Out with the creepy and in with the cool: New food brand mascots aimed at kids

From:Food Dive

In the space where branding and psychology meet, you’ll find a long-running debate about the use of mascots in marketing to children. Spend enough time studying that debate and you’ll learn a number of important things.

First, and perhaps most intriguingly, children have some definite opinions about the value of brands and the roles that mascots play. In research on the subject, one child said, "They only make sense if they have eyes, arms, legs, if they look like real people." 

Second, and most disturbing to those who object to the marketing of brands to children, mascots work. A brand mascot, done well, bonds a child to a brand, and the power those mascots exert over children can last for decades, translating into positive sentiment about a brand throughout a consumer’s life. 

Still, despite billions of dollars to spend on research and design, the food business seems to have trouble getting the mascot right. Consider the nearly universal revulsion that greeted McDonald’s creepy Happy Meal mascot with the real-looking mouth and tongue.

But perhaps things are changing - there are a number of new food-brand mascots out there, and they seem less scary, less cheap, and less manipulative. Perhaps this is a reaction by branding executives to the controversial study by Cornell University that took cereal makers to task for creating characters who seemingly make eye contact with children. Or it’s just that brand marketers are getting better and better at their jobs.

Whatever the reason, here are three cartoon mascots that we’ve been pleased to meet in recent months:

GoGo squeeZ’s playful fruits 

If you have kids, you’ve likely bought them a squeezable pouch from France’s Materne by now. Few brands have found traction as quickly as GoGo squeeZ has. The natural, squeezable fruit treats are suddenly must-haves in lunchboxes across the country.

GoGo squeeZ’s brand message is uncomplicated as can be: It’s fruit in a convenient package with a cute name, and a tagline that reflects all that of "Simple. Good. Active. Fun."

All of GoGo squeeZ’s branding also features cartoon mascots that reflect that message. They are anthropomorphic fruits - drawn simply, with little arms and legs, in shapes that two-year-olds recognize instantly. They also play games with each other - tossing a ball back and forth and playing hopscotch. 

Part of the magic of the GoGo squeeZ characters is that although they are visible to very small children, they simply don’t register with most adults. Ask a three-year-old about GoGo squeeZ and he or she will tell you the fruit people are nice. Ask an adult and he or she will ask, "What fruit people?"

The Happy Family baby 

Another brand that seems to understand both kids and the importance of brand cohesion is Happy Family. The organic baby food company launched only in 2006, but has become a powerhouse in a space dominated by Gerber.

One key to its success is the Happy Family logo, a sort of gentle, smiling baby that is part human and part sun. It’s a calming, peaceful image that links well with the company’s brand message to parents that there is an answer to their fears about processed foods.

As the company has expanded into food for toddlers and bigger kids, it’s stuck with the image of the happy infant. That seems wise, and we wouldn’t be surprised to find that 70 years from now there are lifelong customers of the brand eating Happy Family elderly meals and still smiling back at the baby sun.

Siggi’s androgynous preteens 

Kids can have some very rigid beliefs about gender, and no doubt marketers have contributed to that by dividing the world into pink and blue and princesses and soldiers.It can be difficult for a company to market something at both boys and girls once they reach their tween years.

But Siggi’s, a maker of Icelandic-style yogurt, seems to have found a way to stay neutral in the gender wars. Each box of its squeezable tubes of yogurt is adorned with a tween cartoon character dressed in casual clothing, doing Parkour-style moves, and sporting spiky hairstyles in bright, fruity colors. What’s not clear is if the characters are boys or girls.

Siggi’s tubes convey a message of confidence and fun to both boys and girls. And in an era where the youngest parents at the grocery store are members of the millennial generation, notable for its openness regarding gender and sexuality, that would appear to be a message with growth potential. 

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