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2.Literature Review

2.1 Spokes Character

The definition of a spokes-character is vague, there is no a definite explanation

for spokes-characters. But most definitions for spokes-characters are all related to

some common qualities. In Phillips’ (1996) paper, the author collected many

definitions about trade characters, which are non-celebrity spokes characters. It is said

that trade character is a character created in association with a product (Norris1984).

Other definition for trade character is” people, animals, animated characters, objects,

or the like that are used in advertising a brand and that come to be identified with the

brand, in much the same way that a trademark is identified with a brand.” The

Keebler Elves for Keebler cookies and the Pillsbury Doughboy for Pillsbury products

are examples of trade characters, as is Betty Crocker for General Mills. Spokes-

character can be defined as a visual identification or personification of a particular

brand of merchandise or of a particular advertiser. For example, Tony the Tiger is the

trade character of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. According to Dunn and Barban (1986)

trade character is any visual symbol that is associated with a product. Garretson and

Niedrich (2004) think spokes-characters to be non-human characters used to promote

a product or brand.

But using the word trade character may be a little out-dated, because in the early days

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advertising character were registered as trademarks for a brand and/or company. For

many of the more recent characters, which are used for promotional purposes and

never registered as legal trademarks (Phillips, forthcoming), the term "trade character"

seems slightly misleading (Callcott and Lee,1995). In this paper, I will use the term

spokes-character to replace trade character or advertising character and define it as a

fictional character used to promote or represent for brands or products.

Previous research by Callcott and Lee provide a multi-dimensional framework for

spokes character definition along four parameters AMOP (table 1):

(1) physical Appearance of the character

(2) the Medium it appears in

(3) advertising or non-advertising Origin

(4) spokes-character Promotion of the product

2.1.1 Appearance

The appearance of the spokes character can be divided into human or non human

character. Research by Phillips and Gyoerick (1999) shows 45.5% of the

spokes-characters are human; 32.5% are animal; 15.3% are product personification

and 6.7% are mythical characters. While in Taiwan the most used spokes-character is

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animal, then product personification, human and mythical character respectively.

Fictitious Human spokes characters are usually pictured realistically through

illustration, famous characters are Quaker Oats man, Betty Crocker. Illustration

enable these character to be everyone, the appearance can reflect all the traits that the

brand or product wants to present and enhance consumers imagination also remain

untarnished through several generations. In Taiwan, the example can be Formosa

Chang (鬍鬚張).

Non-Human spokes-characters are animals, mythical beings, or product

personifications. Most of the animal spokes characters are anthropomorphized

characters, human have a tendency personify animals as they were also human beings.

The use of animal characters may also because of the symbolic meaning of the

animals, for example in Taiwan people like to use dragon which is represented as the

king in Chinese history to show that they are the king of the industry or the leading

brand. Taiwan Life use Taiwan A-dragon as their spokes-character in their advertising

may also conceive this notion of being a No.1. Macoto Bank baseball team use cobras

as their mascot is because cobras has the spiritual meaning in aboriginal tribes, it

means power and strength which fits the spirit of baseball team.

Mythical spokes-characters hail from a variety of literary and folklore traditions,

and include giants (Green Giant), fairies (Coca-Cola's Sprite), mermaids (Chicken of

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the Sea tuna), kiccoro and morizo (EXPO 2005). The peak of using mythical

spokes-characters is around 1950s’, but the new trend of spokes-character’s

appearance is becoming to product personification.

Product Personification can take the form of the product, itself, or of some

product-relevant concept. It is a common use in food product, for example Mr.

Peanuts and M&M chocolate.

2.1.2 Medium

The second parameter for spokes-character definition relates to the medium

through which these characters are presented to the public. There are four basic media

through which spokes-characters connect with consumers: print, film, radio and

merchandise. Now, internet is a new medium which combine print and film,

spokes-characters can be present in both static or motion ways (Phillips and Lee,

2005). Spokes-characters appearing in print are usually in the form of illustrations

(realistic or caricature), or photographs. Spokes-characters appearing on film may be

brought to life by some form of animation (computer, stop-motion, etc.) Live-action

spokes-characters include humans and animals in costumes or in character (e.g.,

Ronald McDonald ). As for radio, it is not a common medium in Taiwan and in

modern time because television becomes the prevalence medium for advertising.

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Merchandise is an important medium to contact with consumers, which

proliferates through promotional premiums and licensing. Many people are crazy

about these merchandises and collecting them. Merchandise featuring

spokes-characters can help to strengthen consumer awareness of the character, or even

the brand. Spokes-character premiums are perhaps better at promoting brand

awareness than other forms of licensed merchandise since proofs of purchase are

often required in order to obtain them. Recent years in Taiwan, convenience stores

often use this premium strategy to stimuli more consumption and also by giving

spokes-character merchandise to enhance consumer awareness.

2.1.3 Origin

Spokes-Characters can be defined as having an advertising or non-advertising

origin.

Characters with a non-advertising origin can be classified as celebrities like

Snoopy, Garfield the cat. They are not design to promote the product or brand but are

licensed as an endorser who uses self charisma to convince consumer to purchase the

goods. That is they are just functioned as human celebrity.

On the other hand, non-celebrity spokes-characters are those characters with an

advertising origin, which means, they were originally created strictly for advertising

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purposes. This study will focus on non celebrity spokes-character. Exploratory

research indicates that non celebrity spokes-characters may be more effective than

their celebrity counterparts because the identity they provide for a product belongs

only to that product (Callcott and Alvey 1991). The disadvantage of using celebrity

characters is to confuse consumers, over-use celebrity may actually decrease the

power of celebrity effect because consumers are confused by too many brands that the

celebrity present for. The other disadvantage is that because many messages focus

attention on the celebrity rather than on the products, the effect of changing brand

preference is not notable (Ogilvy and Raphaelson,1982). Previous experiment

(LaTour,2004) shows that different brands use the same celebrity spokes character

can mislead consumers of what they really saw on the television. Consumers may

think they’ve seen brand A’s advertising but it is actually brand B’s and enhance the

memory of brand A not brand B. It is important for companies to consider when they

want to use celebrity characters also they may need to consider the character-product

fitness. The non-celebrity characters can become almost "as one" with a product

through repeated exposure over the years, often earning the support and trust of

consumers.

2.1.4 Promotion

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Active promotion of the product involves speaking for the product or

demonstrating the product in some way. Passive promotion of the product is more

symbolic in nature. Phillips and Gyoerick (1999)’s study indicated that a majority

(62.1%) of spokes-characters were passive. companies move spokes-characters back

and forth between active and passive promotion for the products in order not to bore

the consumers, because when the same spokes-character shows too often for a long

time the spokes-characters can get wear out quickly.

2.5 Spokes-Characters in Taiwan

There are more than 200 spokes-characters in Taiwan in a board definition, this study

had select 100 spokes-characters to examine, these spokes-characters speak for

different institutions, some speak for public organization, some speak for private

organizations in different area. 46 out of 100 spokes-characters speak for service

industry, 5 speaks for non-profit organization, the rest 49 spokes-characters speak for

physical products or brand category from food to electronic product。It is found that

food products industry uses spokes-characters intensively, then followed with bank

and insurance industry, entertainment, electronic products. Spokes-characters are

thought to be child-oriented because the animated, cartoon look characters are

appealing to the children, 33 out of 100 spokes-characters represent for product or

service that’s aim at children.

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Table 2-1.

Framework for Spokes-Character Definition

Parameters Description

Appearance Fictitious Human

Actors

Caricatures

Non-Human

Animal

Mythical

Product Personification

Medium Print

Illustration

Photography

Film

Animation

Puppetry

Live-Action

Radio

Personas

Merchandises

Premiums

Character

Licensing

Origin Advertising

Non-celebrity

Non-Advertising

Celebrity

Promotion Active

Speak for product

Demonstrate product

Passive

Symbolic

Source: Callcott and Lee, 1995

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2.2 Purposes of Using Spokes-Character

According to Phillips (1996) there are three ways that spokes-characters are used

to communicate with consumers: by creating product identification, by promoting a

brand personality, and by providing promotional continuity.

2.2.1 Product Identification

spokes-character can create a link between the product, the packaging, and the

advertising in the minds of consumers. It works like a trademark, consumers see the

spokes-character they know that is the product. By appearing on the label spokes

-characters build product identification. Many researches (Mizerski, 1995) indicate

that children identify brands by their cartoon spokes-characters.

2.2.2 Personality

Spokes characters can show their personality to consumers through meaning

appeal and emotion appeal. It can give meaning to the brand by symbolizing its

character, and it can lend emotional appeal to the brand by personifying the product.

Spokes-characters lend the warmth of an actual personality to the product

(Kleppner,1966) and thereby create an emotional tie between the consumer and the

character (Zacher, 1967)

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2.2.3 Promotional Continuity

Spokes-characters can create promotional continuity across advertising

campaigns, across brands in a product line, and over time. Advertising continuity is

occurred when spokes character keep showing on the advertising and representing for

specific brand, it brings product identification. Product line continuity means spokes

characters can provide continuity across brands in a product line. This can result

cumulative publicity and connecting products can help to sell each other (Strasser,

1989). Spokes-characters can also provide continuity over time (Wright, Warner,

andWinter, 1971). This make consumers have deeper impression of the link between

spokes character and the brand.

2.3 Gender and Spokes-Character

Base on the target audiences’ gender, companies may need to use different

spokes-characters to attract consumers’ attention. Phillips and Gyoerick (1999) found

that more realistic animal spokes-characters appear in men’s magazine while

spokes-characters appear in women’s magazines are more personified. The

spokes-characters that are less personified are used as symbols of product attributes

and usually promote for high-involvement products, examples are the RCA dogs and

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Merrill Lynch Bull. Highly personified Spokes-characters are usually used for low-

involvement products in women’s magazines. Spokes-characters ads target toward

different gender presented in different appearance to get better effect. Gender of

Spokes-characters can also be a factor to influence consumers’ attitude toward

advertising effectiveness. Male spokes-characters dominate the ads for a long time,

the percentage of male spokes-characters is 45%, female 27%, and the rest are not

applicable (Phillips and Gyoerick, 1999). In men’s magazines, there is no female

spokes-character advertisement, while in women’s magazines there are about 30% of

the spokes-characters are female. Why there are more male spokes-characters than

female spokes-characters? The answer might lies in the traditional notion that men are

the symbol of authority and since we were still kids we were exposed by the

commercials dominate by male characters and male voices. Male spokes-characters

appear in all kinds of product commercials except cosmetic and household products.

(Courtney &Whipple, 1974; Dominick & Rauch, 1972; Doolittle & Pepper, 1974;

Marecek et al., 1978; O’Donnell & O’Donnell, 1978) Research by Peirce stated that

gender and product type affect the likability of spokes-characters and perceptions of

target audiences. That is male spokes-characters have more effective when used for

male-oriented products. It was hypothesized that when spokes-character is the same

gender as target audience, the advertising effectiveness will be better.

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To make spokes-characters likable, companies design spokes-characters in cute and

neotenous looks which attract female audiences more. It seems nature for female to

like cute things, and Taiwan is deeply influenced by Japan culture and Japan has an

obsession about cute things. Therefore the character design in Taiwan is lean to

Japanese style. As the spokes-characters are designed in cute image, the study

assumes female have more interest on and willing to accept spokes-character than

male do. Also the previous research indicated that boys will not watch cartoon shows

that have girls as lead characters but girls will watch cartoon with male leads. Which

means female have better Torrance for character gender than male do (Thompson and

Zerbinos, 1995).

H1: female consumers have more interest on spokes-characters than male consumers.

H2: female consumers are likely to have positive feeling toward the spokes-character

than male consumers.

2.4 Likable Characters

The reasons why consumers like spokes-characters are because their adorable

look and shape and they are entertaining. Callcott and Phillips (1996) had studied the

factors that make spokes-characters likable. There are four main factors: (a)

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personality, (b) physical characteristics, (c) humor, and (d) consumer experience.

(a) Personality, companies should give spokes-character a distinct and vivid

personality that consistent with the brand. Spokes-characters can show their

personality by the way they talk and what they wear. Spokes-characters are

dressed up in different costume to show their personality, for example Hello Kitty

dress a tennis suit shows that Hello Kitty is a bright and sunny sport girl or when

Hello Kitty dress a scuba diving suit shows that Hello Kitty is an adventuresome

girl. Companies use spokes-character’s personality to show their brand personality.

In a sense, spokes-character’s personality somewhat reflects target audiences’

personality or the personality they like. A strong congruence between the

spokes-character personalities strengthens brand equity (Aaker, 1993; Biel, 1992).

(b) Physical characteristics

Physical characteristic is about the shape, miniature props, and contemporary

appearance of the spokes-character. Overall people like cute characters with

rounded, childlike shape. Cute and little stimulate people’s love of them, which

contributes to positive affection. A contemporary appearance and modern dress

seems to be important aspects of spokes-character’s appearance (Callcott and

Phillips, 1996). The look of the spokes-characters should reflect the era that

consumers live in, out-of-step is not something consumers enjoy to watch. This

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points out the advantage of spokes-characters, they can evolve through time

without limitation, because they are animated made and can change all the time

once consumers feel bored about them.

(c) Humor

Humor plays a large role in spokes-character likability (Callcott and Phillips, 1996).

There are many way can present humor, in commercials advertisers make

characters do something funny, take Energizer Bunny for example people find that

funny when they see the bunny keeps running forward and drumming but falls. In

print advertisement, companies use comic narrative to entertain consumers. 乖乖

prints short comic stories in the back of their products and shows more personality

bringing humor to the consumers.

(d) Consumer experience

There are two experiences, one is cultural experience and the other is character

experience. The cultural experience factors that emerged from the data include

animal symbolism and stereotypes. We know that spokes-characters can be in

animal appearance, the animal chose to be spokes-characters for some reasons such

for cultural meanings or the symbol image they present. The meaning and cultural

experience triggers consumers’ feeling of like or dislike. In eastern cultural, dragon

is the symbol of king or something bring good luck, using dragon as a prototype

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for the spokes-character may increase the likability of consumers. Stereotype about

the ethnic group may also affect spokes-character likability, depending on how a

character is portrayed (Callcott and Phillips, 1996). Aboriginal people make good

liquor drinks is the prevalence notion in people’s mind, so using a aboriginal

people character in liquor drink product can increase the credibility and likability

of the product.

Character experience factors are defined as consumers’ prior knowledge of, and

attitudes toward, spokes-character. Consumers feel comfortable about familiar

spokes-characters when they don’t know from where to choose a product. There is

a important factor makes spokes-character likable, that is nostalgia. Seeing familiar

spokes-character reminds consumers about the experiences about the product, the

brand, and creates a stronger connection between spokes-character and brand.

Four factors above indicate what makes spokes-character likable, the first three

factors, personality, physical characteristic and humor, are related to spokes-character

itself which is the part that companies can control. The last factor-consumer

experience is depends on consumers. This study would like to examine the factors’

influence on spokes-character likability. The study contains two parts, one is on the

consumer side and the other is about the spokes-character. Other scholars (Walker and

Dubitsky,1994) mentioned other factor for liking: specific elements (include

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characters, action, music, storyline and visual element ), like the product/brand,

colorful/lively, cute, humorous, convincing/effective, clever/imaginative,

believable/realistic and appealing. Combining these liking factors, specific elements,

colorful/lively, cute and appealing can be included in physical characteristic;

humorous and clever/imaginative can be included in humor factor; like the

product/brand can be included in consumer experience. There for the study proposes

that:

H3: Distinctive personality is the reason impresses consumer.

H4: Cute is the reason impresses consumer.

H5: Humorous is the reason impresses consumer.

H6: Consumers form positive attitude toward the spokes-characters if the

spokes-characters are believable.

H7: Consumers have more positive attitude toward the spokes-characters if the

spokes-character are convincing

H8: consumers who like the product/brand will have a more positive attitude toward

the spokes-characters

2.5 Liking

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Liking is a global positive response toward object or idea that has underlying

cognitive and affective components (Walker and Dubitsky, 1994). Liking may be a

valid indicator of relative sales performance and attitude toward brands. We can use

“dual mediation” model to explain how liking works, it influences attitude toward the

brand, which in turn, influence brand purchase intention; and it modifies brand

cognitions which also affect brand attitude, which again influence purchase intention.

Several studies (Stapel, 1991; Spaeth, Hess and Tang, 1990) show that there is a

significant relationship between advertising liking and brand liking and advertising

effectiveness. There are two hypotheses to explain how liking contribute to

advertising effectiveness. The first is if the consumers like the advertising, they are

more likely to notice and pay attention-and more likely to assimilate and respond to

the message. The other theory is “affect transfer”, that is if the consumers experience

positive feelings toward the advertising, they will associate those feelings with the

advertised brand. since the spokes-characters are used in advertising, we can assume

that like the advertising means like the spokes-characters. Under this notion, this

study purpose that:

H19: Consumers are more likely to pay attention to the advertising if they like the

spokes-character.

H10: Consumers are more likely to have positive attitude toward the product/brand if

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they like the spokes-character.

2.6 Brand

A brand is a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more

specifically, it refers to the descriptive verbal attributes and concrete symbols such as

a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme that convey the essence of a company,

product or service.

2.6.1 Brand Identity

A brand identity is a brand’s personality, which refers to the set of human

characteristic associated with a brand (Aaker, 1997). Perceptions of brand personality

traits can be formed and influenced by any direct contact that the consumer has with

the brand (Plummer 1985). Marketers view brand personality as a key way to

differentiate a brand in a product category (Halliday 1996), as a central driver of

consumer preference and usage (Biel 1993), and as a common denominator that can

be used to market a brand across cultures (Plummer 1985). To build a strong brand

identity, firms have to be consistent with it. Both the product and the promotion of the

brand have to match the brand identity, so consumers would not be confounded. A

brand might have associations that reflect products attributes personality dimensions,

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organizational associations, symbols and user images. The core identity plays a key

role in providing focus to the brand identity (Aaker, 2000). Firms need to find a strong

core identity in order to attract consumer’s attention. Spokes-characters can be a

physical and visual representation of the brand identity that connect the personal

relationship with consumers.

2.6.2 Brand Image

Brand image is developed form brand identity. It consists three parts: image of

maker (corporate image), image of product and image of user. Brand image is defined

as the associations linked to brands. We can describe the image of a brand as the

cluster of attributions that consumers connect to the brand name (Biel, 1992). A

well-communicated image should help establish a brand’s position, insulate the brand

from competition (Oxenfeldt and Swann 1964), and therefore enhance the brand’s

market performance (Shocker and Srinivasan 1979; Wind 1973). A brand image is not

simply a perceptual phenomenon affected by the firm’s communication activities

alone. Brand image also have a strong nonverbal component. For many

brands-especially strong brands-the unique symbols long associated with them may be

automatically accessed from memory as soon as the brand is shown (Biel,1992). King

(1989) suggested that a well-chosen “visual metaphor” can capture desirable values to

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be associated with a brand. In the end a strong brand image can drive brand equity.

2.6.3 Brand Building

Brand building is not only about advertising or promotion. It is more about

extend the brand further and make it powerful. In order to build a strong brand, the

brand building activities must fit the identity of the brand, and also make connection

with consumers on an emotional level. Usually firms build brand power by

advertising (media or web), and sponsorship to make the presence of brands stronger.

The main purpose of brand building program is to enforce the brand image. The

importance of brand building program is to connect the brand identity to the program,

so it will have a strong presence in consumer’s mind.

2.6.4 Brand Awareness

Recent research suggests that spokes-characters can create brand identity for the

brand or advertiser (Callcott &Alvey, 1991). They can catch consumers’ eyes and

lead to greater recall of the brand or product. Also the previous study by Callcott

stated that consumers pay more attention on the commercials with animated

spokes-characters than commercials without animated spokes-characters.

H11: brands with spokes-character are more likely to be remembered than brands

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without spokes-character.