Personally I used to abhor the Geico commercials both the cavemen and the talking lizard. I now am a bit more benign and no longer work for an insurance company so that probably explains the disdain. Nevertheless, I noticed that the very mascots used by Corporations are one reason for their success. These coorporations earn purchasing power by constantly bombarding us with all the promotions, advertisements, and other fan fair in order to develop brand recognition.

Brand recognition is the ability of us to know what a service or product has to offer uniquely simply by appearance of the name, mascot, or logo. For example, if I were to show you a picture of the Burger King King you would instantly think of the Whopper, the flame broiled sandwich. An attribute of Burger King sandwiches is that the majority of them are flame broiled as opposed to fried like McDonald’s.

So you see the millions of dollars spent by the major corporations in media types of print, television, radio, or web actually earn them billions. I think the catch is using mascots. Brand recognition can be developed faster for companies with a mascot. I’ll leave you with this test. What comes to mind when you read the following list of mascots?

colorful beaked toucan
“Aflac” quacking duck
red and yellow clown
green giant
men in fruit suits
energizer bunny