| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 國際貿易研究所 === 96 === Character brands have become a trend in business. Firms create character brands to draw consumer’s attention. For successful character brands, a strong attachment will be created to the consumers, so the brand-customer relationship will be loyal and powerful. The purpose of this research is to examine and discuss the marketing strategies and brand management of firms adopted to build their character brands, and theoretical and managerial implications will be addressed.
This research adopts the method of case study research. Four character brands with various natures will be discussed separately, and a comparison will be made accordingly. The four character brands examined in this research are Saniro’s Hello Kitty, Fujio’s Doraemon, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Charles Schultz’s Snoopy. Hello Kitty and Doraemon are Japanese character brands; Mickey Mouse and Snoopy are American character brands. These four character brands are very popular among consumers. The focus of this research is to address the similarities and differences of character development and brand management of these four character brands.
The findings of this research are: First, characters with different nature (type) will have different brand concept management strategies. For comic character brands, firms will be focus on the development of character personalities. For pure character brand, firms will concentrate on the design and appearance of such characters. Second, the brand-customer relationship between character brands and consumers is very unique. Consumers gain emotional and self-expressive benefit from character brands. As a result, it is essential to reinforce the brand/character image consistently, so the attachment will be stronger. Third, similar brand management strategies, such as licensing, brand extensions, sponsorships and reinforce character image, are adopted by firms; however, the focus on character brand building for each firm is somewhat different.
These four character brands are successful examples on character brand management. In order to manage good character brands, character development is necessary, and it is also crucial to create a strong brand identity. Most importantly, the brand building/management strategies have to be consistent with the nature/types of the characters.
Key Word: Character, Character brand, brand management, brand-customer relationship
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