By Gregg Wartgow, Special to The Association of Equipment Manufacturers --
A lot goes into building a great brand. However, according to Kiki Redhead, global CMF & trend manager at AEM member company Sherwin-Williams, everything starts with color — literally.
“Color can help increase brand comprehension by 72%,” Redhead said. “Furthermore, up to 85% of the time, a consumer’s final buying decision is based on the color of the product.”
That second statistic might not be entirely true of heavy-duty non-road equipment; Redhead is talking about consumer products in general, including things like home appliances. But there is no doubt that color plays an influential role in consumer behavior, and that includes consumers like farmers and construction contractors.
Redhead spoke at AEM’s Annual Conference this past November. She discussed how colors can evoke psychological and emotional responses and can even cause physiological reactions like increased heart rate or body temperature.
“Color allows people to comprehend the brand, taste, smell, and even their memories and emotions, perhaps from childhood, that they’ve associated with a specific product,” Redhead pointed out.
Given all of this, Redhead said color can actually become one of a company’s most important competitive advantages. But it doesn’t happen by accident.
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Understanding the Influence of Color
Choosing the perfect color for your brand starts with understanding how consumers perceive color. That, in turn, helps predict how color will influence design and consumer behavior in the future.
“This is the foundation and springboard for creating colors that will have a lasting impact in the market,” Redhead said. This is true when updating historic colors or creating brand new custom colors.
In her role at Sherwin-Williams, Redhead has developed what she calls the M3T trend methodology where she analyzes both mega, macro, and micro trends.
“This allows us to distill global and regional shifts in society, technology, economy, climate, sustainability, and other topics you hear a lot about,” Redhead said. “We watch how those major trends evolve into new drivers, actionable macros, and marketable micros. Macro trends set the mood of the consumer, while micro trends like product design, shape, material, and color all impact how the consumer will experience and perceive a product.”
The ultimate goal of color selection is to align the trend lifecycle with the product and color lifespan. “That results in higher consumer acceptance and longer significance in the market,” Redhead said. “At some point, color becomes more than just a trend. It becomes brand recognition and loyalty.”
The Art and Science of Choosing Color
Along with Redhead’s M3T methodology for analyzing trends, another important exercise is palette analysis. This is where companies and coating formulators work together to develop and curate new colors. Redhead said this process is both an art and a science. Furthermore, any final decisions should have buy-in from not only sales and marketing teams, but also R&D, manufacturing, and senior leadership. Choosing colors is a major decision that requires alignment across the company.
“You have to consider both qualitative and quantitative data,” Redhead said. “Even if you just want to update your brand’s historic color and jazz it up a bit, like turn it into a metallic or make it a matte finish, it’s important to analyze and understand how that change will impact the market.”
Once a company signs off on a color palette, the coating formulator’s lab starts developing the formulas for each new color. In their quest for the perfect color, formulators can’t lose sight of a coating’s performance and durability. This is particularly the case with heavy-duty non-road equipment that is expected to be strong and resilient.
When it comes to the coating formulations themselves, Redhead said the goal is color fastness and gloss retention. Formulators should also think about sun exposure and harsh weather conditions. A paint job that can stand the test of time can positively influence consumers’ perception of that product and could even improve the resale value of the equipment.
“A faded piece of equipment could insinuate a problem with the product as a whole,” Redhead said. “That’s why the entire perception of a machine’s overall quality can be impacted by the paint quality. We want to marry the durability and performance of the coating with how marketing is telling the brand story through color.”
Redhead said she’s been impressed by how well non-road equipment manufacturers have leveraged color to help establish strong brands. For newer companies aspiring to build iconic brands themselves, Redhead offered some advice:
- Choose high-visibility colors with high chromaticity
- Consider colors that exude safety
- Create color combinations that harmonize
- Choose colors that contrast against the environment where the product will be used
Top Reasons to Consider Color Changes
According to Redhead, companies embark on color-selection journeys to launch or refresh a brand, expand their current color palettes and add new accent colors, or perhaps consolidate and simplify their current color palettes.
Sometimes companies are searching for ways to increase manufacturing efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve speed to market. Redhead shared an example of how incorporating an accent color that uses lower-cost materials and cures at a lower temperature could help reduce manufacturing costs — all while maintaining the primary color that helps establish that coveted brand recognition.
Some companies embark on color-selection journeys for unique aspects of their overall marketing strategy. Aside from the core brand color(s), Redhead said there is an opportunity to push the creative envelope on custom specialty colors for rental centers and fleets, as well as limited edition products, colors for a cause (i.e., breast cancer awareness), social media influencer campaigns, etc.
Color can play an influential role in enhancing awareness and perception of all those types of marketing campaigns. Plus, the color at the core of the campaign doesn’t have to be relegated to the product itself (i.e., a tractor or excavator). Redhead cited the example of Coca-Cola, where their hallmark red is incorporated into cups, clothing, vending machines, and even a race car.
“We in the industry call this color drenching,” Redhead said. Color drenching is an effective tactic because, as pointed out earlier, color is typically the first thing a consumer comprehends when looking at a product. Thus, color drenching helps build brand recognition even faster.”
You Created It, Now Protect It
When a company has developed a color or color combination that is central to its brand, Redhead said it’s not uncommon to trademark it — or at least attempt to do so.
Companies must prove that consumers explicitly associate the color with their brand. Examples of companies that have succeeded include, UPS (brown), and T-Mobile (magenta). On the other hand, General Mills has been unsuccessful in trademarking the yellow used on its boxes of Cheerios, since yellow has been a commonly used color among cereal manufacturers. Obtaining a trademark largely comes down to the individual case that can be made as to a color’s role in helping to create a distinct competitive advantage for a particular product.
When a solid case has been made, Redhead said colors are measured by a spectrophotometer, which provides information on the chemistry and formulation of the physical color. This cannot be trademarked. What can be trademarked is a digital representation of the physical color – the Hex and RGB digital codes. Once trademarked, no competitor of the trademarking company can use that digital color code.
“The formula is a proprietary combination of raw materials, additives, and pigments,” Redhead explained. “A coatings company will not replicate the formula for anyone else unless granted permission by the company that obtained the trademark. At the same time, the color could potentially be protected under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) as well.”
Who would have thought something as seemingly simple as a color could garner such attention? When you come to understand how vital color is to establishing brands and influencing consumer behavior, it starts to make a lot more sense.
