Character study for Frannie’s Goodie Shop
Branding is essential for any product, service or business interested in growing. One of the primary goals of any branding strategy is to establish and maintain an identity and connection with the target audience. There are so many ways you can create a brand’s identity. Naming, tag lines, logos, advertisement and even: having a brand character! Do you think your brand could benefit from using a character?
Before deciding that you absolutely want and NEED a brand character, evaluate the pros and cons.
A brand’s character goes a step beyond delivering identity; it provides a brand with more uniqueness, charisma and personality. The key thing to remember is that a brand’s character infuses more than just personality to your brand and turns it into an experience. One popular brand character that we all love and know is the Geico Gecco. If you’ve noticed lately, Geico took it up a notch and introduced Maxwell, the Geico Pig! Isn’t he the cutest!
There are many reasons why you might decide to use a brand character as part of your marketing or branding strategy:
- People respond better to an animated character compared to just brands. It’s easier to relate to a character since it has a personality, voice and a more human presence when compared to a plain ole image or logo.
- A brand character creates a stronger emotional response and connection, which helps it to stick better to a person’s mind. This results in stronger and better brand recognition.
- Certain target markets (like children) respond better to brand characters compared to other branding techniques. We always think of the success behind Ronald McDonald and Wendys. What child doesn’t recognize those two right away?
- Brand characters create a more interesting and appealing brand spokesperson and help communicate with the target market to inform them about a product’s benefits, improvements or deals while making them more memorable and believable when compared to normal advertisements or a real spokesperson.
The decision of whether or not to have a brand character affects the success of your branding campaign. In order to determine the positive or negative response, you should know the factors that will affect the efficiency of the character.
- What is the target audience of your brand character? A character targeted at children will be much different than one targeted at teens or adults. Even to assess if your consumers are male or female will make a difference in which type of character you may choose to use. Remember- we don’t want to offend anyone!
- Which brand personality or trait is the most important when it comes to your target market? A funny or humorous character may work for selling toys but may not do as well when it comes to selling insurance.
- How do your current customers see you and how would you like them and other potential clients to see you?
- What are the human traits/ characteristics of your brand and how do you incorporate them into your brand character?
- What emotions or thoughts do you want your clients to feel or think when they think of your brand or on seeing/ hearing your brand character?
Deciding whether or not to use a character for your brand will be based on YOU. What do you want to accomplish when branding your company?