Call it an avatar or spokesperson; a brand mascot is a hard-to-miss business identity. They have been a part of cultures across the world for centuries. Businesses have found them useful in conveying their message and personality.
From the memorable mascot of Colonel Sanders of KFC to the McDonald’s clown, these unique avatars are easy to identify. Businesses often use them due to their easy recall features. In this blog, we will discuss why and how businesses use a mascot design to be unique in the market. But before that, let’s see what a brand mascot is.
What is a Brand Mascot?
A brand mascot is known by various terms such as avatar and spokesperson. It is then seen as a company’s ambassador. Many companies treat a mascot as part of a logo, while others take it as a separate visual. So, mascots are a visual representation of a brand.
These are tangible visuals that the audience can touch and feel. In that way, mascots are different from logos. Unlike logos, people can touch, wave at, and talk to mascots. So, mascots can instantly make connections with the audience.
Significance of a brand mascot for your business
Brands have used mascots for decades, and many mascots have become iconic visuals. Here is how brand mascots can benefit your business:
Convey your message
Mascots are proven visuals that instantly convey a brand message to the target audience. You can promote your special offers and services without using words. If your audience can relate to your mascot, it helps gain traction. It also helps grow your business since the audience has received your brand message.
Have competitive edge
Businesses can compete well in their markets with an impactful visual such as a mascot. Since many businesses compete for customers’ attention, mascots are tangible visuals people can touch and feel. That gives businesses a competitive advantage since these avatars build relationships instantly with the customers.
Make your brand memorable
Since mascots are interesting visuals that people like to see repeatedly, they find these visuals easily relatable due to their entertainment value. People often like to see these exciting characters very often and remember them for a long time.
Even when it is not a big brand, its impactful mascot can help. A uniquely designed character will likely be remembered for a long time. An experienced mascot designer can help make your band memorable.
Make your brand timeless
Every business wishes to stay in the market for decades to grow its products or services steadily. Often, a well-thought-out mascot logo design can make a lasting impression, so brands generally do not have to redesign them.
So, with a mascot, brands can make their offerings timeless. People connect well with brand characters and take them as their favourite pal, character, or someone they can associate themselves with. That’s why they are considered timeless designs.
How to make a timeless brand mascot
When developing a mascot to promote your business, consider some basics. You should remember some tips when planning to represent your business using a brand character. Here are the tips to consider:
Consider your audience
What type of audience does your business target through its visuals and text-based content? You will choose the type of mascot logo design depending on your audience. For instance, if you deal with some formal and serious products, the mascot should also have a professional personality. A fun character isn’t suitable for a serious business.
Choose the right character
It’s essential to choose the right character to display the exact mood of your brand. Decide what types of mascots are good for your brand. You can explore various mascot design ideas and then pick the one that conveys your brand personality. You can take inspiration from these mascot logos in food branding.
Human characters are the most commonly used mascots to represent a real person. For instance, KFC uses its founder, Colonel Sanders, as its brand character. Animals are also used as brand avatars. Many brands choose animals for their typical behavior to represent a brand personality. Take, for instance, Duracell, which used a rabbit as a mascot to reflect the speed and durability of the batteries.
Personalize it per your brand guidelines
After you have decided on the type of your brand character, consider giving it a personality. Personalize the mascot so that the audience can relate to it. You should know what your mascot’s personality is and find out what its likes and dislikes are. Define its personality based on your brand’s mission, vision, and values. Since it’s the spokesperson on your behalf, it should align well with your brand guidelines.
You can ask yourself such questions, which will make it easy to personalize it for brand promotions.
Align the mascot with the brand’s visual identity
Ensure your mascot reflects the brand’s visual identity, such as logos, website, etc. Your brand already has its colors, fonts, symbols, etc. so align your character perfectly with it.
If your brand is serious and formal, avoid using bright colors in your mascot design. That will send a wrong and confusing signal to your target audience.
Decide on emotions
You should also be deciding on the actions and poses your mascot needs to take for brand promotion. Will it be working on a computer, talking on the phone, or doing other specific work related to your niche?
Ensure that your brand’s avatar expresses the desired emotions. So, decide on expressions such as a smile, large smile, surprise, laughing, relief, amusement, taking pride in oneself, etc. These are among the positive emotions your brand character can convey. The negative emotions are anger, sadness, fear, shame, confusion, and embarrassment.
To decide on the specific emotions, consider the content you must create, keeping the mascot’s personality in mind. Then, you can determine its poses and actions to express those emotions. Remember, 90% of decisions are made on emotions, so give your character a suitable emotional expression to engage audience.
Determine the outfits and scenes
How would you like to dress your mascot? Try to devise a precise answer since the outfits will determine its overall appearance. With a careful selection of outfits, your character will come alive and express relatable emotions.
Then, describe its character through various scenes. That is the way to make it look real and alive. When it is placed in a scene, it will look like someone who behaves and emotes like a human. The scenes will tell the character’s story.
Design the character
After you are done with the mascot character, it is time to design it. Designing is the visual part of the entire process. At this point, if you are not a designer, you should hire a professional graphic designer. There are many graphic design agencies, such as Designhill, where you can easily get your mascot designed per your brief.
But remember that if you want it to be your brand’s trademark, you must design it from scratch. That means each element of the character must be your own, not a pre-made element. It should be distinctly yours to get it registered as your trademark.
Also, consider getting your mascot design in either raster or vector graphics. Raster images are grids of pixels, each pixel having a specific colour. Vector graphics, on the other hand, are mathematically defined geometric shapes.
It would be good to prefer vector graphics since they are easily scalable. Your mascot design as a vector image can be scaled to any small or big size without looking disproportionate. So, you can easily resize your mascot character per your requirements for promotional purposes. You can also change its colors, etc.
So, consider these major aspects of design if you want to explore it for brand promotion. Pay heed to each point so your mascot becomes a unique visual tool that effectively speaks for your brand.
When looking for a mascot design and other graphic designs, such as logos, business cards, and websites, Designhill is your platform to explore. You can launch a design contest to get different mascot design ideas. Alternatively, the marketplace lets you work with a talented designer on one-on-one basis. The users can also explore a mascot logo maker at this site to create a mascot on their own in a few quick steps.
Wrapping Up
A brand mascot is among the most effective visual tools for promoting a business in a competitive market niche. However, you should first know your audience well to create a business avatar that is relatable to them. Then, choose the right character and personalize it to align with your visual identity. Fill the character with the intended emotions and decide on its outfits and scenes before designing it.