Get noticed
Characters may support attention and recognition. Reaching people still depends on advertising, social media, sales and other channels.
Explore the research →Corporate characters through research
Do corporate characters
actually work?Six roles, viewed through research
Add a character and people will notice, remember and buy more. Research does not support such a simple conclusion.
There are, however, useful studies on specific roles involving attention, memory, understanding, action, continued use and attachment.
What the research shows overall
Be remembered
Repeated use alongside the company name, value and use situations can provide a cue for recall.
Explore the research →Be understood
Simply adding a character does not necessarily make an explanation clearer. Give it a job: guiding where to look, showing a sequence or putting questions into words.
Explore the research →Make action easier
Characters may ease anxiety or uncertainty and support a small next step. Evidence that a static corporate character alone increases inquiries or purchases is weak.
Explore the research →Make it easier to continue
There is potential for specific short-term support. Simply adding a character cannot be assumed to sustain long-term engagement.
Explore the research →Build familiarity
Several experiments found greater emotional attachment when a brand was presented in human-like terms. Evidence for long-term purchasing or sales effects from corporate characters alone is limited.
Explore the research →
Distinguishing how closely research applies
Alongside research relatively close to corporate characters, YataLogic considers psychology, education, consumer behavior and conversational agents, distinguishing what each can and cannot establish.
The following categories indicate closeness to this topic, not study quality or ranking.
- Research relatively close to corporate characters
- Research on corporate mascots and spokes-characters in advertising or products, relatively close to this topic.
- Research in related fields
- Research on chatbots, on-screen educational characters and anthropomorphized brands.
- Foundational research
- Basic research on topics such as memory and brand attachment that does not study characters themselves.No studies in this category are included among the representative studies presented here.
Uncertainty can also inform design
Having research does not mean everything has been proven. Studies show what happened among particular people, in particular settings, using particular methods and over particular periods.
Results from children’s food packaging do not necessarily apply to B2B sales materials. Research on health behavior also does not guarantee corporate-character effects or medical benefits.
We therefore use research as a design reference and check responses at real customer touchpoints. Each page also includes studies that found no difference or lower evaluations under certain conditions.
This is not an exhaustive review of all related research. It organizes findings from studies YataLogic has checked that help inform the roles.
What about your business?
Identify the job you want a character to do from your current challenge.
Explore the right job for your character8 questions · about 2 minutes · no registration
Does your company need a character? →Apply these ideas to your business
Together, we consider the role based on your business and customer touchpoints.
Talk to YataLogic →English summaries and any translated source titles are provided by YataLogic. Linked papers and source documents have not been translated and may be in Japanese or another language.