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Have you ever noticed products bearing images of well-known characters crowded onto market shelves? Strip cartoons (Snoopy), game characters (Angry Birds) and other images appear on an entire range of products, from T-shirts, toys and stationery items to coffee cups, canned foods and soft drinks. "Character merchandising" is the use of fictional characters to promote the sale of a product. According to marketers, what a consumer wants when purchasing character merchandise is the image of a character rather than the product. This kind of merchandising first began with the most famous mouse of all time, Mickey Mouse. In 1927, Walt Disney created a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Under a contract with Universal Studios, Disney had no claim to the rights to use Oswald, so in 1928 he had to come up with a new character. He shortened the ears, added some padding around the middle, and turned the rabbit into a mouse, calling it “Mickey”. In the 1930s, following the 1929 stock-market crash, unemployment reached historic levels and the nation’s financial system was on the verge of collapse. In the midst of all this, the country was looking for signs of optimism, recovery and future prosperity. Some of what the country wanted came from a surprising quarter-Disney’s animated creations. Short Mickey Mouse cartoons were a hit with moviegoers of all ages, and new films of Mickey and his friends were churned out by Disney and his artists at a rate of about one per month. |
1. 위 글의 내용과 일치하지 않는 것은?
① 가게 선반에 가득 들어차 있는 유명한 캐릭터 그림들이 일상생활에서 쓰이는 제품 전체에서 나타난다.
② 캐릭터 상품화란 제품 판매를 촉진하기 위해 허구의 캐릭터를 이용하여 소비자들이 원하는 물건에 표현하는 캐릭터 이미지이다.
③ 캐릭터 판매의 시작은 미키마우스이지만, 그 전에 1927년 Walt Disney의 행운의 토끼 “오스왈드”라는 캐릭터가 있었다.
④ 20세기 초반 국가의 경제적인 문제를 겪는 와중에 힘든 상황을 겪는 국민들은 만화 영화 창작물에서 낙관론, 회복과 미래 번영의 조짐을 찾기를 원했다.
⑤ 최초의 단편 미키마우스 만화 영화는 모든 연령대의 영화 팬들에게 인기를 얻었고, Disney와 그의 예술가들에 의해 대량 생산되기도 했다.
The mouse had become a national fad by the end of 1930, and soon Disney’s real genius kicked in: marketing. He introduced a line of Mickey merchandise such as toys, lunch boxes, watches, etc. Within two years, the Mickey Mouse Club, a fan club for children, was up and running. By 1935, Mickey Mouse and his friends had become a merchandising phenomenon. Despite being more than 80 years old, Mickey Mouse remains one of the world’s most famous cultural symbols. The Disney Company claims that worldwide 98 percent of children from ages 3 to 11 recognize Mickey. Mickey merchandise sales peaked in 1997. Although not that strong today, they still make up about 40 percent of the company’s consumer products revenue. Unlike Mickey, who began life as a popular cartoon character, there are characters that are created solely for marketing purpose. One of the most successful of these characters is Hello Kitty, from Japan. In the early 1970s, a young Tokyo-based company called Sarrio wanted a character that would appeal to preteen girls around the world. Designer Yuko Shimizu came up with a white kitty without a mouth. In 1974, a plastic coin purse with the new character on it was the first Hello Kitty product. With no real advertising, a series of Hello Kitty products, including the plastic coin purse, somehow managed to fly off store shelves. The success of Hello Kitty skyrocketed Sanrio into a billion-dollar business, with half of its revenue coming from Hello Kitty. |
2. 위 글의 내용과 일치하지 않는 것은?
① Disney는 미키를 전국적으로 유행하게 만들었고, 장난감, 도시락 통, 시계등과 같은 미키 제품군들을 소개하며 그의 마케팅을 시작했다.
② 2년 이내에 아이들을 위한 팬클럽인 미키마우스 클럽이 운영되었고 미키마우스와 친구들은 캐릭터 상품의 경이로운 예가 되었다.
③ 인기 있는 만화 영화 캐릭터로 삶을 시작한 미키마우스와 마찬가지로 가장 성공한 것 중하나는 일본의 헬로키디 캐릭터이다.
④ 1970년대 초반 신생 회사인 산리오는 전 세계의 십대 초반 소녀들의 관심을 끌 만한 캐릭터를 원했다.
⑤ 플라스틱 동전 지갑을 포함한 헬로키티 제품들은 산리오를 10억달러 가치의 기업으로 급상승시켰고, 회사 수익의 절반을 벌었다.
Aware of the economic benefits of Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty as keys to business success, more and more business have been turning to character merchandising. In Korea, the best-known characters are Pucca, creating in 2000, and Pororo, the star of an animation series first broadcast in 2003. In fact, Pucca is more popular overseas than in Korea. Her image as a confident Asian girl who bosses her boyfriend around has won fans in 150 countries. The popularity of Pucca is such that Hollywood stars such as Gwyneth Paltro attended Pucca’s launch party in the U.S. Moreover, Pucca was identified as the favorite character among kids in South America, beating even Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty. Alongside Pucca stands Pororo, an animated penguin whose only dream is to be able to fly. The character is also called “President Pororo” for its hold over children in Korea. When the cartoon Pororo the Little Penguin hit television screens in France in 2004, the aspiring penguin was welcomed with a record-high 47 percent audience share. The cartoon then successfully made its way to the U.K., Italy, South American, China and finally Japan in 2006. Character merchandising has come a long way from Mickey Mouse. Combined with the development of IT, character merchandising aimed at global markets is likely to take a new turn in the near future. While previous characters were used mostly in books and animation and on stationery, developments in technology will mean huge potential in online games and applications for mobile devices. The future of character merchandising is brighter than ever. |
3. 위 글의 내용과 일치하지 않는 것은?
① 점점 더 많은 회사들이 캐릭터 상품화로 눈길을 돌리면서 한국에서도 만화 영화 시리즈의 주인공 뿌까와 뽀로로를 만들었다.
② 뿌까의 캐릭터는 남자친구를 쥐고 흔드는 자신감 있는 아시아 소녀라는 이미지로 150개국에서 팬을 얻기도 했다.
③ 미국 할리우드 스타들까지 뿌까의 제품출시 기념 파티에 참석할 정도로 큰 인기를 얻고, 심지어 미키마우스와 헬로키티도 이겼다.
④ 아기펭귄 뽀로로는 2004년 프랑스 텔레비전 방송에 진출하여 47퍼센트라는 사상 최고의 시청률로 환영받아 2년 후에 일본까지 진출하여 승승장구했다.
⑤ 캐릭터 상품화의 미래는 세계 시장을 목표로 할 때 IT기술의 발달과 함께 온라인 게임과 휴대기기용 응용프로그램의 캐릭터를 이용한다면 여느 때보다도 더 밝을 것이다.
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