Saturday, January 31, 2009

When Would You Use a Custom Mascot?

By A Nutt

There is any number of reasons for a business to have a Loonie Times mascot in this day and age. Even if a company doesn't do television advertising or a whole lot of public appearances, a mascot could be the one thing that sets them apart from the competition and thereby increases the potential for creating new sources of revenue by bringing in new customers.

Why Go Custom

Some companies choose the same old tired, ordinary, run of the mill representations that have already been done to death, and then they wonder why the additional investment of adding a mascot into their forms of advertising doesn't pay very many dividends.

What they are failing to realize, is that using the same exact type of mascot that every other business in their industries uses won't set their business apart at all. So by choosing the same type of mascot that everyone else has chosen, you run the risk of not getting noticed at all or, worse yet, having your business getting confused with one of your competitors.

To attract both the most and the right kind of attention you need a cleverly thought out and completely original mascot to represent your company - something that offers a perfect illustration of the product or service that you provide, but that has never been done before.

How to go about it

You don't need to be a professional artist or design major to put the perfect plan of attack for developing your mascot together, but you will need to have a very clear idea of what you are looking for and you'll need to be able to clearly express your vision to someone that can put it together.

You'll need to know "what" your mascot is; is it an animal, vegetable, mineral or some strange combination of the three. You'll have to know what size, shape and color he or she will be, as well as how you are going to connect the new creation to the particular product or service that your company provides.

Remember that once you have your cleverly developed and completely original custom mascot in a position of representing your company to the public, that your business will be permanently associated with the created character, so this is certainly not a decision that should be entered into too lightly. Quite the contrary, in fact, - a great deal of thought, planning and preparation should go into the development of your custom mascot.

Developing and implementing a custom mascot into your company's advertising campaign could very well pay dividends far beyond the work and monetary investment that it took to create it.

With potentially hundreds and hundreds of businesses out there competing for the exact same customers, a mascot painted brilliantly on the side of your building, emblazoned across a twenty foot billboard, or jumping from the pages of the phone book could very well be the reason that your company gets picked over a competitors.

Companies spend millions and millions of dollars a year on advertising campaigns that may or may not work to get them noticed, but the creation of your custom mascot would be a one time investment that could pay dividends for as long as your company's doors are open. It could get your company noticed by new customers, and if you've got the quality service to go along with it, a good custom mascot design will make it easier for your company to get recognized and remembered.

When considering how many potential customers are out there and how much your competitors are paying for nearly futile types of advertising - it should seem like the creation of a custom mascot could be the greatest investment that your company could make. - 16651

About the Author: