Robyn Waters on the Future of Color in Business
We recently Interviewed Robyn Waters on the Future of Color in Business
LHC: Hi Robyn and thank you for joining me. I wanted to give you the opportunity to direct the conversation. Was there anything about color in business that sparked your imagination?
RW: I made a couple of notes and I am interested in the future role of color in business? You know what I do in my work, I deal with micro level trends and I do trends from the inside out. What is going on in the hearts and minds of the consumer, which is really kind of a clever way to talk about the emotion of products or a marketing message or how you feel, it is all about emotions. So, I kind of looked at it as a bigger picture.
How has color involved in business? I think that it has become part of that emotional magnet or it is an attraction that helps a brand stand out, stand apart, might even make it iconic, in terms of the company for example Tiffany’s robin egg blue box. It becomes a billboard for the senses and it made me think about all the attention lately. I am sure you have seen it with smell. Even the Starwood now has a fragrance? More retail operations are subtly using scent to attract customers and to me the color issue is just a very visual assessorial attachment for attraction. It is your eye sees it first and then it tells you something, then you react, it causes a reaction, which may or may not go to your emotions, depending on how good of a job you have done in helping your friends use color in part of that iconic.
LHC: What has this done for businesses?
RW: It helps attract customers emotionally to the product, the brand, the message, and that the future role of color in business.
LHC: Do you see more and more companies starting to figure this color emotion link out and thus are trying to leverage it?
RW: Without a doubt. However, Leslie what they specifically say is, “oh color”. I think people in the design world, the brand strategists, people that advise customers on the design of not just a logo, but the whole, every brands touch point of a company and people are finding ways to use it in very clever ways. An example is Target, at one point after the Sign of the Times Campaign, they quote, unquote, wanted to own that color red, that specific PMS. You also have Coca-Cola Red and others. I think what Bono is doing and the whole red project, and what he is doing using red.
It becomes this emotional trigger, to say to somebody, this pair of jeans or this t-shirt or this cell phone or this I-pod is more than what it is. You know, because it is red or because it is part of this Target red program that becomes a code. It is a code for super capitalism that I write about in my book. You know giving in to fads. Going beyond in delivering a product. So I think that is a very blatant, but a very clever use of a color. Even the coded red, when you go to the airport now and it is code orange or code red or code blue or whatever. Even that is being used to heighten our sensitivity to what is important.
LHC: So, if you were to look into the future, do you foresee more and more companies trying to imitate or emulate this strategy to leverage color?
RW: I do, but I hope they do it in their own way. There is a real tendency to copy cat in retail and is there really a knew idea? Well, the Product Red thing was a pretty cool new idea, but they did it in their own way. So, yes I think people will look to do all the things, not just use the color, but use an icon just happens to be color in this category, which is of course easily identifiable. Is it (color) or is it not saying more than what the product is about. This is a cell phone - is it doing something good to help the world. So, yeah I do actually think it is part of the super capitalism doing good and making money. Ethical consumption, where in this case color is being used as a code to signify this, it is more than just the product. It is not about, the whole mass customization out there that I write about in the Hummer and the Mini and color is probably one of the simplest ways initially to customize a product or to say something about yourself when you buy that product.
When I got my iPod Mini, it happened to be pink. I didn’t want silver, I didn’t want green. I had to be pink and now you can go online and buy so many things in the color that you want and not make it totally customized, you don’t mix your own color, but there is probably places that do that. You can buy M&M’s in the color that you want. Even Jones Soda, you can go online and customize a label, you know the color of soda in there. So a very strong emotional and visual, when you see that green apple on that blue bubblegum, you know there is something really cool and different and unique in that product and it appeals to initially an alternative group of young kids, but then of course moves way beyond that into middle America.
LHC: Right.
RW: So those are just some other examples of when color is a driver in product sales or at least a factor and I do think that in the case of Jones Soda and M&M’s. Today you can go online and buy a new Mini-Cooper and pick your color combination. There is a very strong emotional magnet. And yet I think, what you really are tapping into Leslie is a very simple concept and that is why it is so beautiful. You know, this has really complicated as all of these steps one though seven, and blah, blah, blah. Color is complicated, because it is so emotional, so visual, and so immediate, thus people are learning how they can help it become an icon for something other than what the product is. I think it is just a very simple formula that people could use and distill in very meaningful ways.
LHC: Right and I think that your comment that really validates this for people is that it is about innovating, but not necessarily with color, but leveraging color. So, again Product Red is definitely innovating and color is just one of the tools they leveraged.
RW: Right, but yet it is a very powerful tool. Scientific studies talk about how color draws the eye to something. Color is so easily identifiable and if you think about what you want a brand to be or a product to become an icon. I think of those apple ads, the first one when the I-pod came out, and the little black silhouettes with the bright backgrounds. You know, it was as much about, the whole idea that you would put yourself in the silhouette and become that person, with the hot pink, bright blue, the lime green. That is a really simple way to stay in the power of color.
If you would like more information about Robyn and her work visit her at www.rwtrend.com
As well look for her new book The Hummer and the Mini
RW: I made a couple of notes and I am interested in the future role of color in business? You know what I do in my work, I deal with micro level trends and I do trends from the inside out. What is going on in the hearts and minds of the consumer, which is really kind of a clever way to talk about the emotion of products or a marketing message or how you feel, it is all about emotions. So, I kind of looked at it as a bigger picture.
How has color involved in business? I think that it has become part of that emotional magnet or it is an attraction that helps a brand stand out, stand apart, might even make it iconic, in terms of the company for example Tiffany’s robin egg blue box. It becomes a billboard for the senses and it made me think about all the attention lately. I am sure you have seen it with smell. Even the Starwood now has a fragrance? More retail operations are subtly using scent to attract customers and to me the color issue is just a very visual assessorial attachment for attraction. It is your eye sees it first and then it tells you something, then you react, it causes a reaction, which may or may not go to your emotions, depending on how good of a job you have done in helping your friends use color in part of that iconic.
LHC: What has this done for businesses?
RW: It helps attract customers emotionally to the product, the brand, the message, and that the future role of color in business.
LHC: Do you see more and more companies starting to figure this color emotion link out and thus are trying to leverage it?
RW: Without a doubt. However, Leslie what they specifically say is, “oh color”. I think people in the design world, the brand strategists, people that advise customers on the design of not just a logo, but the whole, every brands touch point of a company and people are finding ways to use it in very clever ways. An example is Target, at one point after the Sign of the Times Campaign, they quote, unquote, wanted to own that color red, that specific PMS. You also have Coca-Cola Red and others. I think what Bono is doing and the whole red project, and what he is doing using red.
It becomes this emotional trigger, to say to somebody, this pair of jeans or this t-shirt or this cell phone or this I-pod is more than what it is. You know, because it is red or because it is part of this Target red program that becomes a code. It is a code for super capitalism that I write about in my book. You know giving in to fads. Going beyond in delivering a product. So I think that is a very blatant, but a very clever use of a color. Even the coded red, when you go to the airport now and it is code orange or code red or code blue or whatever. Even that is being used to heighten our sensitivity to what is important.
LHC: So, if you were to look into the future, do you foresee more and more companies trying to imitate or emulate this strategy to leverage color?
RW: I do, but I hope they do it in their own way. There is a real tendency to copy cat in retail and is there really a knew idea? Well, the Product Red thing was a pretty cool new idea, but they did it in their own way. So, yes I think people will look to do all the things, not just use the color, but use an icon just happens to be color in this category, which is of course easily identifiable. Is it (color) or is it not saying more than what the product is about. This is a cell phone - is it doing something good to help the world. So, yeah I do actually think it is part of the super capitalism doing good and making money. Ethical consumption, where in this case color is being used as a code to signify this, it is more than just the product. It is not about, the whole mass customization out there that I write about in the Hummer and the Mini and color is probably one of the simplest ways initially to customize a product or to say something about yourself when you buy that product.
When I got my iPod Mini, it happened to be pink. I didn’t want silver, I didn’t want green. I had to be pink and now you can go online and buy so many things in the color that you want and not make it totally customized, you don’t mix your own color, but there is probably places that do that. You can buy M&M’s in the color that you want. Even Jones Soda, you can go online and customize a label, you know the color of soda in there. So a very strong emotional and visual, when you see that green apple on that blue bubblegum, you know there is something really cool and different and unique in that product and it appeals to initially an alternative group of young kids, but then of course moves way beyond that into middle America.
LHC: Right.
RW: So those are just some other examples of when color is a driver in product sales or at least a factor and I do think that in the case of Jones Soda and M&M’s. Today you can go online and buy a new Mini-Cooper and pick your color combination. There is a very strong emotional magnet. And yet I think, what you really are tapping into Leslie is a very simple concept and that is why it is so beautiful. You know, this has really complicated as all of these steps one though seven, and blah, blah, blah. Color is complicated, because it is so emotional, so visual, and so immediate, thus people are learning how they can help it become an icon for something other than what the product is. I think it is just a very simple formula that people could use and distill in very meaningful ways.
LHC: Right and I think that your comment that really validates this for people is that it is about innovating, but not necessarily with color, but leveraging color. So, again Product Red is definitely innovating and color is just one of the tools they leveraged.
RW: Right, but yet it is a very powerful tool. Scientific studies talk about how color draws the eye to something. Color is so easily identifiable and if you think about what you want a brand to be or a product to become an icon. I think of those apple ads, the first one when the I-pod came out, and the little black silhouettes with the bright backgrounds. You know, it was as much about, the whole idea that you would put yourself in the silhouette and become that person, with the hot pink, bright blue, the lime green. That is a really simple way to stay in the power of color.
If you would like more information about Robyn and her work visit her at www.rwtrend.com
As well look for her new book The Hummer and the Mini