Life for lives

During my childhood, I often visited my grandpa’s house in Pune with my mother atleast twice a month, every time we preferred going by bus because that was quite convenient. In the 3 hour journey from Mumbai to Pune bus usually halted atleast twice, and that was the most interesting part of the journey for me, the reason was, I could ask mom for Cheetos, which I loved to have as often as possible, I used to have it excessively, They used a character which was very attractive. His name was Chester, it was a cheetah. I always wondered if he would jump out from the packet.

Looking back at the fond days, I realise the reason for my childhood fantasy was a very clever use of the character. You might have had similar experience at your age too.

Well let’s play a game, what do the following symbols make you recall-

It was very easy, wasn’t it? Now lets try the same for a few celebrities.

Amitabh Bacchan

Shahrukh Khan

Sachin Tendulkar

KareenaKapoor

I am sure you must have come up with at least a handful of brand names for each of them.

While launching brand with a celebrity does give you a brand recall if done well, it cannot be as loyal as a mascot is. A mascot will never leave your side, always with your brand throughout everything. Like Peter Pan, it never ages, forever young, and achieves the same for your brand. However we notice so many brands favoring celebrities over mascots, It may be because these celebs in most cases are themselves quite popular brands, and this popularity is actually used by other brands to uplift them by simulating the image of the ambassadors in their favor for the nonce. In short they may be greedy about instant results. A celebrity comes with a package, so you can convey a lot of things just by hiring the right person. But they are poor to pour life into the brand.

E.g. Juhi Chawla is the brand ambassador for Wipro baby soft pants. I am sure you don’t even recall a glimpse of it, as she just explains the need of pants. On the other hand we have Mamy Pocko pants where they have used a mascot called Poko-Jang. In the final phase of commercial it calls the brand name in sweet manner. So it influences mothers a lot, the reason is that character has life and it has brought the same to the pants,(thus making it one of the leaders in the market.)

These Mascots play such a significant role for a brand that it becomes the most illustrious identity of the brand; a glimpse of the mascot takes enough to remind us about the Brand. Very few companies have brought them back from the oblivion.

Today the Indian market is growing at a rocketspeed thus not trying hard enough to pour life into the brand. It literally gears down the usage of mascots which really has a magic to fuel up the brand for the long innings. We don’t have enough time or enough vision I guess. Still at times when brands like Hippo re-create the same magic, I enjoy a momentary visit to childhood.

(P.S.Unlike Shiny Ahuja, your mascot will rarely get in trouble or put your brand image in trouble. :P)

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