Intertape "Adopts" Characters to Personify Strength in Brands
CUMMING, GA – What do an ugly bulldog, a brawny ape and a white-capped painter-guy have in common? They're all mascots for Intertape Polymer Group's newly repackaged tape products.
"Creating mascots for products can help people immediately remember the strengths of the products," said Brian E. Miller, vice president of marketing for Intertape's retail group. "The product takes on the characteristics of the mascot and helps consumers identify with the product."
Intertape first introduced Petey Painter last year as a way to create the image of user-friendly masking tape. Each tape is designed for a specific application. For instance, the firm has developed Pro-Mask® Blue with 14-day clean removal, Pro-Mask® Green for 8-day clean removal, Pro-Mask® WallSafe™ for freshly painted and delicate surfaces, and Pro-Mask® Lacquer for lacquer and solvent-based paints.
"Petey was the vehicle for giving our painters' tapes personality as we reintroduced new formulations of our tapes," Miller said. "He’s appeared on promotional materials, advertising, product announcements, in-store support materials and on T-shirts and caps. Petey’s goal is to establish an image for our products as being user friendly, with the information professionals and consumers alike need for a successful paint project."
In the carton-sealing tape category, a common consumer belief is that the clearer the tape, the better it is. However, clear tapes are made from acrylic adhesives which, while suitable for use in some storage applications, aren’t the right product for mailing, moving and heavy-duty applications. Intertape had long been a leader in natural rubber adhesive technology. Natural rubber provides the user with a firm seal that is heat, cold and humidity resistant. The product, however, is quite ugly compared to the more commonly displayed clear acrylic tape. This posed a unique marketing problem for Intertape.
“Our natural rubber tape is the best on the market, but in not conforming to consumer expectations, we felt could be a tough sell,” said Miller. “We decided to take what could be perceived as a consumer negative and turn into a positive by calling the product Ugly Tape.”
And in launching this product, Intertape decided to create a character…the Ugly bulldog…to emphasize the unique qualities of the product.
"He's just really ugly," Miller said, "but he's distinctive. Consumers recognize immediately that this is a product that, like the bulldog, just won’t let go. That’s the perfect attribute for a tape that you trust your most important packages to. We're using him prominently in advertising campaigns and he appears on the label of each package. We've even made him in to a plush toy that our reps share with retailers. He's so ugly that he's cute and memorable."
For the company's duct tape products, the marketing staff agreed to communicate brute strength in holding power.
"Duct tape has long been the universal fix-it tape, and we searched for a good mascot that said 'strong, strong.' Then, while fiddling with the words 'duct tape,' it came to us – APE. We've trademarked DUCTape and have created the personable gorilla to be our latest mascot," Miller said. "He's been seen in advertising, POP, T-shirts, hats, and even as a plush that will make a debut at several trade shows later this year."
"Mascots – done right – can seal the image of a product even more quickly than a slogan," Miller said. "We've given personality to a category that's low-involvement for consumers. It’s also a category where more than 90 percent of the brand decision is made in store. Attracting attention and reinforcing the product attributes through mascots It's nothing new to adopt mascots, but here at Intertape, we're making sure the mascots reflect the strengths and attributes we want consumers to remember about our products."
Intertape Polymer Group Inc., headquartered in Bradenton, Florida, develops, manufactures and sells polyolefin plastic, paper packaging products and complementary packaging systems. Products include masking tape, acrylic and natural rubber pressure-sensitive carton sealing tapes, paper and reinforced tapes, HVAC tape and a number of automotive and aerospace high-performance products. The company also manufactures and markets Exlfilm® shrink film, StretchFlex® stretch film, case erectors, shrink packaging machinery, ink jet printers and labeling systems, woven coated fabrics products and flexible intermediate bulk containers.
The firm operates in 21 locations and is the largest tape manufacturer in North America.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.intertapepolymer.com.
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