Character marketing -- is it for you?

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a vendor who does some pretty amazing things with plush animals (you may also called them stuffed animals). We were trying to figure out how these items can be used as a marketing device to male-dominated industries. After all, as soon as you hear the phrase "stuffed animal", most people think about baby toys like teddy bears.

We started to push each other to be more and more creative, and eventually we arrived at what we considered to be some excellent ideas (well, of course they were excellent -- they were ours!). Instead of simply trying to convince companies to use plush/stuffed animals in their marketing efforts, we thought they could be a complementary piece to a character marketing program.

So, what is character marketing? It's simply giving a face -- usually an animated one -- to a business.

Say what?

Here are some examples -- Charlie the Tuna, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Ronald McDonald, Count Chocula, the Vlasic pickle store, the Morton Salt girl, the Jolly Green Giant, Mr. Peanut from Planters, the Gorton's fisherman, Mr. Clean, the Phillie Phanatic (and a whole host of other sports mascot characters).

So how can this work in the promotional products realm? Obviously, you can recreate this mascot/character on any printed pieces, but you can also recreate this character on three-dimensional items as well, like stress relievers, flash drives, masks, full-size characters, ...heck, just think of everything you've seen with the Phillie Phanatic's face on it.

Next time your company is thinking of branding or re-branding, give some consideration to giving your company some character.