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How to Rebrand a Company Mascot with a New Design

AOL Canada brand mascot

Your corporate mascot is an important asset in your company’s branding campaign. Since the mascot might be the first encounter that people have with your company, it represents the face of your brand. A successful company mascot can grab people’s attention, build deeper engagement, and amplify your brand.

When you first create a company mascot, the design may seem like it’s fresh, exciting, and innovative. As companies move forward year after year, their brands inevitably change. Over time, your business mascot may start to feel stale and outdated, or it may not fit with what your brand represents anymore.

Rebranding is a great solution to breathe life into an older company mascot, keeping your brand relevant with the times. To help ensure your company mascot’s makeover is a roaring success, check out these rebranding ideas.

Assess your current business mascot

Shelvy mascot costume

Rebranding a corporate mascot can be a significant decision. Some company mascots are so identifiable by their original designs, such as the A&W mascot, Rooty, who first appeared in 1974. This mascot is iconic and imparts feelings of nostalgia for all those who see him, even today. It would be a shame to redesign this classic mascot too drastically.

For your own company mascot, consider if there’s anything great about its look or its personality that can be carried over into the rebranding. Think back to interactions the business mascot had with customers and community members in the past. Is there anything people particularly loved about the mascot that they’d miss after a redesign? This could be a hat, cheesy jokes, or a friendly personality.

Conduct market research if you’re not sure what to keep. Send out user surveys, or even create a short Twitter poll asking people how they’ve felt about your mascot over the years. These responses may help you preserve the best elements of your corporate mascot’s original design.

Modernize your company mascot

Did you create your corporate mascot a long time ago? Back then, you may have designed the mascot following a popular trend or style, which may not seem as fashionable today. Design trends come and go over the years, so you don’t want your mascot to look old and outdated. Instead, bring your company mascot into the new era and introduce modern elements into the design. This can be a new mascot costume accessory, a different colour scheme, or even using a cooler typography.

If your business is appealing to a younger demographic, modernizing your mascot is especially important. Consider adding more contemporary details to make your mascot look cool, chic, and culturally relevant.

Evolve your mascot’s personality

Many marketers decide to embark on a mascot redesign project because they’ve identified a common problem: their mascot is no longer in line with their brand. Over time, companies readjust their strategies, their look, their message, and their overall brand to stay relevant in the market. After these shifts, the corporate mascot may not align with where the company is currently in the market or how it wants to position itself in the future.

For this step, you’ll want to carefully consider your company’s personality. For example, many businesses start out as more professional and serious. Over time, they become more casual and friendly to be more customer-focused and approachable. Your company’s mascot marketing campaign may go through a similar journey.

Whether your brand is more casual, conservative, fun, or edgy, you’ll want to add some of its key personality traits to your mascot’s own personality. After all, a mascot is supposed to embody a brand’s personality above all else, and its personality can make or break its success in the field.

Target the right demographic

Hugo frog mascot costume

As your corporate mascot ages, so does your brand’s audience. If your company mascot was popular with children years ago, they are now teenagers or adults who might have a more mature, sophisticated taste. While they may still feel nostalgic towards your brand, your mascot might need to ‘grow up’ to appeal to this older demographic. Does your business mascot feel slightly too childish for a young adult audience? Take that into consideration when you redesign a brand mascot.

Even if your brand’s demographic hasn’t changed, this is still a good time to reassess whether your current mascot appeals to the right audience. Perhaps it looks too intimidating to engage children. Maybe it’s too soft and cutesy to gain the attention of rowdy sports fans. The rebranding is a great time to address any discrepancies between your corporate mascot and your brand’s vision.

Update the mascot’s appearance

If you’ve updated your brand colours recently, you’ll probably want to update your mascot’s colours, especially if you’ve made drastic changes. Even if you’ve just moved from a pale blue to a dark blue, this is a noticeable change that can be reflected in your mascot’s redesign.

Likewise, companies also update the uniforms their employees wear to keep up with trends. This is especially true if they’ve changed their brand colours. In this case, the mascot’s outfit should change as well based on what the employees are wearing.

Ready to rebrand a corporate mascot?

It’s important to carefully consider every detail when rebranding your mascot. Your mascot’s redesign needs to feel relevant and original. A mascot gone wrong can be detrimental to your brand. After all, we’ve all seen those mascots that try to be hip, but they end up looking amateur and cheesy. We’ve also seen mascots that seem completely unrelated to the brands they are supposed to represent, causing confusion in the community.

If you’re about to embark on a mascot rebranding project, your business can benefit from the expertise and professionalism of our Hogtown Mascots team. We’ve worked with many businesses to help modernize and revitalize their corporate mascot ideas. Whenever you are ready to rebrand your company mascot, contact us to get started on your new custom mascots!