Color Trends: What Our Experts Are Watching

Whether they use summery awning stripes to cover housewares products, energetic and bold brights for apparel and footwear or colors other than tomato red for ketchup, companies across the retail spectrum look to color to rejuvenate tired categories and create interest to draw consumers to their products. Our Industry Experts recently discussed color trends they're watching and the significance of color palettes in product development, design and marketing.

"Color is the key to successful apparel and footwear retailing today. Sales are still in a slump, so manufacturers and retailers are using color to create excitement in stores. Even the most basic items of clothing - such as the women's tank tops and camisoles we're seeing everywhere - are offered in eight colors at many stores, and in multiple shades of the same hues. The hottest colors right now are bright, energetic and inviting. Yes, inviting. Retailers and manufacturers are using a wide range of eye-popping brights to lure in consumers. Pinks, oranges, reds, yellows and blues are catching consumers' attention. Right now color is everywhere, and it's the first thing you notice in store windows; color, more than style, is what jumps out as you approach a store window or in-store display. We're also seeing colors mixed together in new ways in apparel: olive with bright aqua and white, darks and brights together. Footwear has focused on color this season, too. Casual shoes and sandals abound in a rainbow of fun colors to coordinate with bright summer fashions. Even athletic footwear is about color again. The use of color is the big message for summer apparel and footwear. With the combination of sports influences, '70s-inspired design and lower prices, this may turn out to be a decent summer season for apparel and footwear retailers."
Marshal Cohen, NPD Fashionworld

"In housewares, this is a season of bright colors: red, green, orange. We'll also see bright stripes and a definite retro influence as consumers try to bring back the comfort of the good old days. In major appliances, a brushed steel finish is still the 'color' of choice. The colors that are prevalent in the housewares and home goods industry generally originate in the textile business or in European design. Housewares companies have long 'borrowed' color ideas from fashion-forward categories and widely advertised products and categories. One need only look to the bright, translucent colors of Apple computers or Martha Stewart's now-famous light green hues to see where today's hot color trends in housewares have come from. For the past few years, we've also seen a rise in Asian-inspired color and design, including muted, soft, natural tones of green and brown and dinnerware that veers away from the traditional round shape. And as always, when a company is looking to simplify, crisp, clean white and a more minimalist look take over. In the housewares business, when companies don't have much in the way of new products to offer, they offer new color palettes as inexpensive line extensions."
Dennis Brown, The NPD Group

"Color's influence on the fragrance market has been showing up in bottle design. Fragrance companies are using limited edition bottles to attract the consumer's eye. This is true for cK One, Miracle and Jean Paul Gaultier Classique. Earlier this year, cK One introduced three graffiti bottles designed by artists from New York and Amsterdam, each representing a "different aspect of life." Miracle introduced the Miracle Ultra Pink Spray, which packages the Miracle fragrance in a pink-tinted, limited edition bottle. And Jean Paul Gaultier offers a limited edition "corset bottle" for the Classique fragrance called So Classique. The use of color on fragrance bottles is not just an attention grabber, but also inspires consumers to collect their favorite fragrances in all the bottle variations available."
Timra Carlson, NPD Beauty

"It seems that every ten years or so, the success of some new 'colorful' food or beverage pushes manufacturers to consider altering or adding a new color to their product line - not necessarily a new flavor, but just a new color! Not a bad idea for short term gains. We all know that Americans do like to try new things . . . even if it is simply a new color. In the late 80s, early 90s, a color trend in the food industry was touched off by the early success of a 'clear' carbonated soft drink. (Who knew then that consumers really did like the idea of a clear beverage? It was called water.). A few years ago, a color change in ketchup caused another big splash and the entire food and beverage industry was once again looking at the impact of colors. In reality, changing the color can create re-ignite interest in a food or beverage category, but it doesn't make the product easier to use or less expensive to purchase. And while a color change in other industries might make a product fit better into a contemporary lifestyle, that doesn't work in food. Trends in the food and foodservice industries are not about the color of food, but instead the flavor of food. The fashionable foods and beverages in this country are the new flavors of bread, or the new varieties of cheese or the new taste in wine. The color of food is flavor. I suspect the cycle of coloring our foods will continue, but the real successes will be those food and beverages, even the trendy ones, that make eating and drinking in someway easier or less expensive than it is today."
Harry Balzer, NPD Foodworld

"In the world of information technology (IT), color often seems an afterthought. That's changing, though. Today, manufacturers of PCs and other IT products are increasingly trying to move their products into America's living rooms. For that reason, and to break up the traditional 'long beige line' of PCs and printers and dull black notebooks, the IT business is trying silver-black, blues and grays for a variety of products that sit near computers in consumers' homes. Monitor bezels, the plastic around the monitor, are changing from beige to black and black-silver, and we have seen a push to develop matching IT accessories. HP printers now mimic the design of other HP products, including PCs, monitors and accessories like speakers, mice and keyboards. Dell also sells printers that match their PCs. We're also seeing manufacturers introduce accessories not designed to match PCs, but to have their own distinctive colors and looks."
Stephen Baker, NPD Techworld

"As far as color goes, the video games industry is very similar to the technology business. Playstation 2 and Xbox use sleek-looking black to appeal to customers. Nintendo's Gamecube consoles are available in jet black, indigo and the new, limited edition platinum. Nintendo also uses color for its Game Boy Advance products, allowing customers to choose black, arctic, indigo, mid-blue, glacier, limited-edition platinum and fuchsia. The hot new Game Boy Advance SP, released in March, features a sleeker, smaller design with a folding screen, resembling a PDA, and available in cobalt and platinum. Nintendo's multiple color options offer a diverse spectrum for all demographics to choose from. Indigo seems to be the way to go for the younger demographic, and the older buyer leans toward platinum, black and even opaque editions, likely because of their similarity to IT product colors."
Richard Ow, NPD Funworld