Adopting a mascot: best practices and pitfalls to avoid

Far from being a simple brand strategy, the mascot plays a key role in representing a company to its customers. The mascot’s visibility is the key to a company’s reputation, which is closely linked to the brand’s notoriety. It expresses its visual identity, its values and its history in the minds of consumers.

A mascot gives concrete expression to a brand’s identity and is one of the strong communication tools used to disseminate it. A mascot gives concrete expression to a brand’s identity and is one of the strong communication tools used to disseminate it. Thanks to the adoption of a mascot, the brand further emphasizes its values to consumers, with the aim of marking their minds with emotion and clarifying the brand’s positioning. The marketing strength of the mascot lies in this respect: not to blend in with the mass, whatever the sector. The mascot allows the company to stand out from the crowd and, if it expresses its identity well enough, it can even become its spokesperson. It is therefore a way of communicating a company’s identity in a coherent way.

The mascot allows you to establish a strong link between your company and the consumer. In addition to the fact that children are more easily attached to humorous characters, adults can also feel a form of sympathy or even tenderness towards a mascot, which can take the form of a giant plush toy, or a person dressed in a disguise. When a mascot becomes part of the private circle of a household, she becomes a member of it, as it were, and firmly consolidates her position as a brand: through habit, commitment and attachment. In this way, a mascot can make a lasting contribution to the affirmation of a brand and increase its sales rates.

The choice of mascot is crucial: the image of the brand and your overall communication depends on it. Once the public becomes aware of the mascot, it is complicated to make changes. Rather than a crush, you should therefore take a strategic and rational approach to choosing your virtual mascot.

As with the creation of a logo, the choice of a mascot depends on various factors, the main ones being:

• The history of the company or the brand: its key moments, its leading characters, the traditions it holds dear, etc.
• Its visual identity, but not only: logo, graphic charter and in a broader sense, values, etc. 
• Its strategic positioning: high-end/low-end, age targeting, etc.

Do not hesitate to look back at your company’s history and even its reasons for being. What style of object or character would best symbolize your identity and your activity? What is the reason for this? Finally, you can draw inspiration from other companies with emblematic, even world-famous mascots such as M&M’s, McDonald’s, etc. You can also call upon a graphic designer to define your mascot, design the mascot costume, visuals, etc.

In general, favor authenticity. The mascot must reflect your company’s image.

Over time, the desire to improve or change your mascot may arise. It is then advisable to get information from consumers and to analyze the strategic targeting of the company before making any changes.

Both SMEs and large companies are well advised to raise the issue of a mascot; however, the actual implementation of this strategy requires marketing and strategic skills, as well as a good knowledge of the public and its expectations.