From Ronald Mc Donald to Chester Cheetah, brand mascots have always been a vital part of a brand and its products’ marketing communication. They add a personality to the brand and carry its message of persuasion and intent. Not only do they make the jobs of the advertisers easier but also rejuvenate the brand as per the tastes of the TG.

Compared to the Indian market, brand mascots have a more success rate in American and European market consisting of a large number of brand mascots mostly in the food category. From breakfast cereals to burger joints, if anything has to impress your taste buds, there has to be a mascot to tell you how to enjoy your food. The best part about these is that TG of all age group can relate to them easily no matter for which age group it was designed.

On the other hand, though Indian market has seen quite a few brand mascots, only a few survived the stardom. Following are some of the most popular brand mascots in India but failed to achieve the equivalent stardom of their international comrades. Let’s try to understand why.

(The order of their appearance makes no significance in their popularity or success for the brand. It is a random order)

1. Boomer Man:

“Boom Boom Boomer” and the boomer man appeared to save the day. Boomer, one of the market leaders in chewing gum category in the 90s replaced Big Fun with its unique brand positioning. While other brands were spending huge budgets to target adults with USPs like sugar free and endorsing sportsmen like Center Fresh did, Boomer simply created a mascot which hailed it at the top position in the market. In 90s when Indian kids were fanatic about cartoons and super hero comics, Boomer man was indeed the best creation for the brand. With super powers similar to that of Mr Fantastic from Fantastic 4, Boomer man’s elasticity not only provided an imagery of the super stretchable Boomer gum but also his heroic image was fresh and inspiring for the kids. It was time kids saw something other than Shaktiman on TV.  The brand utilized him in every way they could: TVCs showing him saving the day in various occasions, temporary boomer man tattoos, school and stationary merchandise.

Boomer was launched in India in 1995 by Joyco-which is a confectionery major from Spain. Boomer actually revived the chewing gum market in India and in 2000 became the single largest brand in the segment with a market share of over 40%. But later the company lost out to Perfetti which redefined the entire confectionery market. As for Boomer man, he was over shadowed by a simple yet addicting chewing  gum practice, to blow a bubble publicized by Big Babool and lost its top position ever since.

So what do we note here? Boomer man had everything required to target the kids, yet he lost their interest just because another gum could blow a bigger bubble? So that means kids were bored of seeing the super hero do all the cool stuff and now they themselves wanted to do something cool, which was blowing a big bubble and making the pop sound. Was there any way to save Boomer man?

Maybe a TV series of Boomer man where kids call him when in trouble, he saves the day and bursts out Boomer gums for everyone. To savor our nostalgia, here is a Boomer moment for you.

2. Gems Pandas:

Just like their product, Gems pandas were also cute, round and colorful. These notorious pandas would go to any extent to get their paws on Gems. They hit the TV screens when a group of wild life explorers discovered them in a forest and to their surprise these pandas could change their colors when they ate Gems. I’m not too sure about the reason behind the origin of these pandas but it was a humorous campaign which brought back our attention towards Gems ads.

These pandas became even more popular when their toys were released under the campaign of “Raho Umarless”. These became a new cult with children and adults and collecting them was the new cult. Social media was blasted with people posting their Panda collection and there were deals and swaps for the same. The interesting part about the toy series was that it added a large number of panda characters in the band and promoted each in a different TVC.

But soon these Panda toys were replaced with more popular characters like Ben 10 and Marvel comic characters. Why would a brand give up on its own creation and rely on a different genre of characters to promote its products? Why could’nt they invest that money in developing the Pandas further? Maybe the brand realized that kids now wanted to follow Superman and not Kund-fu Panda. Maybe the brand was now expanding their TG bandwidth from children to teenagers. I guess color changing animals were not a fun idea after all.

3. Hippo Muchies’ Hippo:

The product was amazing, multi-flavored baked wheat munchies was everything a snacker could ask for. It was low on fat and high on taste. The only thing which is very clear is tht the brand mascot, the Hippo was a complete misfit. Why would you get a Hippo to try and sell something supposedly healthy? The creator of the mascot was a genius though. The identity of the Hippo was never revealed. You can only see its face on the pack and his shadow in the TVC. This was an intelligent move to spend minimum time in developing the look of a character.

The concept of the TVC was an all round one. The Hippo brings to you a healthy snack flavored from the spices used by our mothers from different parts of India. But then it gave a whole different meaning when a fat Hippo says “bhooke matt rehna”. Hippo was thus a failure and came of the retail racks within a year.

4. Hutch Pug:

Speaking of animal mascots and not mentioning the Hutch pug would be a crime. Some ideas become great with their simplicity. This genius ad campaign, created by Rajiv Rao and V Mahesh from OnM, brought on our TV the most loveable brand mascot, the pug. The campaign lasted for more than 3 years with more than 5 TVCs under it. The pug was the best way to symbolize the brand tagline “wherever you go our network follows”. As the pug kept following the boy wherever he went, our love and adoration for it grew deeper. Till date the Hutch pug is one of the most successful brand mascots in India.

(PART 2 coming soon…)

A simple straight line drawn between the types of approaches in making an ad, an insight into the usage of different colours for different brands and their respective impacts on us. This video is a plethora for adJunkees.