Design Boards

Project statement

In response to the question of ‘How relevant are mascots to contemporary branding?’ the approach taken was creating a mascot and coherently using it in contemporary branding where the use of a mascot is non evident. The campaign that was re branded to contain a mascot was Morrison’s free fruit campaign. The campaign was chosen due to being able to use the mascot In a relevant way that will start the process of making a change to relevant societal issues. The issues that the mascot helps to tackle is child obesity and the use of plastic, with the mascot engaging children so they choose fruit as a snack and the collateral being environmentally friendly. The market of supermarkets and food was chosen due to not having much differentiation and supermarkets being a necessity, therefore a mascot is relevant with being able to create an emotional connection that reaches ‘beyond the purely rational and economic level to spark feelings of closeness, affection and trust’ (Berry, 2000). The mascot is relevant to the campaign with being an anthropomorphised object to which is a relevant addition due to ‘humankind’s anthropomorphic urge’ and due to human’s ability to ‘interpret the world in human terms and have done so since the dawn of time’ (Guthrie, 1993). The fruit mascots create emotion and build the gap between consumer and brand, with the values and messages of Morrison’s being able to be delivered in a more approachable method. The mascots may also be a more approachable way to deliver messages and values to new sub cultures due to the infantilization of western culture which was investigated within the essay.

The essay has informed the visual creation of the mascot, with reflecting on theoretical framework of the baby schema. Lorenz proposed that visual features such as big eyes and a more round shape trigger positive feelings, which has consequently been reflected into the design of the fruit mascots. Also, the visuals have stemmed from the ideation that mascots go through the process of ‘neoteny, whereby they develop increasingly juvenile characteristics’ Gould (2016, quoted in CarKeys, 2016). Which can be seen through the mascot’s simplistic style of visuals, that ultimately will engage children more effectively. The aesthetics have been considered with the consideration of popular mascots in branding right now, such as Kevin the Carrot’s use of cute and personality which has captured a new audience for Aldi of whom is in a saturated market.  

Overall, the project has demonstrated how mascots can be relevant to contemporary branding, with the example of Morrison’s, with being able to help with relevant issues. As children are more attracted and influenced by characters, the engaging cute fruit mascots will be able to entice and create a relationship which will help influence children in making the choice of a healthy alternative. The mascots have also demonstrated the relevance with being harmonious within Morrison’s pre-existing material and being used onto collateral that represents Morrison’s core values and be favoured by adults too. The mascot’s show the potential that they may able to have on brands and relevant topics for companies if used effectively, that can consequently create improved consumer to brand relationships.

In context - photo shoot

Due to the project reaching the outcome of re branding Morrison's free fruit campaign, it was thought that seeing the products and mascots in store would be beneficial, with seeing how the material works with the pre existing material. I art directed, with taking different shots of the products - with emphasising the in context uses of the bags in particular. I discovered how shooting in the context wasn't as easy as first thought due to the different lighting and the different colours found in store. I was happy with the outcome of pictures that demonstrate successfully how my mascots can be incorporated and how they visually stand out yet aren't too different to Morrison's branding, having a harmonious balance. Perhaps to show the context even further it would have been good to see how a child would use the bag which would have reflected the campaign more due to the target audience being children, however there is ethical concerns with this ideation.

Final chosen pictures:

other interesting visuals:

Research - child obesity

Gov (Public Health England) - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-obesity-applying-all-our-health/childhood-obesity-applying-all-our-health

more than 1 in 5 children are overweight or obese when they begin school, and 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school 

obesity rates are highest in the most deprived 10% of the population, approximately twice that of the least deprived 10%

The amount of sugar that children consume on a daily basis is a major contributing factor to gaining weight. The National Diet and Nutrition Survey found that sugary drinks account for 30% of 4 to 10 year olds’ daily sugar intake. Children’s consumption of added or processed sugars significantly exceeds the maximum recommended level.

Low levels of physical activity, and increased sedentary behaviours among children and young people, exacerbate the problems of poor diet and nutrition. Data across local areas in England shows only 18% of children and young people aged 5 to 16 years reported taking part in physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day. Boys are more likely than girls to meet the recommended levels, as are children from the most affluent families when compared with the least affluent families.

Psychological Impact of a Brand Mascot in Customer’s Purchase Decision

Psychological Impact of a Brand Mascot in Customer’s Purchase Decision

Deepak Kochhar, Pavitar Parkash Singh - 2019

The boom in social media marketing has also helped to increase the reach of brands in everyone’s pocket through a smart phone. Every age group is using smartphones and are well familiar with social media. Moreover, people are following bigger brands on these social media platforms which has led to transform the marketing strategies adopted by brands. Every company these days is busy in endorsing their product and services to be visually active and virtually as well incustomer’s mind. Daily posts on social media has helpedthe customer to be directly associated with the brand. These companies always share their message on social media through their own brand ambassador or brand mascot. So that is why mascots are easily recognized and are popular with customer of any age group.

So, it is the ability of the consumer to recognize the product having a particular brand identity. About the ability of children to relate the graphic signs to the product, Zuckerman and [1] in a study with children of 4 to10 years old, found that children have an amazing capability of perfectly relating the brand mascot to the specific product. As far as reminding of the different hints is concerned, according to [12] children of 2/7 years old focus on concrete clues, and from that age on, they develop the capacity of focusing on more motivations and more associated with the functionality of the products. Brand awareness is the most important factor which allows the consumer to choose the product from the other competitive products available in the market.



Brand mascots have been known to boost Facebook shares over non-character visual content, with the Charmin Bears increasing shares by 585% and Tony the Tiger increasing shares by 279%.

Analyzing the e ects of brand mascots on social media: Johnson City Power Board case study. Kristopher Caueld - 2012

However, building a strong brand is still necessary in developing lasting relationships with consumers even if it will not dramatically increase revenue. “People relate to the products they buy and the services they use, so branding is important”(Strother, 2010).

“Great brands always make an emotional connection with the intended audience...They reach beyond the purely rational and purely economic level to spark feelings of closeness, affection, and trust” (Berry, 2000).

Creating a brand character or mascot is a great way to build a corporate identity and to generate attention from the public. A mascot can give limitless opportunities to drive consumer interest and recognition. The design and implementation of the mascot is imperative to its success. “To be visually effective, the vehicles or mascots must be properly designed, satisfying both the viewer’s preferences and perceptions” (Lin, Lin & Ko, 1999).

The character should embody the spirit of the company and encapsulate the company’s missionand goals. The mascot must have symbolic color associations, a name with positive connotations, appealing associations, and convey a certain message to its consumers (Strother, 2010).

A recent failure was BurgerKing’s King. Although briefly popular, Burger King recently nixed the character because he was not appealing to customers and sales had been steadily dropping. A Burger King spokesman stated, "We did quite a bit of extensive research, and time and time again people said the differentiator that makes them love Burger King is the quality of our food...We are a food company, so we are going to take a food-centric marketing [approach]" (Gasparro, 2011).

Burger King created King, their mascot, as aggressive and bold with a large plastic head and a red velvet cape to appeal to men in their twenties. However, “recent commercials featuring the character gave off a slightly creepy vibe instead, with the royal rascal sneaking in to people's beds and peering through windows” (Gasparro, 2011).

elevision spots have shifted from being informative product messages, to inspiring messages meant to drive communication elsewhere. A number of companies have used television ads to spark initial interest in their characters to try and drive consumers to engage on the internet, wherethe characters can be fully developed. In creating a new M&M’s character, Mars Chocolate NorthAmerica developed a multimillion-dollar Super Bowl ad to introduce “Ms. Brown” to the public.However, promotion did not stop there. “Ms. Brown” held a live video chat with followers on Facebook and made a guest appearance on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice”. Ms. Brown even has her own musicchannel on Pandora internet radio (Schultz, 2012). Mars Chocolate North America sparked initial interest with a TV ad and then drove consumers to interact with their new character over several different platforms.

The influx of social media into the realm of marketing has provided a significant avenue for mascots to come alive. “Social media has made icons and mascots a much more interactive component of a brand’s story” (Shah, 2009). Facebook, currently, has over 845 million users worldwide, while Twitter has amassed over 500 million users (McNaughton, 2012). Social networks present a large population for consumer interaction. Many characters “communicate” to consumers through their respective social networking sites. “In many cases, consumers would rather interact online with a cute or cuddly character than with a faceless corporate executive ...It's easier to have a casual conversation”(Shah, 2009).

The recent influx of social media has provided utilities with a perfect vehicle for communicating a certain image with mascots. Social media is a place where mascots can come alive and personally interact with consumers.

Research - effects of brand personalities

Effects of Brand Personality on Brand Trust and
Brand Affect
Yongjun Sung
University of Texas at Austin
Jooyoung Kim
University of Georgia

According to brand personality theorists, brands can be associated with human personality traits through learning and experience. Since consumers have dif- ficulty articulating perceived differences between competitive brands based on the physical attributes, brand personality and image management have been a critical part of a company’s marketing program. As Levy (1985) noted, the task of differentiating brands can be facilitated when consumers relate them to human characteristics, suggesting that communicating a clearly defined brand image enables consumers to identify the needs the brand satisfies (Park, Jaworski, & MacInnis, 1986).

As Aaker (1996) suggested, the entire mix of marketing com- munication variables (e.g., advertising, user imagery, price, packaging, symbols, logos, store location, word-of-mouth) and every other exposure that the brand receives creates brand personality over time. A brand’s personality is stronger and clearer if these elements are deliberately coordinated, if the personality is distinctive, and if the personality is kept consistent over time and media (Batra, Lehmann, & Singh, 1993).

Brand personality is beneficial to marketers and consumers. For marketers, a brand’s personality is an integral component of a brand’s image and equity, and it is related to the brand’s value in the consumer’s mind (Keller, 1993). Brand personality can create and build a bond with the consumer, particularly if the personality is distinctive, robust, desirable, and constant (Lannon, 1993). Marketers thus view a brand personality as an efficient way to distinguish the brand from its competitors, thereby enhancing the marketing effectiveness.

From the viewpoint of consumers, brand personality provides self-expressive or symbolic benefits for the consumer (Aaker, 1999). Consumers often use brands to create and communicate their personalities. According to Escalas and Bettman (2003), consumers use brands to meet their needs, forming connections between their self-concepts and brand images (called self–brand connections). Such con- nections play an important role in creating brand equity and maintaining long- term consumer–brand relationships. Escalas and Bettman (2003) have also suggested that consumers value the psychological benefits of associating with brands because consumers can construct and define their self-concept and pres- ent themselves to others in a variety of social contexts. As asserted by Siguaw, Mattila, and Austin (1999), a well-established brand personality is thought to heighten emotional ties with the brand, increase preference and patronage, and augment a sense of trust and loyalty.

For example, Aaker (1997) demonstrated that a five-factor struc- ture appears to best explain the way American consumers perceive brands across symbolic and utilitarian product categories. Those five dimensions are Sincer- ity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness (Aaker, 1997). Three dimensions (Sincerity, Excitement, and Competence) resemble three human personality dimensions (Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Conscien- tiousness) that are also present in the extant big-five human personality model, whereas two dimensions (Sophistication and Ruggedness) are not consistent with those of the big-five human personality model.  

As discussed earlier, since brand personality is created and maintained in the mind of the consumer as a reflection of the perception of the brand, it can have a meaningful and significant impact on both brand trust and brand affect. Consumer researchers have reported that brand personality increases emotion and affect levels in consumers (Biel, 1993) as well as trust and loyalty levels (Fournier, 1998). Although both brand trust and brand affect can be driven cog- nitively as well as affectively, the present study proposes that some brand per- sonality dimensions relate more to cognitive-level brand evaluations, whereas others have a stronger impact on affective-level brand perceptions. 

Ethics

In the project I didn't use human participants in the study of branding mascots due to not having access to the specific audience of children, so therefore not creating a reflective finding to enhance the campaign design decisions. In this project I do not explore sensitive or challenging subjects and I have no imagery of which will cause offence. I have used the Morrison's logo for the campaign to reflect the relevance a mascot can give, however the logo is not my own and I do not own this image.
I understand that using imagery and type of which is not my own needs to be considered outside of the university setting.

Final crit

• The mascots are engaging and cute - suits audience
• Looks professional
• Would have been nice to see the characters in different settings - more playful
• Having a collectable 
• Making different types of stickers to collect
• The products work well with the mascot and with Morrison's
• Maybe should have experimented with more playful type and layout?

Research - Influence of food companies’ brand mascots and entertainment companies’ cartoon media characters on children’s diet and health

Influence of food companies’ brand mascots and entertainment companies’ cartoon media characters on children’s diet and health: a systematic review and research needs

V. I. Kraak1 and M. Story
december 2014 

The 1950s Baby Boom era brought television to house- holds and food companies marketed their products directly to children through mascots and characters to differentiate their company’s products from the competition (52–54).

Children learn about mascots and characters through social, media and marketing environments including their parents, television, movies, the Internet and food packaging (81).

Children develop ‘parasocial relationships’ with favourite characters, representing emotionally infused friendships based on characters ‘attractiveness and the mes- sages they convey (82) that can influence their diet-related outcomes.

Mascots and characters are associated with

memorable slogans, jingles, taglines, musical themes and stories (49,50,83,84); and market nostalgia through trans- generational, parent–child interactions that generate fun, humour, emotional appeals and positive feelings towards company brands and products (49,51,52,83).

Michelin man

source : (logodesignlove, 2012).

No sooner was the Michelin Man born when he began to play a major role for the company: it was he who presented the products and advised and assisted motorists, becoming the brand’s worldwide ambassador.

But the Michelin Man learned to change with the times. In the 1920s he discarded his pince-nez eyeglasses, and also gave up his cigar (at the dawn of the motor age these appendages had helped him appeal to the very small, wealthy section of society that had the power to buy a car)

Compared to the cuddly mascot that contemporary audiences are accustomed to, early iterations of the Michelin Man come as something of a surprise.

The aim of all advertising is first to create recognition for a brand, and then, ideally, affection and loyalty. This can be achieved in a multitude of ways, but one of the best examples can be found in a symbol that is now 116 years old: the Michelin Man, or Bibendum, as he was formally known.

He is an unusual figure in logo design. A light-hearted, jolly character, the Michelin Man is more of a mascot for the brand, albeit a rather strange one constructed solely from tires. In this he is very much a product of his time, as design historian and curator Alain Weill suggests: “Using specific characters was the trend–the little girl for Menier, the Pierrot for Cointreau, and so on. The great thing with the chubby little man made out of tires is that he could be represented in various situations; the different possible versions is my favorite thing about him.”

 Such is the public warmth toward the Michelin Man that he has on occasion broken out of the realms of advertising and entered other forms of popular culture. The company recognized this early on, and put him at the centre of their flagship Bibendum Building in London, built in 1911. Certain versions of Goscinny and Uderzo’s comic book, Asterix in Switzerland (including the English translation), see him make a guest appearance as a chariot wheel dealer; more recently he played a key role in the Oscar-winning animated short, Logorama, which saw two Michelin cops hunting down a villainous Ronald McDonald. 

From the 1930s onwards, Michelin made increasingly less use of outside artists. As a result, images of the Michelin Man became more standardised, although there were country-specific variants. Adapting to the evolution of tyres, his rings became thicker and the character dropped his wealthy image to move closer to a broader customer base.

The look of the branding mascot had changed from the 1930’s onwards as his ‘rings became thicker and the character dropped his wealthy image to move closer to a broader customer base’ (logodesignlove, 2012).

The re design of the mascot has enabled the mascot to stay relevant, due to

Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the department of architecture and design at The Museum of Modern Art and notable Bibendum fan, points out that wide-ranging identity systems are today becoming the norm, instead of the single logo or mascot. “At that time, you used to have the newspaper, you had your garage, and you had packaging,” she says. “In a way, it was a set of applications that could be contained in a manual. Now, it’s much more complicated because the mediums are so dynamic and diverse.” That Bibendum is still with us in the 21st century, happily drinking up those obstacles–though no longer shouting about doing so–is testament to the rewards of sticking with a brilliant idea.