• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.15-26
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• 2020

Many companies are increasing the use of characters to enhance brand image and brand value. The use of characters in the certain industry is active, however, the research on characters in academia is insufficient. The purpose of this study is to investigate how characteristics of characters affect on consumer's brand attitude and to suggest the guideline companies to concern on brand characters, in especial on designing or licensing them. The results showed that all characteristics of character positively influenced on brand attitude. Among nine characteristics of the character, trust was the most impact and nostalgia was the least impact on brand attitude, respectively. Perceived quality was mediated on in relations between the brand character and brand attitude. In indirect effect, familiarity was the most impact on brand attitude. In sum, we suggested that trust and familiarity of the character are the most weighted characteristics on brand character design strategy.

• Archives of design research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.259-268
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• 2004

Today is so-called brand war age. Brand equity has been a critical factor to evaluate the business value according to changes of competitive situation and consumer's choices under the 21 century market situation. Brand advertisement with character on TV commercial has long been common and effective ways for many years as useful methods of brand differentiation in the consumer mind. In this thesis, character's roles and possibilities are researched to enhance a brand awareness in marketing, and also the interrelation between the patterns of character and the involvement on TV commercials over several categories are analyzed through the grid model of FCB that is a advertising agency in U.S.A. The attitude of Character usage and technique are also examined by analyzing the materials and the expressive methods of characters in each category.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.45
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• pp.283-298
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• 2016

Design is a fatal factor to differentiate and survive one product from the other in fierce competition of the market, when other conditions such as price or quality makes no much difference. Among many marketing tools, package design is known as a direct communication that visualizes and forms the very initial brand image of a product. Package design is not only for packing, transporting, storing and loading but for engraving the brand image in a consumers' mind and lead them to purchasing. One of recent package design trands is various ways of using character, not just as a printed image on the surface but as a part of three dimensional structure of package. If it succeed, the package design could give out the secondary fun and impact to the consumers. The package design with an effective character is itself a great marketing tool and valuable design asset, which can bring a further profit to the company. Especially, character-package can be a powerful and effective marketing method for various local products, in needs of further publication and sales with limited cost. It should motivate the sales of the products by grabbing their attention and taken as a souvenir. This research takes a character package as a useful marketing method for a local brand in Jeonju, South Korea, and tries to design a three dimensional package using its own character. Through the process, the research aims to propose an important design strategy for repositioning or enhancing an existing brand.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.1 s.63
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• pp.141-150
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• 2006

The animation should be produced to attract the audience's interests. Its characters will have the intended personalities through the interactions with the audiences, discarding the attributes of the nature. These personalities form the brand identity when they are exposed visually and will be powerful brand assets which lead the animation industry to the high-value added products. The brand identity of the character, the brand assets, can be used for various products in form of licensing and is noted to make an affirmative leverage effect. In this regard, the author has conducted an empirical research on the animation characters from the viewpoint of the brand, adopting, in particular, the Brand Personality Scale (BPS), which is the output of J. Aaker's (1997) study on brand personality defined as the human properties in relation with the brand. In addition, this study determines the correlation among the animation, brand and consumers based on the Sirgy's study (1982) resulting in that the better the brand and the consumer's personality are matched, the more the brand attitude is improved. In consequence, it is found that the animation characters have three personality levels such as refinement/ability, integrity and interests. The consumer's personality is divided into the 'practical ego-image' and the 'ideal ego-image' in the survey, and the survey result shows that the brand personality of the animation character exists between them.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.15
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• pp.193-206
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• 2009

This thesis is on the character naming which plays much of a role in the cultural contents, but it is beyond the research of character naming itself and is based on the needs of research for character naming in game, fairy tale, comic and animation. In fact, there are some books and theses showing us the way to create names of products and this area is known as brand naming. But it is not easy for people to find books on character naming which is only focused on the characters in all fictions. While a brand name is made to secure a brand identity which is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand's differentiation from competitors, a character name is the name of living thing in the fiction. So, people say that these two areas are similar to each other or not. This these is the consequence of the research on the character naming, especially how to figure it out and how to use it. I hope that my paper would be a little help for those who work for the creating of the characters involved in shape, personality, role and storytelling in the field of fictions through the interest and understanding of Character Naming.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.19
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• pp.145-159
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• 2010

Similar to the other cultural contents, the character industry is based on the media which acts as the technological background. In fact, the character industry is the process of that a created character accesses to the consumers via media, builds its value and becomes licensed as a brand in the market. Therefore, it is crucial to select the most effective media for the consistence of a character in the market, as well as for construction of a higher brand quality of the character. Today, "Webtoon" might be considered as one of the marketing means which utilizes the Internet media for raising the character as a brand. Webtoon has apparent strength because it can be produced in shorter period and with less expense than through other media. Furthermore, Webtoon can be simply featured by the easiness of two-way communication and transference to another media through it. For these reasons, and according to the result of analyzing some Korean Webtoons, it seems obvious that the most effective media in character marketing is the Internet. In addition to the Internet, the strategic development in the media-mix is also important for establishing a brand of a character. However, the effective media-mix is available only when the character's external identity meets with the trait of its media. For the purpose of learning how the media-mix works when a character reaches for the consumers, a character "Hamataeng" was born and used in the experiment. This study will explain the marketing process through the use of own-created Webtoon and other contents, and suggest the ways to build a brand of a character. In addition, it is also indicated that a media-mixing strategy for transformation and expansion of the character to other media.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.6 s.68
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• pp.21-26
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• 2006

This paper suggests our own new brand, Kirin. Not only we are able to design the symbolic animal of UOU, but also we are able to use the character to advertize UOU and merchandize it. These days many men between teens and 30s contact with the various characters through internet games, also they purchase goods related with the characters. For women between elementary students and workers, they purchase the various character goods such as stationery, clothes, and dolls. However, there are not many universities that produce their own characters to advertize their schools and to merchandize them. From this point of view, developing new brand would be the medium of transmitting joy to attract excellent students and to elevate the love of school. Originating the distinctive character in UOU can be used as various merchandising through licensing. Moreover, this friendly brand using character would be produced as skin image of fun and stories and spread through internet homepage. Finally, it would accord with the brand needs of consumer and contribute to advertize UOU.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.139-140
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• 2011

본 연구는 대학 브랜드 마케팅 시대를 맞이하여 대학의 브랜드 이미지 확립과 각종 홍보 수단으로 활용되고 있는 전문대학의 캐릭터의 유형을 조사 분석하고 이를 활용하는 방안을 제시하고자 한다.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Design Studies Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.170-171
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• 2005

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.391-396
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• 2013

Character industry is fundamentally based on a technical environment, a media, like any other cultural content industry. In order to extend a life of a character and increase the brand value, a choice and utilization of a more efficient way is necessary. Analyzing why game characters are less worth as a value of commodities than other media contents is presented and suggests complementary methods for the matter. In this study, an approach to increase a brand value of a game character, as well as, linking to develop profitable models afterward is suggested presenting a case of game development.