Your business offers something special to your clientele. Mascots are popular in marketing because you can tailor them to any audience. That is why you should always consider a custom mascot that represents your business values and identity.
Like designing a logo, creating the right costume design for your mascot can be a headache. Different requirements apply to mascots for events, parties, sports matches, exhibitions, social campaigns, and promos.
We provide:
- Lovable designs
- Easy-to-store models
- Hand-picked materials
- Non-allergic fabrics
- Durable costumes
- Pocket-friendly prices
The process might seem daunting, we have a listening ear all the way to address your concerns and give you the best service.
The creation process is pretty easy, you only need to:
- Share your ideas with our team of qualified designers and experts.
- Give the preferred measurements by filling the form.
After that we take your ideas and:
- Communicate with you through every stage of the process.
- Give you suggestions and work together to create the perfect mascot.
You might wonder about where to start and what the best design is.
You will find answers to all these questions in the course of this article. In the quest to create the ideal costume for your company, there are several things we do.
Below is an outline of the article including the steps and important pieces of information about mascot costumes in chronological order.
Where to start
- What makes a great mascot costume?
- Your custom mascot
- Define your business personality
- Identify the target audience
What is the best design?
- Creating the custom mascot costume
- Naming the mascot
Trust your six sense
Mascots are a work of art; you might have to rely on your gut feeling and business sense in equal measure. Take time to consult and discuss with workmates and customers for ideas.
What makes a great mascot costume?
Before delving into the procedural stuff about creating a mascot, a quick look at the qualities of a great custom mascot costume will help.
It is visible. This is evident, but some mascots are not easy to spot, you don’t want it that way. The right color can make your mascot visible, more on that later.
It sticks to memory. You want people to think and even dream of your mascot in a good way. The costume plays a significant role here if it is unique. Color, size and the design play a part in making a memorable costume.
It connects with your brand. A costume mimicking a goat might be the wrong choice if your company sells beef sausages.
It is interactive. People expect mascots to be lively and interactive. A poor design might hinder action. If a mascot is aloof because of the costume, it doesn’t bode well for the business image.
It should be convenient. A Human being will wear the costume; maybe robots will spoil the party one day. Before that happens, the design must be human-friendly. Cooling, comfort, and ease of use are key considerations in the design.
The costume must have branding. Putting company colors or even a logo on the mascot costume is necessary.
You can be subtle too, and create something that looks like your product without any bold labeling. However, a clear link between the custom mascot and your business is vital.
Staying power
A great mascot must have a story behind it. We can help you invent the story behind your mascot before designing it. Is your custom mascot a dentist, fairy or the huggable grizzly bear?
A great story behind your mascot can be a classic and grow into a powerful marketing tool. When you hear people saying they are going to an event to see the mascot, it has a great story.
The design can play a role too, and there are some things to consider, like the cultural undertones. You want the mascot to rub people the right way. Then as its reputation soars so does your brand image.
Get your custom mascot
If you know what you want, all you need to do is lay it down, and the designs will be made according to your specifications. You can also get in on the fun by working through the various stages with us.
The goal is simple, to create the best costume for your mascot. There are two ways to go about it:
Choose from a selection of templates
In this case, you look at the various designs and choose what you like. These models can be tweaked and reworked to fit your unique need.
Design from scratch
If you have an idea or the templates are unlike what you want, you can get a new concept. We might create several sketches before you get what you like, and that’s what we’re here for. The bottom line is to grow your business by putting out the best mascot to help promote your merchandise or services.
Define your business personality
What do you sell and what is the persona of your merchandise or service? If you find the answer to these questions rather abstract, consider the real examples below.
If you own a confectionery, you will be looking for a sweet, friendly costume design. On the other hand, if your company sells toothpaste, your mascot must have snow white teeth, probably smiley, plus other attributes that ring true with your products.
Mascots should be exciting and fun; as they serve to seize the imagination of your customers. In a nutshell, the mascot is the embodiment of your business and merchandise. This is the first step our designers will take you through on this journey.
Identifying the target audience
A mascot that rings well with small kids might not go down well with the local soccer fans. Since you are reaching out, your mascot packages a message that your audience will identify with.
The message might be that you sell freshly baked bread, your mascot must embody the benefits people would get from eating your bread. Your audience must find it easy to associate and even aspire to be like the mascot.
Before you put too much expectation on the mascot, remember that to pull off a marketing campaign you need to get a great performer into that costume. However, the first step to getting there is designing the best mascot. The easiest way you can define your customers even on your own is through avatars.
Avatars
An avatar is a personification of your client. Think of questions like who is my customer, what is the customer feeling, thinking and doing among others.
All these questions will create a general representation of the people who will interact with your mascot. The interaction will only be successful if the custom mascot wins their hearts or captures their imagination positively and provocatively.
After knowing the way your mascot’s audience will look, the next step is the technical design process.
What is the best design?
It boils down to the choices you get after considering the factors above and then going through the next process.
Designing the custom mascot costume
This is an engaging and interactive process, as we capture your vision and turn it into a mascot. Thanks to the preliminary steps above like knowing your target and your business identity, creating the possible designs is a simple yet fun activity.
There are various templates you can choose from. If you don’t find anything that suits, don’t worry, it is time for sketches and more sketches, till you find a design that fits the bill. To get the best design, you can look at several drawings that look good and ask for modifications. The trick is to improve the idea and make it more appealing.
Custom Mascots for all purposes
This is key. Who will wear that costume? What are the stunts you expect from this mascot? These two questions consider the practical aspects of your mascot. A stunning mascot is no good if it cannot move because the costume is impractical.
Because mascots are interactive and fun, mobility is a huge consideration at this stage. Another key factor to consider is the operating environment. If your mascot is likely to stand in the rain or sun for hours, the costume design must include protection, which can be a cooling system or a waterproof lining.
Other factors that contribute to the design include the location, if the mascot spends a lot of time indoors, the specific features may vary for a custom mascot costume for the outdoors.
Size
Mascots will always be quite big unless children wear them. How big; is the question. A sports mascot will often be larger to be seen from all corners of the field. Size often comes in the way of mobility, the bigger a costume, the fewer stunts it allows.
Color
Colors are a big part of the mascot design. After all, different colors communicate different moods. Another important thing about color is visibility.
Is there anything like a camouflaged mascot? Well, unless it is part of a character plot. If you are like 99.9% of the businesses out there, you want the mascot to be visible, even stand out. Color also contributes to temperatures in the costume. A black costume will get hotter in the sun than a white costume.
Develop the unique features
Mascots allow you to let your imagination wander. While the furry and polar bear mascots are quite popular, there are other animals you can mimic.
Animals are cute. However, you can go down the cartoon route. If you want an android looking mascot, that is possible too. Consider, for example, the Michelin mascot; it looks like a tyre. You can ask for a mascot that looks like a lollypop for your confectionery.
Apart from the looks, you can make the costume sophisticated. Some fun features can include a tongue, retractable ears, and other features. These can help your mascot communicate in a funny, unique way.
Consider a mascot that rolls its tongue as it chides players of an opposing team during games. Your mascot can do whatever you want it to, from backflips to rolling eyes. Mascotcostumes.org design team incorporates all these according to your wishes.
Sell more
Can a custom mascot help you sell more? Yes. You might wonder how this comes in at the design stage. It comes in when you highlight the benefits of your services or merchandise in the mascot’s costume. If you owned the toothpaste company above, you’d lose out if it is a duck because a duck has a beak.
What you need is the set of shiny teeth on the costume. So it is better to have a mammal or a toothy cartoon mascot. When people can look at the mascot and see the benefits of your offer at first glance that is very good. We focus on the main solution that should draw customers to your product or service.
Name the mascot
A TV ad or a billboard sign is great for creating brand awareness. Your custom mascot is part of your customer service team.
A penguin mascot for a crayon company might be Penguin the Artist for instance. Penguins might not be the best choice though for the stationery company though, what’s your take? A monkey seems to be a better choice.
Naming your mascot is important as it contributes to a long-term identity. So you want to get it right the first time. The name should be catchy, fun and memorable while portraying the desired idea about your company and product.
Pricing
Templates are priced according to the complexity of the design. The same applies to custom creations. The good thing is, we listen to your offer and give you what you need.
Conclusion
However, always bear in mind that it doesn’t matter how beautiful the costume is, it is just a outer envelope. After this, the onus is on you to find the right performers. A great performer with a great storyline and a great costume, now that’s a great mascot.