What’s character marketing? It’s a phenomenon that existed ages ago and still does today. I’ll take you on a blast of the past and mix it all back into what is happening today in our social media crazed world.

I’m going to just throw a bunch out there and see where this falls.

1. Ronald McDonald
2. Marilyn Monroe
3. Maytag Man
4. Orville Redenbacher
5. Superman
6. Tony Little
7. Wayne Gretzky
8. Donald Trump
9. Talking M&M’s
10. Tony the Tiger

Characters build brands

How many did you know from the list above? Man Tony the Tiger captivated me as a child. Mom never bought his cereal which I always wanted. But that’s ok. I look back and man did he get me! We can look at these people, cartoons, personas and collectively say they are icons to North America.

Character Branding is Nothing New…

For thousands of years, mankind has been branding its most deeply held beliefs with characters. They were personified in the form of characters to make them understandable and to reach the greatest number of people. By personifying these things it not only puts a face to it, unlike a logo, it brings it to life enabling us to have a relationship with it. That’s the benefit of communicating to an audience with character branding. These days you need to go beyond advertising, you have to create a relationship with your audience. A logo can’t do it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the true character for your brand is worth millions.

Who can use character marketing?

• Established companies- Tony Little. Who doesn’t like Tony’s attitude to life? Tony took over 2 million people in 10 years to new heights with his iconic Body For Life program. We all know he rocks long hair under a hat. he has new products today and is still freaky successful. What Body For Life did that was great as an established company was promote their contests. I personally can count a dozen people I know who did Body For Life because they got the attention they wanted which was from their desire to learn from Tony. Tony sold many because of his personality and character.
• New companies- Take for example Kevin Nalty, author of Beyond Viral and YouTube Weblebrity. Started by scratching away at highly entertaining viral videos by night and clocking in the corporate life during the day. Kevin clearly went viral and followed success. He built a business purely off his comical self online. His character sold over 192,804,851 YouTube views. Tell me that’s not because he’s corporate and boring?

Consumers connect emotionally

• Effective brand characters can’t simply mirror the consumer. This cardinal sin is what Altschul says caused the downfall of the the hip-hop ColonelSanders, who was designed to engage KFC’s “street” clientele, and the modernized Better Crocker who was a digital hybrid of multiple women who represent the brands  target audience.
• People “connect emotionally with characters whose struggles are familiar to them, not with characters who superficially look or act like them,” says Altschul. A look at the long reiningbeloved character proves his point: Tony the Tiger has an oversized ego, the Maytag repairman is a lonely perfectionist and Sonny from Cocoa Puff’s teeters on the brink of insanity.

So now what? Look at the brands I showed above. Look at their strategy. What does the character do, think, act, eat, wear….  then do it for you. A great example I love in today’s social media world is Jason Sadler of I wear your tshirt. Brilliant character marketing with a live twist. Well worth checking out.