For many food manufacturers it’s a bit of a stretch to go beyond the ‘draw a face’ strategy because that means investing some serious time, effort and money developing your character to become ‘interesting’.
Truly interesting for kids means a character with, well, character. What is their personality? Where do they live? What do they do? Who are their friends? The more back story, the more the child can see themselves fitting in to it somewhere. The transaction is simple – I like Dora the Explorer, so I’ll probably like the cookies she eats too. And don’t forget the free gift: stickers, magnets and tattoos will do nicely, and keep me coming back for more.
The only drawback is the price of the license deal, and the fact that your brand awareness is likely to be drowned by that of the more famous character. But given that you bought it you might as well exploit it, and in this example BN has a simple and clear design system to maximise its hired assets.