Mascots Promoting High Tech
Software companies use images to draw and keep customers

By ANNE KRISHNAN, The Herald-Sun

Would you trust a raccoon with your valuable data?The folks at Research Triangle Software hope so. A caped raccoon serves as the mascot for their CryptoBuddy encryption software and portable devices.

The CryptoBuddy raccoon is one of several local mascots who attract attention to their firms and help customers remember the company's products, their creators say.

"People like to identify with something, especially when they're not sure what you're doing," said Jeff LeRose, president of Cary-based RTS. "It's always good to have something that's physical and tangible for them to identify with."

The CryptoBuddy raccoon, which made its debut in June, has appeared at eight to 10 events, including the Lulu Tech Circus, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's InfoTech 2002 and the Raleigh Christmas parade. He also has his own line of products, including hats, t-shirts, decoder rings and flags.

Durham-based BrontoMail's inflatable dinosaur mascot stands 14 feet long and 9 feet tall, but he makes the rounds, as well. Company founders Chaz Felix and Joe Colopy have taken Bronto to Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill, InfoTech, clients' offices and the company Christmas party.

"This has been a wonderful thing in terms of creating a community and excitement about the company," Colopy said. "It's definitely been one of our smart moves."

And SciQuest's 10-inch high "Questie" dolls - a volumetric flask with arms, legs and big eyes - are hits at trade shows, said Scott Andrews, product marketing director and co-founder of the Morrisville software company. "It's a cute, simple giveaway that people find more valuable than a cheap coffee mug," he said. "It's more likely to end up on someone's desk in a visible place than a keychain."

Mascots can be effective, but not without a substantive company behind them, said Sridhar Balasubramanian, a marketing professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

"A mascot doesn't substitute for a good message and telling customers about what the company is," he said. "But once you've done that, what the mascot does is serve as a vehicle to quickly remind customers who you are and what you stand for."

The local companies say their mascots also do just the opposite by attracting potential customers to learn more about the company.

"Questie helps assure we're one of the first booths people come to at trade shows," Andrews said. The dolls became such a hot commodity when they were introduced four years ago that SciQuest began using them as leverage to get customers to fill out surveys.

And the connection continued even after visitors left the booth. SciQuest then began receiving pictures from customers who took the "fun-loving little stuffed flask" with them on vacations all over the world.

"The right mascot does add value to the organization," he said. "They can hold it and it reminds them of SciQuest." Bronto also serves as a good icebreaker at trade shows, Colopy said, because people inevitably ask how the symbol came about. Later, they remember BrontoMail, which helps companies maintain external e-mail lists, as "the dinosaur company."

"At the end of the day, it's what keeps you in people's minds," he said. "Once they meet us, they know we're good and we have a high-quality product and service."

And LeRose thinks he can actually quantify the raccoon's effect on sales of CryptoBuddy software. "In this economy when people aren't paying much attention to new software products, we've had 40,000 copies of our software downloaded since it launched June 12," he said.

But while mascots may be great for family-oriented consumer goods, other companies - especially those in high-tech fields - must walk a fine line with their mascots.

"The point is, does a mascot add to your message or detract from your message?" Balasubramanian said. "When you're in technologically sophisticated areas and research intensive areas, most mascots I would expect to detract rather than solidify your message."

LeRose recognizes the potential hazards in having a mascot, but said he felt secure enough to try a "crazy idea." "You have to be in a situation where you're able to take some chances," he said. "There's some risk you'll be perceived as not being serious about something."

He bettered his odds by making sure CryptoBuddy looked as professional as possible, and not too cute. RTS invested $5,000 in a mascot costume made by the same costumemaker who outfitted the Philadelphia Eagles' mascot.

"It's important to have a professional costume," LeRose said. "Otherwise it just looks silly."

The low-budget Questie mascot costume doesn't make appearances outside company walls, Andrews said. Public appearances of a large blue flask would get old quickly, he predicted.

"It gives some perspective on a busy day, but it's for internal use only," he said. "We've drawn the line a little bit."

SciQuest is beginning to phase out Questie's use externally because the company now creates software for more than just laboratories, but the little mascot will live on at the company's headquarters, where Andrews said he has to hide the remaining dolls and where employees have started calling themselves "questies" and "questers."

"He's a personification of that intangible quality of a group of people who work together to achieve a common goal," he said. "People rally behind him because he's emblematic of that."

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