design

Analyzing creative IP cases: The secrets of brand flipping

Nowadays, brand owners have created their character IPs, such as PX Mart’s Free Bear, Shopee’s Xiaobian Family, and 711’s OPEN Chan. They all use funny, lively, and engaging images to make their brands more relatable to consumers. Generally speaking, IPs (Intellectual Property) are not only spokespeople for a company but also tighten the relationships of brands and consumers, improve likability among potential customers, and transform brands into more than just commodities. The brands become more like good friends in our lives.

In this article, we will share some creative IP cases from the perspective of a professional brand consultant, hoping to inspire you when planning your brand.

Advantage of Brand IP

What are the benefits of a brand IP?

A brand’s success relies not only on high-quality products, but also the power of creative IPs to help them be more relatable to consumers by personifying the brand. At the same time, they can also improve brand recognition and open up new business opportunities. The following is think’s observation and summary of three current benefits of IP images to brand owners:

Increase emotional connection and intimacy:

First, we must analyze who is the important TA (potential customers) of the brand. Then when planning the brand IP, we can consider adding elements of their personality, appearance, interests, speaking methods, etc., so that we can use the brand IP to attract the target customer base.

Boost customers’ memory of the brand:

In the fiercely competitive market, after establishing the brand positioning and concept, visualizing the concept and shaping the character IP that matches the brand’s “personality” benefits the effective transmission of the brand concept.

Expand business opportunities and intensify brand experience:

A brand IP is not only an image but also the beginning of a new business model for a brand. There are endless possibilities to use IPs to create emojis, figurines, or even be in a movie. These possibilities allow the brand to move beyond just the product or service itself, and customers can get to know the brand more entertainingly.

Case Study of Mascot Design

Mascot : Storylines create brand interaction

In today’s fierce brand competition, character IPs have become a clever strategy to lead brand interactions. Through intentional storylines, brands are synonymous with products and become partners that interact with consumers’ hearts. Below, we share two cases:

The oloo electric scooter rental platform

oloo is a new type of shared mobility platform created for commuters and is the first electric scooter rental service in Taiwan. The oloo character family was developed to allow consumers to understand the convenience of electric scooters quickly. The design team chose to select extinct “dinosaurs” as the main IP, including “Shada,” his good friend “Xiaoxing,” the triceratops, and “Ludang,” the dinosaur egg, as the spokespeople for the new vehicles.

The oloo image official case website: https://reurl.cc/9RYvgv

M&M chocolate

The M&M’s that everyone is familiar with are over 80 years old! M&M’s characters first appeared in 1994. Their cute appearance and distinctive personalities made them very popular. To adapt to the changes of the times and create a world of social inclusion, a major transformation was launched in 2022. The upgraded IP also aims to achieve the brand vision of “creating a world where everyone feels a sense of belonging and is socially inclusive.”

Picture taken from: https://www.mms.com/en-us

3.Identification of Shinyoko Park’s “Little Green Dog” in Japan

Shinyoko Park is the largest urban sports park in Yokohama City and is a place for local residents, children, and pets to play. Japanese design studio tegusu recently designed a new brand identity for this amusing place. They used a bird’s-eye view of the park to create the appearance of a little green dog and also extended the little green dog into a series of products to create a new brand identity for the park.

Picture source: https://reurl.cc/K3nOGg

Character

Character : The design style extends to unlimited forms

“Character” is important in extending design style to infinite forms. It is not only a visual element but also a vivid reflection of the brand’s unique personality. The following examples are two cases of image IPs, both showing creative extensions of their respective design styles, allowing multiple variations of the brand:

We Care Preschool Education

We Care is a preschool education brand with a good reputation in the Xizhi area. In the logo design, the “e” in the font combines eyes and a smile, presenting a “childlike” atmosphere by its rounded and irregular forms, as if full of unlimited expectations for the future. The space design also echoes the brand’s core concept of “adaptive development.” Similarly, the design of the little monster with eyes is an extension of the brand’s visual application. Their main colors are warm orange, blue, and yellow to symbolize active and joyful children under the blue sky. For the children, the two colors also help distinguish between the nursery center and kindergarten.

We Care case introduction: https://reurl.cc/z6jKdy

Cola Wang Neko

Cola Wang Neko is a well-known online Japanese learning platform in Taiwan, and its official website is the main learning channel for its students. In order to optimize user experiences, students unknowingly immerse themselves in the atmosphere created by the brand during the online learning process. Extended from the cat mouth shape in the LOGO, eight cola cats with different roles were created and are paired with a variety of amusing statements. These appear in the textbooks or applications during student interactions, making learning more fun.

Cola Wang Neko’s website: https://reurl.cc/Kp1p99

oh care

oh care is a gentle antibacterial brand that focuses on the whole family’s needs. Based on the new brand positioning, “the gentlest antibacterial expert,” Dr. O’s Logo IP was designed. It combines the shape of the brand name “oh” and makes it a symbol with a smile, transforming the character into a professional educator with humorous looking bangs. Simple illustrations are consistently used to assist the overall packaging design so the brand looks approachable and practical.

oh care case introduction: https://reurl.cc/5Oy96n

Conclusion

Many of today’s brands are creating unique character IPs. As mentioned in this article, these funny and vivid characters make the brands more relatable to consumers and also become like their good friends in life. The diverse application of logo IPs and the style extension of image IPs can give brands unique visual personalities and open up unlimited possibilities for brand design. I hope these cases can inspire you when planning your brand.

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How to come up with memorable brand images

Modern people generally come into contact with nearly 6,000 different brands every day and see 4.8 brands every minute. Whether you are roaming physical stores, online e-commerce platforms, or social networking sites, brands exist in many ways, including graphics, sound, film, and even packaging. With such fierce market competition, how can brand owners stand out and win over consumers? In this article, we will share some useful brand image planning methods and cases from a professional brand consultant to assist you when determining brand strategy.