Hello everyone, welcome to the Ossex Super Brand Classroom, today to share with you a theme "IP Image Design". In fact, the IP image has been passed down from ancient times to the present, but the name is different. This time, we are more from the perspective of brand image to analyze the mascot IP design.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2">01</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > mascot IP traceability and evolution</h1>
What is the history of mascot IP? We want to trace back to the modern era from a historical point of view, to see the relationship between history and modern times to the evolution of modern mascot IP; second, we must know how the current mascot was born? And the characteristics of its application in the business environment; third, we need to know the philosophy of mascot IP, any product, any image has its physical value, but more emotional and metaphysical philosophical significance. Fourth, we must know what kind of value can mascot IP bring to our products in brand communication? Like JD's dog and Tmall's cat, they all belong to the vitality, life and affinity of the product brought by the mascot IP, and the association with the user.
A mascot of the origin
The concept of a mascot
"When a person, object, or animal is accepted and agreed upon by a group, and thus as a symbolic image of good luck, it is a mascot."
- Quote from "Mascot"
The origin of the mascot
The production of mascots can be traced back to ancient times, in order to survive, primitive humans must fight against the harsh environment of nature and ferocious beasts, so as to have a strong desire to avoid evil and bless life. At the same time, the mysterious universe and many birds, birds, animals, animals, animals, animals, birds, insects and fish, and even human beings themselves have aroused the curiosity and fantasy of the ancients. As a result, the ancients had an instinctive pursuit of the graphic symbols and figurative objects that prayed for blessings and peace, and the mascot was the physical sustenance of this desire to survive, so it originated randomly.
- Traditional Chinese mascot
The earliest Chinese mascot is typically represented by the "Four Spirits", and the "Four Spirits" system formed in the Han Dynasty has a long history and is still a manifestation of the worship of totems.
In addition, there is the worship of nature, which expresses people's reverence for nature and the idea of praying for blessings, and then gradually freed from religion and ritual, and the world became a mascot.
- Traditional Western mascot
Before the advent of the term "mascot" in the modern West, there was no uniform title for "mascot" in the West. The origins of Chinese mascots are much the same, all derived from totem worship, religious beliefs, literary works and folklore.
The sources of traditional Western mascots are more of the following two:
1. A mascot derived from mythology
For example, Athena is the embodiment of wisdom and strength, and Cupid is the embodiment of love and beauty.
2. Mascots in religion
In religion, we have had the dragon of the East and the eagle of the West since ancient times. The eagle is not only a symbol of praise in Christ, but also in other European cultures as a symbol of the gods, known as the "King of the White Bird". There are now many elements that serve as flags.
Two traditional mascot image categories
The auspicious "object" covers a wide range, which can be people, animals, plants, utensils and even abstract objects and virtual things.
No matter what kind of "thing", it must be a representative of a certain culture, spirit or enterprise or product.
Traditional mascot conventional image category
①
animal
From ancient totems to tribal religious beliefs, the image of animals as mascots is most common in all ethnic cultures.
For example: the "four spirit beasts" in China, the "holy cow" image in Indian religion, and even the mascot of the half-human and half-beast in the West;
②
figure
Mainly refers to legendary gods, or mythological figures in folklore.
For example: the gods of Olympic in ancient Greek mythology, Zhong Kui and Guan Gong in Chinese folklore (real in history, but mythologically turned into mascots that can ward off evil and ward off evil spirits and exorcise demons).
③
plant
Its natural shape is often used as a symbol of auspicious beauty.
For example, the olive tree is considered to be the embodiment of Athena, and the olive branch is often awarded to the victor of military wars together with laurel and garland. It is now commonly used to symbolize peace.
④
Artifacts
It is generally based on artificial creations and was first used in religious ceremonies.
For example, the Chinese mascot jade Shang Zhou era as a theosophical ceremonial vessel, the famous Western mascot "Horn of Fertility" originated from Zeus, a horn made from the head of the Yamata sheep when he was young, and the person who got this horn immediately had what he wanted.
The history and culture of the three mascots
From the ancient period of totem worship to today's various cute images, the image of mascots and their cultural significance have undergone a long process of historical and cultural evolution, and the historical and cultural evolution process of mascots is roughly divided into the following three stages.
Awe-inspiring gods
During this period, mascots of both animals, plants and non-living organisms carried totems and religious rituals that made people feel awe-inspired.
Mascot in folk culture
Gradually freed from the shackles of religious rituals, secularization became a sustenance for people to express auspicious feelings and avoid evil.
Beautiful sustenance
With the development of the times, new objects symbolizing auspiciousness are constantly being added. At this time, the mascot has gone beyond religious and ethnic traditions and has been given a broader symbolic meaning. As long as it can pin people's beautiful emotions, it can be used as a mascot.
Four differences between traditional and modern mascots
With the rapid development of traditional social economy, modern mascots have been very different from traditional mascots.
The purpose of traditional mascots is relatively simple, that is, to borrow mascots to make lyrical wishes, and more to pursue a kind of psychological comfort and spiritual sustenance.
The purpose of modern mascots is more realistic and utilitarian, and it is the most affinity visual image that embodies personalized recognition outside the logo. It is an "image spokesperson" who does not speak, can well express the personality and philosophy of the enterprise, and win the public's favor and preference from the feelings.
Legal characteristics:
Traditional mascots are not protected by law and can be used by anyone as they wish without restriction.
Modern mascots are protected by law as an artistic product. The State Council has formulated the "Regulations on the Administration of Special Signs" In this regulation, China for the first time will use the mascot as a special sign, in the form of separate regulations, for special legal protection.
Economic characteristics:
The production of traditional mascots, the economic interests are not necessarily a series of market operation systems, in order to pursue the ultimate goal of economic benefits, and the market operation mode is simple, serial development without scale.
Modern mascots have a series of market operation systems to pursue the ultimate goal of economic benefits, and the market operation mode is simple, and the serial development is not scaled.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="62">02</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="63" > the birth and application of modern mascots</h1>
A quick overview of the development situation at home and abroad
The original form of commercial mascots in China dates back to the Northern Song Dynasty. The concentrated appearance of modern mascots was in the mid-20th century, with the development of animated films and the popularity of the Olympic movement, gradually entering the public eye, is a representative of a specific group of people or a specific object, often containing a clear cultural purpose or commercial purpose.
Development abroad
Early foreign company mascots: for example, the "Quaker Old Man" of Quaker cereal born in 1877, including the Michelin restaurant and Michelin tires that we are all familiar with, it brings us a kind of American spirit of speed and beauty.
Domestic development status
In the 1980s and 1990s, due to the relative backwardness of market awareness, mascots have not been an important part of China's corporate image building, brand management, and marketing promotion. In the early days, the more successful mascot of Chinese companies should be the "Haier Brothers".
In the early stage of development, even products with high image recognition and high audience acceptance such as great white rabbit milk candy, golden monkey milk candy, and Wangwang food, the publicity of their mascots mostly stayed at the level of printing in product packaging. And those classic animated images, such as Sun Wukong, black cat sheriff, big-headed son and small-headed father, because they are not closely integrated with enterprises and products, even if they are impressive, it is difficult to spread widely as mascot IP, which is a pity.
However, with the development of the economy and the deepening of foreign exchanges, Chinese enterprises have paid more and more attention to the importance of mascots in business operations, and even triggered fierce commercial competition, the most famous of which are "cat and dog wars" and "lion and tiger disputes".
For example, in June 2016, Gome Online changed to "True Happiness"; Suning's IP is the "King of Hundred Beasts", and Jingdong made its own "dog can suppress the cat" in 2013, which represents an attribute of future technology artificial intelligence 4.0. Tmall is like an alien from outside the planet, "cats come to be rich, dogs come to be poor"
Two modern mascots common application classification
In the mascot industry, IP can be widely divided into two types: story IP and image IP. The main difference between them is that the soil of birth is different.
Story IP: The soil of birth is a variety of content carriers such as animation, movies, novels, and games, which have clear role positioning, story connotation, social relations and personality characteristics. Even if multiple IPs are born in a story, these images can become spokespersons for individuals, businesses, organizations, events, products, etc. However, because of the origin of its story characters, these IPs still belong to the category of story IP. For example, Disney's MickeyMouse and the domestic Pleasant Goat are the most typical.
Image IP: At the time of birth, there is often only the image of the mascot, mainly as an endorsement image of individuals, enterprises, organizations, activities, products, etc. Even if the mascot was later grafted to various carriers for publicity and promotion, and on this basis, a series of vivid and interesting stories were created, and the role positioning was obtained, but because of the origin of the image, it still belongs to the category of image IP. For example: HelloKitty of The Sanrio Company of Japan and Akuki of The Domestic Company.
Story IP and image IP in the various stages of birth, development and operation, can be alternated according to the different development priorities. For example, Mickey Mouse's storymaking has slowed down, while image derivatives are all over the streets; HelloKitty has launched a lot of cartoon videos to build the IP's worldview and character relationships.
Mascot IP type breakdown
Mascot IP can be subdivided into: mascots of social software, mascots of the shengshi class, mascots of public welfare, mascots of fashion brands (created by various ips of trendy figures), sports mascots (sports mascots we all know the Olympic Games, panda panning, etc.), commercial mascots, independent mascots, mobile phone manufacturer mascots, Internet enterprise mascots, product mascots and so on.
Three different types of mascot IP case appreciation
1. Commercial mascot
The biggest feature of commercial mascots is its commerciality, which is the product of commercial competition between enterprises, usually to increase the affinity of enterprises and narrow the distance between enterprises and consumers.
Catering industry mascot IP
A mascot that makes customers shine will increase the possibility of customers entering the store for consumption; a mascot full of humanity and fun will induce customers to take photos and share the communication needs. In the era of visual culture, the visual mascot image is known as the second logo of the brand, and it is particularly widely used in the catering and food industry.
Uncle McDonald
One of the most successful IPs of the 21st century
Like Uncle McDonald, for example, it is one of the most successful IPs of the 21st century. Born in 1963 and fully known as Ronald McDonald, Uncle McDonald is the signature mascot of the McDonald's fast food chain and the corporate face of the company, as well as the "Chief Happiness Officer of McDonald's"
Features: Created by McDonald's and circus artist Michael Porakovs inspired by his own image, the red and white striped shirt and socks, yellow jumpsuits and yellow gloves, big red shoes and red "exploding head" make people feel warm, funny and witty.
With the rapid development of the economy, the transformation of brand strategy (such as renaming the Golden Arch, M's brand visual symbol) and the characteristics of several other characters are not very distinct, the appeal gradually declines, and the McDonald's mascot IP is only Left to Uncle McDonald.
Uncle McDonald and the Hamburg Thief, Big Bird Sister "Little Fly",
Milkshake Big Brother "Slippery Toot"
No two
Food industry IP
The IP of the food industry has a history of more than a hundred years, which was founded in 1910. It is a long-established food manufacturer in Japan, we have to know that in the animation industry, IP industry, Japan in the cultural industry is doing very successful, the birth of countless successful brands, not two is one of the successful cases.
Let's take a look at the video of the two IP:
It not only softens the content to soften the bluntness of marketing, but also increases the affinity of the brand, and also improves the identity of the brand, which is a typical example of cartoon image logo/brand spokesperson.
M&M's chocolate beans
Product IP
M&M's Chocolate Bean is to build its own IP through the attributes of the product, so that it can have an emotional plan with the user. There is a large flagship store of M&M's beans on Nanjing West Road in Shanghai, and after entering it, you can feel the fun and fun, which represents the brand born of young people's, fun and interesting IP attributes. It's not like a food company, it's more like a culturally creative company. In a sense, its market capitalization and future spread of the attributes will only become more and more powerful.
Alibaba Zoo
Internet enterprise mascot IP
Alibaba is using mascots to tell everyone - "we really want to do the ecosystem, don't believe you look at my zoo", any product it has its own core IP attributes, such as Ali B2B in 2000, Taobao in 2003, Alimama in 2007, Aliyun in 2009, Tmall in 2011, Shrimp Music in 2013 and so on. It all uses an animal to express the brand IP attribute, why use animals? Because the animal is the IP symbol that has always existed in the matrix of our human culture, it uses animals to directly reduce the cost of brand communication and the personality that each brand embraces, and better generate a link and dialogue with users.
LINE FRIENDS
Line is a messaging app launched by NHN Japan and officially launched in June 2011, with more than 400 million registered users worldwide.
LINE creates great emotional value for social connection, through memes, it closes the distance between products and users, users and users, and at the same time, the mascot cartoon image has become an important element of connecting LINE and other products.
Brown, Cony, Moon, James, Jessica, Sally, Uncle, and Choco, the sister of Brown Bear, who was introduced later.
QQ's penguin is 17 years old, and its image has changed 5 times, from the slender materialized penguin, the fat red scarf penguin, the silhouette version of the penguin, and now the more flat, neutral penguin, each change represents a new design trend, and even reflects the different stages of development of the Internet.
The 2016 revision is more about the rebirth of the QQ brand, which clearly defines QQ for younger users, and WeChat between the ages of 10 and 25 is mainly a user group over the age of 25. This is exactly two more complementary scenes, and the Tencent team is also more youthful in content.
Neutral and open brands make QQ a larger carrier of Internet social content. QQfamily is generated. QQfamily defines the QQ brand as the center, forms a social system brand with QQ sub-products and Yansheng products, and connects and vertically echoes with the QQfamily image IP.
The members of QQfamily will have their own unique personalities, and their personalities are in line with the tone of the products to which they belong.
The members of QQfamily have set up related character relationships, QQ's penguin is the boss, and BabyQ is a new generation that admires it. Oscar and Anko are "lovers", Oscar has been pursuing Anko, but has not been successful. Anko hated him.
LINE FRIENDS and QQFAMILY are similar
As explorers of the IP of social platforms, they have four similarities: 01 IP based on massive users and social use. Focusing on the image and design that keeps up with the trend, temporarily ignoring the production of content and stories, is different from the IP formed based on star content such as Disney. 02 is for young people who pursue independence and freedom of thought. IP image or bias towards cute petting, to achieve the companionship of spiritual comfort, or biased towards personalization, resulting in the motivational effect of spiritual identity. 03 All pay attention to the shaping of the IP family, emphasizing the interaction between images. Preparing for series products and content production, although not a single IP, will focus on a certain image for promotion when operating for different groups or product types. 04 All have peripheral product customization based on image authorization. QQfamily is more familiar with dolls, keychains, children's toys, etc., LINEFRIENDS's customized products are more extensive, involving mobile phone cases, mugs and many other products, and cooperate with many brands such as Uniqlo and Swarovski
2. Sports mascot
The mascot is familiar to the public in fact it benefits from various sports events. For example, from the mascot in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, to the mascot in Montreal in 1976, to the mascot in 1980, and then to the Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan and Yingni in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Any major event will definitely give birth to its own IP image, and this IP image is cute, naughty, and user dialogue. It is a unique asset within the cultural nation. And what is our Chinese mascot? Must be a panda! Because pandas have the animal attributes of China's national treasures.
World Cup mascot
Since the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, the first seven World Cups have not had a mascot. It was not until england, the birthplace of modern football, where the World Cup was held in 1966, that the first World Cup mascot was born.
↑Image above from left to right:
Willie, mascot of the 1966 Fifacious World Cup in Great Britain
Footix, the mascot of the 1998 Fifacé in France
Goleo VI, mascot of the 2006 World Cup in Germany
NBA mascot
The purpose of the NBA mascot is simple, to increase the atmosphere of the game, increase the interaction of the team, increase the relationship with fans and fans, and maintain the team's public relations.
Standalone mascot IP — Hello Kitty
Independent mascot IP
Hello Kitty is a super IP that must accompany all teenage girls even before falling asleep, born in 1974 (Sanrio Corporation). HelloKetty's success proves that design can go beyond the function of a product, achieve aesthetic embodiment and obtain emotional satisfaction.
Hello Kitty's design fits the classic definition of industrial designer Harold van Doren of the 1930s: "Design is basically the art of using lines, shapes, tones, colors, and textures to evoke the viewer's emotional response." ”
Cute Planet
Media mascot IP
Founded in 2016, Mengli Planet is one of the first cultural and creative platforms in China to incubate and operate mascot IP images, with content creation, meme iteration, peripheral product development, cross-border cooperation and brand licensing as its main businesses. Through the story of "soft cuteness", the user's desire for beauty and innocence is stimulated, and the "cuteness" of the user's heart is awakened with fantasy and aesthetic scenes.
The mascot IP of Mengli Planet is a silly image, occasionally funny and despicable. The different personalities of each cute creature hide the true self of urban people, which is the emotional projection of the social language of young people at present. Its users are mainly women aged 18 to 30.
HI PANDA trend brand mascot IP
The local Chinese designer "Ji Ji", who founded HI PANDA, he designed a humorous panda image that is impressive. HI
PANDA focuses on international fashion trends, street guerrilla culture integrated into Local Chinese youth and hip-pop music elements, thus establishing a distinctive Chinese street trend brand.
Image: Ji Ji cleverly used the most Chinese animal, the panda, to make a cartoon image, which is very flattering and especially pleasing to foreigners.
Group positioning: HI PANDA represents a new generation of young people who have grown up in an ever-changing and prosperous China, who are more confident and dare to express their personality than anyone in any previous era. Say "Hi" with global youth and talk to international trends, fashion and style.
It is not only a mascot IP, but also embodies a cultural identity and new identity.
Snoopy's tears
Founded in 1863, MetLife Wasu was the largest life insurance company in the United States served as an "image ambassador" for metlife insurance company for 31 years, and the playful and cute "Snoopy" was "ruthlessly fired" on the 20th.
More than 30 years ago, people felt that insurance companies were indifferent and refused to be thousands of miles away, in order to make the company more affinity, Snoopy was specially invited to be an "image ambassador" to promote business development. However, looking to the future, corporate brand image needs to be directly linked to business and cooperative relations, and it is more inclined to choose a "spokesperson" with a "fresh, modern" temperament, so it has to be dismissed by Snoopy.
The experience of the Snoopy event: Every change in the MAS of the mascot, the trade-off is often behind the change of brand strategy.
B.Duck
B. Duck was born in 2005, the main brand of Semk Products Ltd (Senke Products Co., Ltd.), a famous product design company in Hong Kong.
The different personalities of the B. Duck family members allow everyone to find their place, giving people a strong sense of intimacy.
B. Duck's IP represents a spirit of "playful life", people of different ages and different countries can spread the joy of playing through B. Duck, and can be accompanied by B. Duck in the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom or office, school and other places at home.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="152">03</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="153" > the philosophy of mascot IP</h1>
What is a mascot IP?
The mascot IP is not a pure work of art, nor is it a visual pastime. It is the product of the combination of business economy and society, and the creation of commercial value and social influence is the premise of its birth.
Hegel once said, "Beauty is the perceptual manifestation of ideas." "As the carrier of corporate culture, the mascot is also a concrete manifestation of the corporate philosophy.
The mascot is a symbolic auspicious shape that represents the enterprise and the commodity, and the effect of publicizing the enterprise itself is achieved through the cute image of the mascot and the shape that is easy for consumers to remember. And its formal beauty and allegorical beauty are organically combined with modern visual communication principles and aesthetics. It is also a vitality system and a commercial mascot design system based on the long-term brand building purpose of the enterprise.
The criteria for determining the IP of the mascot: whether it can continuously create value and influence for the individuals, enterprises, organizations, activities, etc. it represents. Its derivative products can bring direct or indirect business income and opportunities, thus forming a complete and good "create a business" circular ecology.
Two mascot IP essence
In essence, the birth and development of the mascot image is accompanied by the process of capitalist industrialization, which reflects the exchange relationship between producers (organizations) and consumers (the public). That is, the organization exchanges the "attention/purchasing power" of consumers with an exaggerated image that can attract the public's attention, thereby increasing its own tangible/intangible value.
Third, why create a mascot IP design?
Mascot IP has a high degree of recognition, which can make a deep impression, affect people's emotions, and trigger deep emotions.
Enterprises, products, and business activities with mascot IP are easy to impress users, give users a sense of intimacy, in commercial marketing or promotion, mascot IP can soften the bluntness of marketing, eliminate the user's preventive psychology or boredom, and leave a good impression on users.
Mascot IP is born with two uniquenesses:
The life of mascot IP is infinite: it can be continuously adjusted, updated and transformed to adapt to different markets and meet the needs of different users.
Mascot IP has no emotions and will not fatigue: when acting as a spokesperson for enterprises, organizations or activities, it is more controllable and cooperative than real people, which greatly reduces the risk of endorsement by operators.
Mascot IP has six core roles
(1) Rich value and significant returns: derivatives market to illustrate the economic benefits and value returns of mascot IP;
(2) User favor, consumption upgrade: personalized consumption upgrade, two-dimensional user favor, most of the mascots are born in the two-dimensional world. The mascot IP is inextricably linked to the two-dimensional world;
(3) Impressive, trigger emotion: establish a certain emotional connection with users through mascot IP, and use a gentle and not vulgar, sober and not cold way to close the distance between each other, trigger their emotional and distinct attention, and stimulate their desire to consume.
(4) Cordial and harmless, softening communication: The mascot image is inherently intimate, which can make it easier for users to accept a product, an event or an idea.
Soften marketing and increase trust
Close the distance and strengthen publicity
Deepen impression and enhance value
(5) Strong controllability and high degree of cooperation: the visualization, expression, and anthropomorphism of the mascot are all determined by the copyright owner and the operator, and every line, every action, each personality, every story telling, every media exposure, etc., is theoretically completely controlled by the IP copyright owner and the operator. It is worth noting that the brand endorsement by the mascot is much safer than the real person endorsement.
(6) Infinite life, can be recreated: mascots often have an ageless appearance and unlimited life, from the perspective of image marketing, this stability can strengthen cognition and facilitate intergenerational inheritance. However, the relatively stable image and personality of the mascot still need to be jointly maintained by the IP copyright owner or operator and fans.
Mascot IP has advantages that cannot be ignored in promoting products, shaping images, and expanding influence.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="178">04</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="179" > the communication of mascot IP</h1>
The value of an IP in brand communication
IP image is the image spokesperson of the brand or product created by people, which has the functions of brand trademark image ambassador, spokesperson, model and so on.
The key to the success of the brand lies in whether it has influence, and the IP image has the attributes to shape the influence of the brand.
Correctly recognizing the role and value of IP image can maximize the potential value brought by IP.
IP has natural advantages in terms of brand communication:
(1) It can allow users to quickly establish brand association and brand recognition; (2) THE IP image represents the super symbol of the brand for dissemination, and its essence is also a virtual brand spokesperson in the new era.
The three main roles in two transmission
01 Enrich the communication channels of the brand
The new type of news media has changed the traditional way of information dissemination, and the dissemination of information has changed to "decentralized" and "multipolar", and people's access to information has become more convenient and convenient. The IP image spreads through multiple channels with its strong malleability, strengthening the connection with consumers.
Online channels: IP images are active on major network platforms in various ways, such as WeChat, QQ, Sina Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Today's Headlines, etc.;
Offline channels: IP image with its strong malleability is designed into memes, animation, games, film and television and peripheral products;
02 Spread brand values
The "IP marketing" formed by IP after combining with brands often releases unparalleled influence. When exporting brand value to the audience, how to integrate brand value into the design of IP image will be crucial.
IP has the following three characteristics, which will be conducive to dissemination: unique personality, humanized characteristics, and content.
(1) Have a unique personality
Tmall, Jingdong JOY and other large IP, their visual image is prominent, eye-catching, all have a unique personality. Their different image personalities convey different brand values.
Tmall's cat shows the values of Tmall, the pursuit of good quality, good taste of goods and a high-quality online shopping environment. The image of Jingdong Dog is to interpret the brand values of loyalty and intimate service.
(2) It has the characteristics of humanization
If the brand logo is compared to the face of an adult, then the brand IP image is a pair of hands, which can make the brand hold the hands of others and generate emotions with people, thus playing the purpose of conveying brand values.
The humanized IP image can be quickly accepted by consumers and resonate through approachable, kind and cute shapes.
Astro Boy represents smart, Hellokitty represents well-behaved and cute, and Line friends represents little.
(3) Content-based
IP has a certain life cycle, and after the heat is passed, the attention will also be reduced. Therefore, content is an indispensable attribute of IP. Continuous content creation promotes the continuous output of brand value, so that the IP image remains vibrant while maintaining the vitality of the brand.
In order to increase its visibility, Kumamoto Prefecture has organized a professional planning team to continuously produce content to attract attention. Such as: the appointment of Kumamoto Kuma as a civil servant, Kumamoto Kuma's action to retrieve lost blush, Kumamoto Kuma's failure to lose weight and was demoted, etc., constantly planning funny events that make people laugh, maintaining the popularity of Kumamoto Kuma.
03 Build brand influence
The ultimate goal of all means of brand communication is to shape brand influence.
The IP super symbol has elements of a brand (brand positioning, brand name, brand slogan and brand visual identity).
As a result, it increases brand awareness, increases brand trust and garners fan loyalty faster, thereby increasing brand impact.
Precautions for three IP in brand communication
The mascot is constantly updated and changed with the changes of the times, and the overall aesthetic sense of consumers is constantly improving, and when dealing with these, it is necessary to be fully prepared.
The mascot should be produced on a regular basis, so as not to be monotonous and unable to adapt to different occasions, thus damaging the image accumulated by the mascot in the minds of consumers.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="213">05</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="214" > the psychology of mascot IP</h1>
Psychological factors influencing mascot design
From a psychological point of view, the reason why successful mascot designs are recognized by the public is not caused by a single, patterned and inherent psychological factor; it integrates the psychology of the masses, personal preferences, different regional cultures and living environments. The mascot is widely accepted by the public, there must be its specific laws and reasons, from which you can get the public's innermost recognition and consensus.
Here we list three representative regularities for analysis:
(1) Child-friendly psychological factors
The famous Austrian zoologist Conrad Lorenz put forward the idea that when a certain organism has a series of childish postures and characteristics such as a large head, large eyes and short nose, it is more likely to trigger the juvenile behavior and instincts of adult organisms.
For example, when people see a pet's cub, they will have sympathy and affection.
The child-friendly instinct is a reference to the success of mascot styling design
Childcare is an innate instinct of humans and animals. The psychology of this behavior can be practiced in mascot styling.
For example, people all over the world have a special admiration and love for pandas (black and white striped fur, large eyes, short nose, round shape). This aesthetic transcends races and national boundaries, which is in line with the aesthetic standards of the human masses.
(2) Uncanny Valley Theory
(1) When an object is similar to a person in the low to medium stage, the human liking for the object will increase with the degree of realism.
(2) As the fidelity is strengthened, this favorability will drop sharply with the rise, and when the object's fidelity reaches a critical point, the favorability will fall to the bottom.
(3) However, as the object approaches the real person infinitely, this favorability level returns to its highest point. And this dynamic fluctuation is stronger than the static favorability fluctuation.
The psychological effect of the uncanny valley theory is a double-edged sword, if used properly, it will have a good effect, and if it exceeds the limit of beauty borne by a certain psychology in use, it will reduce the favorability of the shape.
For example, in daily life, people sometimes have a sense of fear of the shape of muppets or simulated robots, which is the psychology of the uncanny valley theory.
The application and influence of the uncanny valley phenomenon on mascot design
Modern mascot design usually anthropomorphizes the object to achieve a cartoon shape effect. From the perspective of uncanny valley theory, there is no doubt that there is a coincidence between this point.
The evolution of Disney's Mickey Mouse puppet shapes is also a practical application of the uncanny valley theory. From the beginning of the more simulated human shape gradually gradually becomes a materialization, but to a certain extent retains the characteristics of people, so that the success of cleverly avoiding the vortex of uncanny valley theory, thus making it more popular with the public.
For example, the ancient owl in China would have been seen as an unlucky bird, and the two forward-facing eyes had taken on a human face-like appearance, which was particularly frightening in the dark of night, and its appearance had to some extent exceeded the peak of human liking for the uncanny valley curve. Therefore, in the creative process, it must have affinity attributes, which requires the designer to make it kind and cute like magic, rather than directly making slight adjustments to the prototype.
(3) Cultural psychology factors
People usually have a sense of identity and affinity for the national culture, national culture and regional culture in which the individual is located, and this sense of identity comes from the living environment, daily education and life experience in which he is located. When the mascot IP can be docked to the cultural matrix, then it can play a positive role in the cultural inheritance of the country, the nation, the enterprise, etc., and at the same time make people have emotional resonance from the depths of their hearts.