10.25.06
Logo Makeover
Are you considering changing the character of your logo? This check off list from Fortune Small Business Magazine may be just the advice and direction you need.
1. The most important step in creating a character for your brand is understanding the brand itself: What are you really selling? McDonald’s sells food but also fun. It uses minor characters, such as Mayor McCheese, that look like food, but its best known mascot is a clown.
2. Characters generally work best for consumer products, not services. If your company doesn’t try to attract buyers through creative packaging, a character might not give you a big marketing boost.
3. Don’t envision the character as an ambassador for your brand. Ambassadors have to be perfect, which generally makes them boring and unbelievable. Conflict and flaws make characters interesting and engaging, such as the competing personalities among M&M’s.
4. Don’t worry about making the character look like your typical customer. KFC’s hip-hop version of Colonel Sanders was a bust because the marketers were concerned more about how he looked and less about how he embodied the company’s brand.- By Carlye/Adler, FSB Magazine, “Would a mascot help your business?”, Sept. 19, 2006, magazine-directory.com/Fortune-Small-Business.html
Many businesses are seeing increased sales by redoing their logo and by calling David Altschul, the co-founder of a small marketing firm called Character in Portland, Oregon:
“PepsiCo saw root beer sales increase immediately after replacing its former frosty mug logo with its new character, Dog.”
“Honey Nut Cheerios’ Buzz got a revamped look, voice and hive designed to capture his ‘bee-ness’ (a previous problem was that he acted more like a person than an insect), and the product jumped from No. 5 cereal sold in the U.S. to its current spot at No. 2.” By Carlye Adler, FSB Magazine, “Mascot Makeover”, October 2006, pg. 30.