Colors and Why They Matter

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "Colors and Why They Matter," speaks to the art of matching colors to stimulate or suggest an emotion, as emotive responses trigger marketing and advertising responses. The bulk of marketing conversations focus on terms such as data management, content marketing, CRM, SEO, response rates, conversion rates, branding and the ultimate customer experience, to name a few. Those marketing terms and others fill the board rooms across every agency, brand and marketing organization, and to that end, conversations invoking those terms will continue to be the focal point for marketing strategy creation.

As the world continues to move toward a visual-based society, imagery becomes more important, particularly when the challenge becomes how to impart information with less text across visual platforms. Colors actually trigger various character traits and promote emotional tie-ins that evoke an intuitive response. In this post, we look at the specific colors that garner or stimulate certain emotions.

Pantone's Color of the Year

Pantone releases a new set of colors each year, and in 2019, Living Coral was the Pantone Spring/Summer color of the year. Typically, Pantone selects its seasonal colors from statistical data provided by the major fashion shows from the annual New York Fashion Week.

A good example of this can be taken from the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, in which the Meryl Streep's character, Miranda Priestly states: "You go to your closet and you select[…]that lumpy blue sweater […] But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent… wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets?[…] And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it, uh, filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and its sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff." Meryl delivered those lines as only she can and it was a defining moment for fashion and color.

Therefore, the colors that are chosen by Pantone, are chosen for us every season. It would be a good practice for any marketer to follow New York Fashion Week to gain insight into the colors that Pantone will likely advance as colors for the season.

As fashion presents color statements, those colors often translate into current color trends, far beyond the world of fashion. It's always a good idea to present color schemes that the public at large have already bought into. It sort of makes color selection choices more relevant and acceptable for visual presentations.

Pantone Color Institute's Forward Thinking

It is common practice for businesses to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis annually to understand the competitive marketplace. In a sense, the same can be said about the selection of colors by the Pantone Color Institute. When Pantone picks a color for the year, they are affirming what type of energy they are hoping to see in the upcoming year.

Pantone's 2018 Color of the Year was Ultra Violet, which represents creativity and expansion. Pantone's 2019 Color of the year, Living Coral was selected for it's "animating and life-affirming quality." Moreover, Pantone considers living coral as a catalyst for embracing community and oneness.

Coral thrives close to the ocean's surface, immersed in the sun's rays, and as a result, the kinetic energy absorbed by the coral nurtures the sea life around it. Anne Christine Tooley, an energy medicine practitioner, recently stated: "Living coral is enabled through the Laws of Nature to grow and flourish in our oceans and seas – but can only do so by giving up its individuality and attaching to another piece of the whole. In this respect, coral is representative of the community or global/humanitarian consciousness".

We invite you to watch our short Colors of Life Video. We hope that you enjoy the colors and their meanings as presented.

The Net-Net

Colors matter! From the fashions we wear, to the paint on our walls and offices, to the vehicle colors that we choose. Colors speak a language that dives into our emotive states of being, and when chosen properly, can make a huge difference in how communications and messaging affects our marketing and advertising efforts. Thanks for reading "Colors and Why They Matter." We hope you enjoyed the video.

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