Olympic Mascots and brand humanization: an exploratory study from the consumer's perception

• Autor(a) principal: Fontes, Claudio
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Dantas de Freitas Lodi, Marluce
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Marketing & Tourism Review
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.face.ufmg.br/index.php/mtr/article/view/8024
• topic: Brand humanization; Olympic Mascots; Humanized Characters; Consumer Perception; Humanização de marca; Mascotes Olímpicas; Personagens humanizadas; Percepção do consumidor

The purpose of this article is to analyze the Olympic mascots from 1972 to 2016 from the perspective of the consumer public to understand the effects of humanization of brands in the marketplace. The definitions and characteristics of the mascots as a marketing tool were researched, as well as the perceptions of consumers in today's world facing the Olympic prototypes. The semi-structured interviews allowed for data collection. Thus, the research follows an exploratory qualitative method, focusing on a theoretical review. The content analysis technique was applied to the data, thanks to the ATLAS.ti 9 software. The results indicate that the Olympic mascots affect consumers, transmitting several feelings, allowing the realization of broader studies on the different types of humanized characters. Moreover, the positive meanings associated with the Olympic mascots can be strategically used in branding actions and in the social interactions of companies, considering that there is a trend in the creation of humanized characters, intensifying the connection with people in the digital market.