancake mix and syrups in the
late 1800s, when her kerchiefed hair and apron was the
stereotypical garb of a black "Mammy." Indeed, Aunt Jemima
was marketed as a slave woman servicing her white family.
Plagued with a tarnished image, the company has tried to
bring their spokeswoman up-to-date with a younger, more
attractive African-American woman wearing a modern
hairstyle and pearls. Still, the term "Aunt Jemima" has
come to be a somewhat disparaging term. ("Uncle Ben" of
Uncle Ben's Rice has a similar history.)
When choosing an appropriate mascot for your brand, first
identify what you are trying to achieve. Who will
conceivably buy your product or services? What kind of
character would appeal to that audience? Is this a
spokesperson that will stand the test of time? In what way
will the personality reach out to the consumer and
communicate the strengths of your product or service? Is
this an image you desire? When you've found the right fit,
proceed with care-like reputation, image is very difficult
to change once it is established. You will know you've
found the winning spokesperson when the spark brings your
product to life.
----------------------------------------------------
Francesca Black is an artist and works on content and
designs for Logo Search http://www.logo-search.com and is a
photographer for Photo Wizard http://www.photo-wizard.net a
royalty free stock photo directory.
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