In Staci Dawidowski’s blog Branding an Entire Species, she describes how Coca-Cola’s brand image uses polar bears to market their product by playing on the heart strings of consumers. While an effective strategy, it is also can increase brand equity, as Staci mentioned. Marketing and advertisements are an excellent way to get your company’s brand image and company culture across to consumers.
Coca-Cola is not the only one to use the cuteness of animals to make you like their company. Telus is known for their advertisements involving cute animals, such as; monkeys, hippos, goats, bunnies, otters, birds, fish, pigs, you name it. They use these animals is everything from billboards to television commercials. Their animals ads promote their slogan “The Future is Friendly”. I find it nice that their marketing reflects what their company culture is, it makes it easier for consumers like myself to decide on brands. Although Telus does not donate funds to these animals that they advertise, they use this to demonstrate that they are an environmentally friendly company who’s goal is to minimize waste and energy.
Personally, as bad as this sounds, once my contract was finished with my previous mobile company, one of the reasons I chose to go with Telus because of the brand image they were promoting. I believe their marketing is a direct reflection of what Telus is all about.
Just a few of my favorite Telus commercials for your entertainment: