The Significance of Brand Identity

Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP

One of the stories we recently published on encontrandoDulcinea dealt with the outrage with which fans received the new “tween” edition of the TV cartoon character, “Dora the Explorer."

Dora and her animal friends are extremely popular Nickelodeon characters that appeal to an audience made up mostly of preschoolers. Because of its quality educational content that aims to teach kids about language and other essential skills, parents love the show. Dora has an ample fan base among Spanish speakers as well; early on after the release of the original show in 2000, Nickelodeon launched its Spanish version.

But when toy maker Mattel, in association with Nickelodeon, announced the release of a new edition of the Dora doll, aimed for kids between five and eight years of age, parents were outraged. The new doll is meant to be an older version of the tomboyish Dora, and has long hair and “shapely” legs.

Not only did parents and fans disapprove of the “voluptuousness” of the doll’s new look, they also felt cheated because of the radical change in a brand they had given their loyalty to.

Though it might seem trivial, this story illustrates the importance of building, and maintaining, the identity of a brand, particularly one that has so successfully captured the hearts of their customers.

For more on brand identity, check out our series "What's Next?," which has covered such companies as Nike, Trader Joe's, Costco, Target, Patagonia and Digg.

Anita Gutierrez-Folch
Senior Writer

Comments

[adidasi]

the simpsons ..forever young

[Twin XL]

It's all personal preference really. Some things like the Simpsons have found an audience that is willing to accept their story- others do well with aging. I hardly think Dora is stick thin anyhow...

[Kate]

I agree, look at the Simpsons--Bart and Lisa have been on tv for over ten years and they still look the same age as when they first started.

[Brenda]

While I don't think it's such a bad thing that they wanted to create a "curvy" doll (better than a stick-thin doll), I do think it's quite sad that they tried to adapt Dora to be a tween. She's supposed to be a child forever...as weird as that sounds.