Ever since advertising has been happening, character icons have been associated with their specific brands. The Campbell Soup Kids have been around since 1905, shortly after Campbell’s began to can condensed soup. The Morton’s Salt Girl has been on the company logo since 1914. Mrs. Butterworth has been around since 1961. More recently, Flo, the insurance salesperson, has been the face of the Progressive Insurance brand.

One of the tasks of marketing is to help create a brand that is unique, catchy, quickly associated with your product or service, and memorable at a glance. Using a character for a mascot icon in your brand is a very effective marketing device for people to remember you. The images above have several iconic marketing personalities. I have taken out their brand name. How many of them can you name? Better yet, what are the brands they represent? (Answers are below.)

Will every mascot work for just any product? No, but there are some things you can do to make them work for you. Here are some ideas to help make a character logo a success.

Name the mascot

When you give something a name, you help people remember it. The Trix Rabbit, Ronald McDonald and Mr. Clean are all examples of this. When you hear their names, you can see their images in your head and know exactly which brands they represent.

Animals sell well

Animal icons are very successful at helping people associate your brand with the image. Automakers have been doing this for decades. Ferrari has a prancing horse on a yellow background. The Ford Mustang is one of the most iconic cars the automaker ever produced. Jaguar is the brand for the luxury carmaker. The Plymouth Roadrunner and the Pontiac GTO – affectionately called the "Goat” - became distinct muscle cars of the 60s and 70s.

Tie your brand name to the name of the character

The Pillsbury Doughboy, the Keebler Elf, Aunt Jemima Pancake Syrup, Big Boy Restaurants, and the Geiko Gecko are all examples of tying the brand name to the icon.

Make the icon simple and easy to understand at a glance

You should choose an icon that will not need to change very often, if ever. (This is why animals are popular icons – they don’t go out of style.) Make sure the colors are bold and contrasting. They will make the image more recognizable at a glance.

Names of the mascots and their brands. Top row: Smokey Bear, Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture; Betty Crocker, which is also the name of the brand. Note that this Betty Crocker is from 1965. There have been multiple women who have portrayed Betty. All of them have been brunettes and are wearing a red dress; Chef Boyardee, also the name of the brand; Miss Chiquita, Chiquita Bananas. Bottom row: Marlboro Man, Marlboro cigarettes; Tony the Tiger, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes; Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben’s Rice; Little Caesar (aka the Pizza, Pizza Guy), Little Caesar’s Pizza.

Which of these were real and which were fictional characters? Smokey Bear was real. He was a cub who was rescued from a forest fire in New Mexico in 1950. After being treated for burns, he went to live at the National Zoo in Washington DC until he died in 1976. You can read the rest of his story. Chef Boyardee was a real person as well. His name was Ettore Bioardi, an Italian immigrant who opened a restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio in 1924. He later began a spaghetti canning operation in Pennsylvania and sold his business 1946. The other person who is "real” is the Marlboro Man. In this photo it is Darrell Winfield (there were several men who portrayed this icon), who was a real rancher in Wyoming.