Color Conversations

LHC:     Michelle, Thanks for taking the time to talk today

Michelle:    I wanted to start by saying that I wrote about your call to me because I was taken off guard by your premise.  Looking at color from a business perspective.  It’s not that I don’t agree that it should happen that way.  I really do agree emphatically that color isn’t some visceral thing that can’t be quantified.  I think the selection process can be documented, I think that the success of specific hues can be monitored; I think a color’s profitability can be quantified.  But over the years I have felt like I was the only one who held that opinion and the reason was, that creative people seem to insist that they are creative people (only) and not business people.  
    And it is a position which assumes that and business are antithetical in assortment development. This has persisted for years and years and years and so I thought it was pretty unlikely that the analytical facets of color would come up, so I was charmed by your call.  Really charmed, because it made me stop and think.
    About how good design and good color are now basics.  That it is entry level, it’s the core expectation. Having that take place has really resulted in a heightened sensitivity to design and in our culture and it has increased expectations for sales and profits from that perfect alignment of design and color.  So now people understand that to set a product apart it is the trend and the right color that need to be presented and this is, TO my way of thinking anyway  the business aspect of color.

LHC:    Right, I think that you hit the nail right on the head, because it  (color) wasn’t something that was normally a part of our culture or the way we did business. Color seemed to be just added on at the end.

Michelle:    It was added on at the end and the people who were color specifier or color marketing people or whatever it is you are choosing to call them right now, have undergone a metamorphosis, or should have.  I think there are some who have not and they really need to catch up.  Because a gut feeling used to be enough to justify the selection of a color which, of course, has this cascading effect through the business about production and packaging and sales and marketing.  But now we have business executives who are beginning to question for the inspiration for a color and they are looking for something more than, “I like peach”.  So they, these business executives now, they have a new understanding of a trend’s power (and color goes along with that) to make or break a product, and so now they want to be assured that the color specification source or the trend source, whatever it is, has not only credibility but a track record of success.  Because if they lack confidence and the color designer’s method and in their sources, those executives are just going to chose the color themselves.  They will believe that their opinion is as valid as any because, after all, it’s a business decision.

LHC:    Right, and I mean how many times have we heard the story of the CEO’s wife that picked the color?

Michelle:    Yeah, boy.  But the thing is that if color designers can’t cough up something that sounds like they have made a business decision, this is what they get.  

    So we know, those of us who specify color, really know that all opinions, and there are so many, aren’t created equal.  And I think that that’s why today’s creatives have to go further than their gut.  They have to assure their management that their proposed colors or palettes, whether it’s for products or packaging, that they have been carefully developed, that they have been painstakingly researched, they have to share their sources, they have to cite their sources and lay out their thought processes.  People cannot be proprietary or protective of this anymore because their business management, their executives really need the comfort level that they are making the right color decisions because they know what the stakes are now for color.

LHC:    Can you think of any companies that you think are doing a particularly good job of this, just from observing as even a consumer.

Michelle:    Well, as a consumer my first pick’s Target.  That’s not only because I am an old Target-eer myself.  I think they are doing some really, really remarkable things, in specifying color.  Are they right all the time?  No, nobody ever is.  But nobody is ever right when they buy shoes even though they have had their feet right there to try them on with.  

LHC:    Well, the thing that I have continually heard from other people is that the companies that are having more success, are innovative in developing and trying new things with color, part of their success is coming from the fact that it’s more of an integrated process with the entire overall business team rather than add it on at the end.

Michelle:    Yes, I agree.  I think there’s another piece too which is, forgive me for the phrase "hit and run color". But you probably know that if you go to a department store, maybe it’s Bloomingdales or Macys, if you see sheets that you think are really fabulous, if you don’t get all the pieces then and there you had better just hope you can find them in some closeout thing because they are trying to sell them faster.  That’s one of the things about trends driving business.  Assortments are turning a lot faster. Turnovers from a financial aspect, there is a dollars and cents thing about turnover that has nothing to do with what the exact item is calculated by category or by department or whatever.  I am going to guess that turnover is going a lot faster than it used to.

LHC: I don’t think that that’s a far-reaching guess, we hear the frustration that designers are having with the fact that companies are manufacturing things faster than they ever have.  Before you could forecast two years in advance and you would do, say, ten products.  And now you are doing 50 products in eight weeks

Michelle:    To build on that, when I first started in the trend forecasting business, I am embarrassed to tell you, I have more than 20 years under my belt at this point.  My own business will celebrate its 20th anniversary in April of next year. (insert link to trend curve website)

LHC:    Congratulations

Michelle:    I did trends before that AT Target.  So at the beginning people wanted your five-year forecast and stretch to ten.  Then they wanted your three-year forecast and stretch to five.  And now people want your two-year forecast and stretch to three.  
So things have really, really changed in that regard which takes me back to "hit and run color", which is relates to "hit and run trends". People are bringing things in and out faster.  There are a couple of things that are almost polar opposites to each other.  One is you have to be more careful about the color because you know the power of color.  The second thing is you know the color is only going to be around for a short period of time, two months, two weeks, two years, whatever is short to you; it’s going to have an abbreviated life span. Thus a lot less in a short period of time.  So again, we circle back to the business aspect.  You better be darn sure with something more than your gut that that color is going to be right.

LHC:    Also I think that you have to be able to keep the churn on ideas and innovation happening a lot faster.  

Michelle:    So I am going to just get on my soapbox for a second about this.

LHC:    Please.

Michelle:    Because I know it’s not what you are looking for in this piece, but one of the things that I find, and I find it a lot, is when I work with product design and development teams, whether they are retail teams or they are manufacturing teams, is that somebody has got them corralled with restrictive travel budgets.  Now I don’t think that everybody needs to go everywhere.  And I see a lot of people at a lot of shows all over the country and all over the world, but I will say that it is darn tough to be creative in your cube with a magazine.  You have to have sources of inspiration and one of the things that I say repeatedly to my consultant clients and customers is, “Get out of your category.” And do something, get out of your office, get out of your category.  I don’t care if you are reading Cost Accounting Magazine…

LHC:    Yes, I agree just get out.  In addition Part of the cage that we get tangled in is the Internet.  It has opened so many virtual doors for designers to "get out" online but that is not the same kind of experience as walking the streets of New York.

Michelle:    It isn’t but it’s funny, you know, I talked to Susan Iverson this week, (link to Susan site) We talked about how there are a million trend people now, or a million trend resources.  But when I go and I look at some of these sites and I see who they are in their biographies they will say, “I love color.  I have always loved color and the fact that I do pedicures for a living, never mind about that.”  But one of the things that the Internet doesn’t do is give you a hierarchy of voices in terms of who is qualified to give an opinion. I am not sure you can get really great color information from a public website.

LHC:    So the question to your point is good enough, good enough anymore?

Michelle:    Right, and it cuts both ways.

LHC:    And for some companies maybe good enough is okay, but for many companies good enough doesn’t cut it anymore

Michelle:    It doesn’t, no, the bar has been raised too much!

 

 If you would like more information about Michelle and her work visit http://www.trendcurve.com

Also check out her blog Connecting the dots at http://michellelamb.typepad.com

Posted by Leslie on February 3, 2007 03:33 AM