Anthropomorphism

Have you ever noticed that an endless number of brands have mascots? Funny and likable characters, and talking animals? Have you ever wondered why? Well it’s all down to the phenomenon of anthropomorphism.

Anthropomorphism is when we assign human characteristics, thoughts, feelings, and personality, to non-human objects. This is not something that occurs specifically in marketing, but in everyday life. We see faces in cars, we talk to our pets, we name plants. These are all examples of anthropomorphism. So why do we do it? Well anthropomorphism is an innate human behaviour, therefore it is theorised that it has come about from evolution. In short, humans evolved to be a social species, for safety. As a result, we assign names and personalities to objects that we use often, and in a social manner, as a way of forming a relationship/bond with the object.

You may already be able to guess how this phenomenon may relate to marketing. If we form emotional and social bonds with objects, to which we have attributed human characteristics, why not apply this relationship to a brand? When a brand creates an anthropomorphised mascot, through advertisements, people are able to build a “relationship” with the mascot, therefore feeling a positive bond towards the brand that their preferred mascot represents. Advertisers can use anthropomorphism as a way to humanise their brand, and create strong customer relationships that will in turn, drive sales.

However, the key consideration in anthropomorphism, in what are your brand values? What is the persona that you want to associate with your brand? Mascots are used to represent the brand’s personality, therefore it must represent you. However, if done incorrectly, or the mascot is perceived as annoying, deceitful etc, this may form a negative relationship with the consumer. One that may be harder to reverse, that traditional, due to the strong human relationship that has been formed.

A key example of successful anthropomorphism in a marketing campaign, is M&M’s. This is an example of marketing that may be unmatched. Everyone knows the M&M mascots (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, and Ms. Brown), and when they were introduced, they were a huge success. With multiple characters, and multiple personalities, the brand was able to create different characters that different people could relate to. After their introduction, they were placed everywhere in M&M marketing. There was no question that the characters were synonymous with the brand.

However, part of M&M’s success is the extent to which they leaned into the anthropomorphic characters, and when I say characters, I truly mean it. Throughout this campaign, the M&M’s have not been mascots but characters. Advertising has created a story, and narrative surrounding these characters, therefore creating an even stronger bond. The more the narrative grows, the more humanised the objects have become. People have become invested in these characters and advertisements. They are what people care about within this brand. However, as previously mentioned, the characters serve to represent the brand and its personality. Through the M&M’s stories success, the brand has found unmatched love and a loyal fanbase. Fans of M&M’s are so dedicated that these characters have grown outside of the brand. They have their own fanbase, their own Fandom Wiki pages, and they even have their own merchandise store (M&M “World” in London)!

I hope from this, you can see that a desirable, and likeable mascot can bring success and loyal customers to your brand. So, what mascot best represents you?

-- From Marketing to Mind --

Photo by Syed F Hashemi and Phil Aicken on Unsplash

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse