These days a brand does more than separate a business from its competitors. If done well, a brand creates in a tide of customer goodwill that can command a premium price, keep a competitor in second place, increase share value and provide a valuable asset.

And it’s no secret that brand mascots can sometimes be worth even more than the company’s they front. When Pets.com fell prey to the “dot-bust” in the early years of this century, the only asset worth selling was the sock-puppet mascot.

Mascots first appeared with some of the first consumer brands…
- The Quaker for Quaker Oats (1877) was the first cereal trademark
- Bibendum, the ribbed guy was created for Michelin Tires in the1890’s
- Nipper listening to “his master’s voice” was created in the 1890’s and later joined RCA
- Famous cartoonist Richard Outcault drew Buster Brown for the Brown Shoe company in 1902
- The Sunshine Biscuit company adopted their baker character in 1902
- Mr. Peanut first tipped his top hat in 1916
- Reddy Kilowatt began electrifying the county in 1926

By the 1930’s brand mascots were rampant. Elsie the cow for Borden, The Jolly Green Giant, The Heinz tomato aristocrat and Johnny Walker are just a few.

Mascots were (and are) not limited to promoting products and sports teams. They are equally useful at promoting behavior. Uncle Sam, who began life as a character in 19^th century editorial cartoons, wanted us to join in defense of our country in WWI. Smokey the Bear began exhorting us to put out our campfires in 1940. Mr. Zip promoted the use of Zip codes in 1970.

And we can’t forget Santa Claus who has been used to promote the Christmas celebration since the 19^th century but was perhaps most famously characterized in Coca Cola ads of the 1940’s and 1950’s.

The best part of the brand mascot concept is that it can be employed by any sort of enterprise: business, non-profit, government agency, faith-based institution – you name it – and brand mascots are the quickest and cheapest way to create an emotional connection between your enterprise and the world at large.

But you can’t just put ping pong ball eyes…or gloved hands and Mickey Mouse feet…on an object and call it a mascot. The trick to a designing a successful brand mascot is creating a character with a genuine personality that matches or reflects the salient feature or benefit of the organization that he (she or it) represents. I can’t stress this point enough because this is where the brand mascot succeeds, or more often, fails.

Furthermore, what worked 20 or 30 or 40 years ago doesn’t necessarily work today so you can’t simply create an attentive dog, rotund baker or dancing legume and call it quits. Also, there’s the issue of trademark infringement. Brand mascots, no less than logos, are intellectual property and their use is protected by law. That means that you can’t take the Energizer bunny, give him blue fur and a baseball cap and use him to promote your health spa.

If you absolutely must have a well-known cartoon character you can license them from the owner as did the Florida Orange Growers with Donald Duck Orange Juice, Owens-Corning with the Pink Panther and MetLife with Snoopy – but be prepared to write a big check. Still, businesses that have the resources are willing to do this because they are “renting” a personality with an existing fan club who they hope to immediately attract to their business.

For those who want to create their own brand mascot they need to follow a few basic rules which I will detail in my next posting: “Brand Mascot Do’s and Don’ts”

In a meeting with a prospective client who operates a dental practice, he mentioned that one of his challenges in relocating his practice from San Francisco to Petaluma – where I live and work – is that the folks in Sonoma County don’t have as high a “dental IQ” as did his patients in the City – a mere 40 miles to the south.

One may ask how, in this age of saturated media and a surfeit of information, can anyone – anywhere – be ignorant of the need to care for their teeth, or the importance of good dental hygiene to one’s overall health.

I can think of a couple of reasons…one of them being media saturation. People are bombarded with messages constantly and in ever new ways – spam on your cell phone. To preserve their sanity folks automatically filter what they give their attention to. One’s media filter is generally governed by pre-conceived notions and personal experiences. I experienced this phenomenon recently when I bought a used Nissan Xterra. Prior to the purchase, I can’t remember seeing an ad for one or – for that matter – seeing them on the road. After I bought the car, similar models began popping up all over the road. Now, it seems that was one of the last to discover how popular the vehicle actually is.

A corollary to media saturation is the overload caused by so much information: data, opinion, news, gossip and rumor. Scientists tell us that we have some 10 billion brain cells, neurons, little gray chips…whatever. The older I get the less I want give what I have remaining to Brittany Spears.

Back to my dentist friend. He’s frustrated not just because his Sonoma

Why? I doubt that it’s because they aren’t concerned for their own welfare. I suspect that their media filters and information overload sensors blocked the input. Or maybe they like hillbilly teeth…

And what does this have to do with Marketing IQ?

The media filters and information overload sensors that inhibit folks from absorbing potentially life-saving or at least health-preserving information about their teeth are at work preventing them from taking in your advertising, sales or marketing message.

Yes, it’s true. Messages about your brand new service, amazing new product, or general wonderfulness are – for the most part – falling on glazed eyes and plugged ears.

I can hear the wise guy in the back row muttering to the guy next to him, “See, I told you marketing was a waste of time.”

Well, yes…poorly conceived, amateurishly produced, uninspired and meagerly funded marketing is a waste of time…and money.

Still, if you’re in business and want to stay that way you have to get the word out. And, after all, isn’t that what marketing is really all about – getting the word out? Today, this requires busting through – or sneaking around – the filter that your target customer has in place to preserve his or her sanity.

To return to my dental example, just as proactive, thorough dental care supports physical – and mental – health (your teeth are just down the hall from your brain); proactive and thorough marketing care supports business health.

Mom told you to brush after every meal. Well, regular attention to your marketing is equally important. Thorough brushing prevents cavities. Thorough marketing prevents holes in your bottom line.

And despite the challenges I mentioned it’s not impossible, or even that difficult, to get by people’s media filters and info overload sensors: just make sure that your marketing message is based on some thing that’s really important to your current or potential customer…like their health (personal or business), their wealth (p or b) or the quality of their lives or the lives of those they love.

Oh yes, and avoid cliché’s at all costs like the close up photo of two businessman shaking hands, the woman’s face smiling ecstatically (Is she really that happy about having her furnace filters cleaned?), the elderly couple walking hand in hand down the leaf strewn lane, the mop-headed kid with the “yum” smile holding up a fork of whatever, the sexy woman standing next to the boring sedan, the guy in the gray business suit carrying a briefcase while he leaps a hurdle…

I could go on but I feel my filter is kicking in.

The subject of retainers came up recently. No, not the custom-made acrylic oral inserts that keep $6,000 worth of orthodontia from returning to its genetic predisposition.

I’m talking about a regular payment of a predetermined amount of money by a client to a consulting company as a means of “retaining” that company’s services over a period of time.

The subject of retainers came up when an acquaintance whose building his consulting practice was inquiring about billing practices. During the back and forth he brought up the subject of a retainer and mentioned a consultant friend of his who claimed that his clients all paid him a retainer.

Good for the friend of my acquaintance, but I strongly suspect that may not be the whole story.

For many freelancers and independent (translation: non-salaried) consultants, a retainer is an indication of professional achievement, of recognition and respect…not to mention predicable payment. As such, retainers promise to ameliorate the constant, grinding stress of not having a predictable paycheck. In other words, they’re the Holy Grail.

So every professional consultant should require one of every client…right?

Maybe…

But first, a little background. I don’t claim to have the definitive answer, but I did spend some time in “big advertising.” Ad agencies and PR Firms generally establish contractual relationships with their clients because they often must “staff up” to provide promised levels client service and support.

Years ago, the rule of thumb was approximately 6 staffers for each $1,000,000 of billing – 85% of which was commissioned media. The account-specific, or staff dedicated to that account, was generally comprised of a couple of “creatives” (an art director and a writer), a couple of account people (an account executive/supervisor and an account coordinator) and some percentage of the salaries of folks in Research, Media and Production who spread their time over a number of accounts.

In case you didn’t know, mass-media advertising campaign efforts are “front-loaded,” namely most of work goes into researching the target audience, developing the strategy and media plans, and crafting and producing the appropriate message before the campaign ever reaches the consumer. The agency’s retainer covers much of the cost of this work since the media commissions, when (and if) they come, will do so only after the ads or spots have been placed.

So, what does the retainer pay for after all this front-loaded work is loaded?

Glad you asked. Big time clients – the sort that big time advertising covets – will often use the agency “team” as “off-the-books” employees by putting them to work on marketing related tasks only tangentially associated with advertising. This allows the client to run a “lean” marketing department by using the virtual staff employed by the agency. Incidentally, this is also the reason why ad agencies typically must lay off employees immediately after losing an account.

Retainers take on different role for independents and “free lancers.”

They’re good for planning billing / payment on long-term assignments with a scheduled scope of work, as well as when you have employees to help manage your cash flow and give clients a predictable bill.

Free lancers are generally able to work for clients who compete with one another unless one of the clients stipulates exclusivity. In this case a retainer can pay for client exclusivity by providing partial compensation for clients that you can’t take because of the client relationship.

However, a retainer can be problematic when it creates a sense of unwarranted entitlement from the client – the right to preempt your time. For example, “We pay you a retainer so we expect to move to the head of the line and get instant turn-around on all our requests.”

And retainers can get downright ugly when the client starts to feel like they’re paying a lot and getting little in return for it. That’s the reason why maintaining a “retained” relationship with a client – regardless of the size of your business – requires a lot of hand-holding which eats up a lot of hours, and the savvy (or paranoid) client may suspect that a lot of the retainer he or she is paying is to cover the time spent justifying the retainer.