Your remarks are totally correct. The people decide, we don't. And if you take my statement a few minutes ago, by no later than the mid term, usability determines the value (and profitability for the miners). This is why you could print the biggest shit on the dollar today, people would of course keep using it. Nobody would hold too many DOGE if there weren't any ideas for its usability to be announced... The best way to make it successful would be to create demand for it. If you just put this into the market as another alternative, it is a roulette game at maximum for the Vertcoin to become successful. If you create demand by putting into a favourable position for purchases (faster, easier than other methodes), that will boost it.
I totally agree with your "The best way to make it successful would be to create demand for it. " statement.
I would add that the only way to create demand for it (unless we're doing B2B only) would be to allow consumers to develop an emotional relationship with the product.
Then the question becomes, how do we allow people to connect emotionally with what we are doing?
The answer is neither strictly logical nor technical. It is emotional.
We must remember that people had trust issues with PayPal too because of their name. But now nobody cares. Businesses trusted both Google and Yahoo despite the looks of their websites. Whether or not a mascot is a bad idea is only an issue for our imagination until we have actual evidence that it is not. But right now the most successful altcoin has a mascot and smart companies follow and improve upon their competitors' offerings. Any new coin would be foolish not to follow in Dogecoin's footsteps simply because they would be ignoring the most successful (although brief) competitor.