COLORS OF COMMERCE
Case Logic takes picking out new hues for its products very seriously.
I f your next iPad case veers toward bright violet, then the color marketing industry’s countless hours, research and trend spotting has worked. ¶ Bright violet, a shade of purple reminiscent of local wildflowers, is a serious candidate to join the next color palette of Case Logic’s SnapView tablet covers.
The color and a dozen others were pitched by Dan Skaff at a recent design meeting for the longtime case maker, which sold its first bag — a 15-slot cassette-tape case in forest green (it was the ’80s!) — 31 years ago.
Picking the right colors can help a product hit it big or just sell OK.
And Case Logic needs some big hits. The company, acquired by Sweden’s Thule Group in 2007, saw net sales shrink 18.7 percent last year to $65.7 million as consumers stopped using point-and-shoot cameras and DVDs, so they didn’t need cases, according to Thule’s financial reports.
But it’s not as though Skaff — Thule’s CMF (short for color, material and finish) designer — just woke up one day, looked out his window and was inspired by the spring flowers.
Skaff travels a lot, attending trade shows, including the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and touring other countries. Stops this year have included Hong Kong, China and Thailand. He keeps an eye on blogs such as High Snobiety and Cool Hunting and magazines such as Metropolis and
Monster Children (his personal favorite). And he constantly checks out technology brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Beats and Urban Ears, as well as streetwear brands such as Vans, WeSC and luxury names such as Prada and Burberry.
Thule’s design team also pays for trend reports from forecaster WGSN and participates in the Color Marketing Group, which predicts the next “it” colors two years in advance.
Having a color expert on the team has helped unify the look of the company’s product lines and go to market with confidence, said Truckie Wildes, the company’s senior director of international product.
“It’s really allowed us to say to the sales force: ‘Let us tell you what we’re bringing to the market. You may have a personal view, but that’s not going to sway us,’ ” Wildes said. “We now have a professional who has a reason for the color.”
The business of color
Looking at current trends, Skaff made his predictions: The technology space is into metallic textures and bold colors, while lifestyle products are trending toward muted colors and softer textures, including leather, wood and suede. Besides the popular alkaline gray and “safe choice” black, he also pitched surf, indigo and sky blue for the new line.
That happens to align with the Color Marketing Group’s “2016 key color” for North America: uni-blue, a “unisex blue that balances the difference within genders, as well as cultures and generations.”
Color is a big business. According to the group, nearly 85 percent of consumer decisions are based on color.
“It’s huge, and it can vary up and down. But as groups have done studies over the years, color is what causes people to buy,” said Mark Woodman, the organization’s immediate past president. “There is endless research done throughout the year to track trends as best we can to determine what direction colors are going. We look socially — what we’re eating, where we’re going.”
Finding the right color isn’t rocket science. But it’s not quite science either. For the most part, companies pick colors based on what sells, and buyers are influenced by pop culture and trends.
The color açaí, named for a purple berry trendy among health enthusiasts, entered Case Logic’s line last fall with the Jaunt family of bags. The color was a gamble, but it sold alongside conservative black and gray. Açaí outsold the others — even black. “My theory is the Jaunt bag is a (lowerpriced) retail product by design. It’s targeted to schools, universities and young professionals. I believe the new generation, the millennials and younger, are looking for something that is not black and not what their parents have,” Wildes said. “What we’re seeing is their individuality coming out.”
Black bags are actually selling less than they used to — 37 percent of the bag market in the past 12 months, compared with 39 percent a year earlier, according to Ben Arnold, an analyst with market researcher The NPD Group.
“I see personalization as a big macro trend in electronics,” Arnold said, “and it is certainly something that impacts the mobile device protection market profoundly as these are devices we take out into public and are seen with. So it makes sense that we are seeing a multitude of colors on the market.”
Some companies set the color trend. When Apple launched the Bondi Blue iMac in a sea of beige competitors, not only did the PC industry follow suit — industries such as office products also did so. Then Apple expanded the line and launched fruit-colored iMacs in 1999. Most did well, but stores reported tangerine iMacs as the least popular.
Fast-forward a decade to AMC’s “Mad Men,” a revival of midcentury modern architecture and style — and the color orange. Orange became the new black. Tangerine Tango, in fact, was Pantone’s color of the year in 2012.
James Martin, owner of The Color People, an architectural color consulting firm in Denver, says the most influential color is the color of money.
“Millennials are driving the bus,” said Martin, a former president of the Color Marketing Group. “It used to be boomers. But it’s the millennials and their buying decisions that is dictating what is selling. One thing they like is individuality, and there is no better way to show individuality than color.
“And look at the boomers, like myself. We’re all desperate to stay cool and young. I’m not old,” Martin said, laughing. “But the bottom line is if I’m selling any kind of product, I’ve got to look at who I’m selling it to. Colors sell, but the right color sells better.”
“Not a Magic 8 Ball”
The Color Marketing Group hosts several workshops, or “ChromaZones,” around the globe each year. Members discuss the latest trends and attach a color. Each meeting ends with a color palette. Those are later winnowed further to come up with the colors of the year — two years in advance.
“It’s not a Magic 8 Ball, but it’s based on such a brain trust,” Woodman said. “When you bring together 200 minds to discuss what they’re seeing, what books they’re reading, what futurists they’re following, you begin to see trends.”
But, he added, consider it a guide: “One of our edicts is direction, not dictation.”
Currently, the Color Marketing Group’s color for this month is malagueta, a deepmaraschino-cherry red and also a red pepper used in South America. The color was chosen partly for the passion of desire, but also the “passion for humanity and for a cause — whatever that cause may be,” said Woodman, recalling how, during the meeting, members were talking about Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani human-rights activist who was shot three times just months before a 2013 meeting.
Red did show up heavily in Skaff ’s presentation to colleagues on a recent spring day — but mostly in the trends he shared. The one reddish shade he pitched was flamingo, more of an orangey-red. But as the meeting wound down and the group decided to limit the number of colors, Skaff said he would drop flamingo.
“Because it sounds like (petrol and indigo) are harmonizing a bit more effectively and they tie in to the other products,” said Skaff as he went down the priority list. “And then it’s really nice to have onboard an overtly feminine option, so I would say we’d probably drop the Surf before the bright violet because we know the phlox (a pink) has been fairly strong in terms of sales.”
Beyond colors, Skaff is trained to think about the process of making the products too. Adding a high-gloss edge to define the different matte sides of the case would echo the style of iPads and Samsung tablets, and it would also provide “easier mold release, too, and less-visible flow lines,” he said.
Skaff, who joined the company in 2013, is the only one of the 90 employees in Niwot to have “color” in his job title. He knows he has a big job. But he feels he’s not alone.
“I don’t feel any enormous weight when choosing colors. We have a strong process that includes some checks and balances, so I can be confident in my decisions. If I can’t back up a decision, then I can try something else. We’re flexible in that respect,” Skaff said. “Our goals become more clear every day, and that makes color decisions less about personal tastes and more about building the brand, which is very helpful.”