In today’s culture, cartoon characters have become very popular, becoming part of pop culture. From millions of kids viewing them daily to a whole genre of adult cartoons gaining worldwide recognition, many creatives are venturing into this lucrative career, especially in the cartoon voice acting sector. With such an aura surrounding the popularity of the animation industry, it is only logical for companies to have cartoon characters for business.
Mega corporations tend to invest in the most popular cartoon characters such as the DC, Marvel, and Disney characters, which are already successful. The downside to this is that getting licensing rights from these franchises will require top dollar. In other words, it would require a large budget to obtain the necessary go-ahead to use one of these spokesmen for your advertising. Moreover, it would be for a limited time and a limited number of times.
Fortunately, you don’t have to cough out a large chunk of money to achieve viewership among potential customers. You can always customize your cartoon characters for business.
Why customize?
Well, this customization will create a cartoon character centered around your service or product. Moreover, you will own all the rights to your cartoon characters. In simple terms, you can use them for both an unlimited number and amount of time.
If you play your marketing cards right, you might be the creator of your very own marketing cartoons like the successful Red Bull advertisements.
Let’s learn more about cartoon characters for business, shall we?
Why Use Cartoon Characters for Business
With a million things to do and the world’s stresses significantly impacting the populace, people don’t have the energy to engage with stale content. Furthermore, the concentration span of your audience is becoming shorter. If they check an ad, receive an email, or visit a website and find nothing of substance, the marketing strategy will fail. So why not grab their attention quicker?
It is natural for fun things to draw us in (no pun intended). In other words, simplicity sells! That’s why using cartoon characters for business works for most marketing campaigns.
Using cartoon characters for business is quite a powerful marketing tool. The reason is due to their ability to present your product, service, or business concept in an engaging way that is visually appealing and simple for clients to associate with and understand. For example, you can cartoon a picture of your product or service to create a unique and memorable brand image.
Here are some other reasons why cartoon characters tend to be more successful than other types of visual media:
- Cartoon characters tend to connect easily with people.
- They help address sensitive topics which would otherwise be abhorring to viewers
- Cartoon characters are visually engaging and usually relatable.
- Character animation helps represent people’s lives.
- They aid in making the most complicated service or product easily digestible.
- Animated characters can aid in representing the realities of life in a lenient way that is less disturbing to the audience.
Establishing an emotional connection between the cartoon character and the audience is crucial for success. It makes the potential buyer more open to listening, plus learning more about the services, products, or the business. More so, the lines of communication are available to the potential buyer due to the rising interest and attention gained.
Do Cartoon Characters in Business Work?
As stated earlier, yes, they do by visually grabbing the attention of their audience.
Cartoon characters for business aid in simplifying complicated concepts in a fun and engaging way. This simplicity makes it easier for potential clients to understand both the message and the intent behind the commercial. Their actions also help carry an array of gestures and basic expressions that are understandable in any language.
Take the example of emojis. Aren’t they surpassing the language barrier?
The process of using cartoon characters for business advertising is like this:
- The animation figure first draws attention.
- Then, the marketer addresses a specific problem or concern the client might have regarding a service or product.
- This address helps pique the interests of a customer, drawing them in to know more.
- Finally, the advertiser will lay out the service(s) or product(s) solutions, which justifies their billing level.
If you fail to draw attention, you’ll be sabotaging the success of a business.
Remember:
- Simplicity sells!
- Clients will buy into a service or product they quickly and easily understand.
Benefits of Cartoon Characters for Business
Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Think back to all the cartoon characters you watched in your childhood. Are you feeling nostalgic with a sense of easiness? Are these bringing pleasant emotions and positive emotions?
Almost everyone can relate to the above. Animated characters are entertaining, engaging, fun, and express emotions easily in a relatable manner. Just look at social media and the vast array of people who feel expressive emoticons and symbols can capture feelings better than plain text.
Here are the benefits of using cartoon characters for business:
- Cartoons add a more ‘human’ feel to your brand, making them more friendly while evoking trust.
- Mascots and cartoon characters make a brand recognizable.
- With cartoon characters, tedious ads can appear more attractive.
- They can turn boring content into something appealing and visually fun.
- Animation is easily adaptable to fit a specific brand and can work everywhere, including blogs, company presentations, marketing, and videos.
- Cartoons can retain a potential customer’s attention longer than walls of texts can.
- They are more infinitely sharable!
Utilizing Cartoon Characters to Promote your Business
Keep in mind some things below when using cartoon characters for business:
- Make sure the chosen cartoon character(s) resonates positively with your audience. Is mascot helpful, likable, thoughtful, and friendly? Sticking to the above requirements will help the brand build a fruitful relationship with your target market.
- The animation should not only be entertaining to the audience but also educative. It should, therefore, provide solutions to their most pressing problem(s) about the brand, product, or service.
- If you have a brand mascot, it should be everywhere: On eBooks, business cards, advertisements, social media posts, and your business websites. Remember, use the character consistently to tell your brand’s story while offering help to the audience. Moreover, consistency will enable the buyers to recognize your mascot, aiding your brand to grow automatically.
- Kindly personalize the cartoon characters to be unique in your business offering. Be sure to use funny, cute, or lively characters, depending on your target audience. Also, learn more about their demography before settling on your mascot.
- Settle on a personality for your character, ensuring you stick to it throughout. The character’s behavioral traits, nature, and life story should always remain true to ensure consistency in their journey. This will aid the audience to empathize with the character as it resolves a problem like theirs, thus, creating an emotional bond that entices them to make a purchase.
Remember, the main goal is to catch and maintain the viewer’s attention.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Using Cartoon Characters for Business
As we’ve learned above, cartoon characters can leave an indelible imprint on the minds of a targeted audience. This helps the product, service, or brand become highly recognizable while standing out among its competitors. Inevitably, such prestige will result in more sales and profits.
The reverse is also true.
If done poorly, the advertising strategy can adversely affect the brand. What comes next will be a tarnished brand due to an undermined ad of low value and quality.
Below are the dos and don’ts when using a cartoon brand mascot in your marketing strategies:
The Do’s
- Make sure the cartoon character reflects positive attributes that are helpful, likable, intelligent, and friendly.
- Use the brand mascot to build profitable relationships with clients.
- Make prominent use of your cartoon characters that they educate, enlighten, and entertain your target customers.
- Give the brand mascot a challenge relatable to the viewer that the character overcomes using your product or service.
- Take time to write an animation script, articulating the characteristics of your brand cartoon characters in a consistent manner.
- Ensure the cartoon brand mascot is helpful in a wide array of applications.
The Don’ts
- Don’t promote a costly service or luxury product using cartoon brand mascots.
- Don’t just use a single version of your animated character. Ensure to mix it up, having it engage in a variety of problem-solving activities. This mixing will help keep the brand fresh while remaining consistent.
- Don’t use freebies as your brand cartoon mascot. Although this path can save you (marketing) money, chances are, other people are using the same clipart. Fortunately, you can always get a customized cartoon character by hiring our character animation services.
- Unless you are a professional cartoonist, don’t draw or design the brand mascot yourself. The brand’s cartoon character is the cornerstone of your marketing program. So why not hire a cartoon designer and save yourself the stress.
Wrapping Up
Whenever you use cartoon characters for business, they should resonate with potential buyers. This will help get the clients’ attention for a more extended period, thus increasing the chance to build a relationship with them and eventually making a sale.
With attention spans being so short in a filled technological world, getting the above extra time with a potential customer won’t walk in the park. Remember, there are tons of advertisements and images to compete with. Going that extra mile to stand out of the pile can be your golden ticket.
Therefore, please take advantage of cartoon characters that foster long-lasting relationships with your target market. Use them to solve their problems engagingly and entertainingly.
Are you having trouble with your cartoon characters for business?
Head over to our website and hire a graphic designer for all your animated visual needs.
