Compare and contrast: Insights at Compare the Market

x Sponsored content on Research Live and in Impact magazine is editorially independent.
Find out more about advertising and sponsorship.

Price comparison website Compare The Market was propelled to household name status through its meerkat brand mascots and is now using data to inform its future strategy.

Brand mascots can be powerful marketing tools, helping position brands and lodge them firmly in the memory. The best of them can stay the course for generations. Bibendum, aka the Michelin Man, first appeared in 1898 and while ‘tyred’, is far from tired out.

Kellogg’s cheery elvish trio Snap, Crackle and Pop entered the scene to promote Rice Krispies back in the 1930s. Ronald McDonald has clowned around to sell burgers since the 1960s, while the Andrex puppy made its heart-melting frolicsome debut in the 1970s. Within some categories, it’s a case of similar brand icons going head to head for supremacy; since the late 1980s, Duracell and Energizer have engaged in a battery-powered battle of the bunnies.

Among brand mascots launched in the last 20 years, the anthropomorphic meerkats associated with Compare The Market ...