Does your Startup Need a Mascot?
The fundamentals for creating a memorable company mascot
A company mascot is a branded element that can help people remember your business’s products or services. The goal of the mascot is to help your target audience better identify your brand, as well as to understand and develop a relationship with your offerings. Some of the most popular mascots in the tech world today include the Reddit alien and the MailChimp monkey, both playful, fictional characters that represent the individual company and create a fun, more relaxed atmosphere for visitors on their sites.
Whether your mascot is a complex character or as simple as the Twitter bird, creating a good mascot is not an easy task. You need to decide what the personality and tone of the character will be, and know exactly how your mascot will be used in your marketing and branding strategy. Remember that a mascot should be a communication channel for your brand and in order for your mascot’s message to be understood, you need to have a strong product or service worth promoting. Without a finished product that fulfills a need, a mascot may just get in the way of what you really want to achieve.
Here are a few fundamentals for developing a company mascot based on my own company character — Mr. Wideo.
Define Your Company’s Goals First
What is your goal for creating a mascot? How do you think it will help your branding strategy? These are important questions to think about before moving forward with a company mascot. Think about the adjectives that best describe your brand. For my startup Wideo, we knew right away we wanted a mascot that would be portray how easy our platform is to use and how fun and simple creating animated videos can be.
Our mascot Mr. Wideo became the 4th member of our team and we fully integrated the character from day one. Your mascot must be a complete representation of your brand at all times, so it is important to define exactly what your goals are with the character from the beginning.
Define Your Mascot’s Personality
Mr. Wideo needed to be a fun character, but also simple, as he would become the main character that Wideo users would be able to use in their own video creations. Your mascot must have a defined personality and everything he says or does needs to reflect that personality.
For us, Mr. Wideo needed to appeal to all ages and all types of businesses that would be using our platform to create their own animations. Mr. Wideo is the welcoming face on our homepage, and he helps the user inside the platform, so a colorful, memorable, helpful character was our answer.
Find a Designer
Designing a mascot is not easy. If you’re going to invest the time and resources to create a mascot, you need to do it right or it can do more harm than good for your marketing strategy. It could reflect poorly on your brand or leave your target audience confused. Hiring a professional is always the best choice. Thankfully for us, the Co-Founder of Wideo, Agus Esperon, is a designer and illustrator with many years of experience working for top brands. Of course, this was not by coincidence. If I was going to create an animated video tool, I needed someone to join me who knew everything there is to know about animation.
For startups without a designer on the team, it’s important to spend time finding the right designer or an agency that does this for a living and can bring your idea to life. The good thing about hiring external help is they can also offer a fresh, outside perspective and help you decide what may or may not work with your mascot concept.
Decide When & Where You Will Use Your Mascot
After you’ve designed your mascot, knowing where your mascot will be used and what type of messages he will deliver will help you determine the direction of your character for your brand. Just because you have a mascot, doesn’t mean all communication needs to be channeled through him. It’s easier to create a company mascot early on, so you can test which type of messages delivered by your mascot people respond to most. You can then alter your strategy as your company grows and your mascot grows with it.
Company mascots can help your target audience better understand your product or service benefits, remember your brand name, and create a memorable brand experience. I hope these steps will help you through the process of creating a company mascot the right way and develop a character that will help your brand achieve its long term goals.
This blog is by Agu De Marco, Co-Founder of Wideo, a DIY animated video production platform.
Looking for a community contributor for technology, startup or entrepreneur related stories? DM me on Twitter @agudemarco or email agu@wideo.co
