Does your mascot match your brand’s personality? An empirical study on how visual characteristics of a brand mascot can function as a tool for transmitting an archetypical brand personality.

Visual representation of a brand by using brand mascots is a technique which has been applied by organizations for many years. As the visual ‘ambassador’ of a brand, the mascot’s goal is to strengthen the brand identity. The visual properties which are translated by these mascots can cause the distinctiveness of a brand. This study examined the potential of a mascot to represent a specific brand identity through an archetypical personality. An online survey was used to measure the fit between physical and emotional characteristics of a mascot and brand personality archetypes. Results of this study implicate that each brand personality archetype has multiple emotional and/or physical characteristics which have a fit between the archetype and brand mascot. Guidelines for the proper interpretation of these characteristics are given and discrepancies between clusters of archetypes are discussed.