Mascots aren’t just for kids’ brands in China. From Burberry’s cute critter WeChat stickers to the time-honoured KFC Colonel, having a cartoon representative may be more valuable than you realise.
A relatable and recognisable connection with brands
Companies use mascots to differentiate themselves from their competitors and convey their brand personalities
M&M’s, Michelin, Monopoly, Nintendo, KFC and Pringles – all household names, all with mascots that are synonymous with their brands. What helps these brands connect with their customers is a relatable, recognisable and memorable character that creates an empathic reaction in a glimpse.
Those familiar with Chinese giants Tencent will immediately recognise the QQ penguin. Similarly, Meituan (the largest home delivery app) brings to mind delivery drivers on the streets of Shanghai dressed in yellow with kangaroo ears on their helmets, while the video game controller-shaped cat head from e-commerce megalith Tmall’s advertisements are plastered throughout Chinese subway stations.
Both in the west and in China, companies use mascots to differentiate themselves from their competitors and convey their brand personalities, but the key difference is their ubiquity in China.
Engaging customers and increasing the likelihood of purchase
Mascots broaden the scope of a company’s customer engagement
Mascots, traditionally anthropomorphic cartoon characters, help companies build a more powerful brand image and persona. They elicit a direct intuitive response in consumers, and broaden the scope of a company’s customer engagement that takes the relationship beyond the purely transactional nature of purchasing.
Research by Proud Arunrangsiwed and Isari Pairoa showed that brand mascots significantly increase a customer’s willingness to purchase products, create a more positive attitude toward the products, and heighten the possibility of purchase. Furthermore, in 2020, Ipsos found that brand characters are 5 times more effective than logos on customers’ brand linkage and recall.
In China, using ‘cute’ characters and cartoons to convey messages is more common than in the west
In China, using ‘ke ai’ (Mandarin for ‘cute’) characters and cartoons to convey messages is appreciably more common than in the west, and far more acceptable to the adult cultural palette. Even the CCP uses cartoons to make public announcements and recommends television broadcasters give priority to animated series. Floob Creative, a Shanghai-based design agency that specialises in creating brand mascots and associated consumer products, has recently seen a strong boost in interest from companies looking to add brand mascots to their marketing efforts.
Read More at https://daoinsights.com/opinions/the-power-of-brand-mascots-in-china
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