WARNING, FLASHING GIF TOWARDS THE BOTTOM OF POST

To help develop the potential product line and branding, this post explores how products utilise colour.

Fabric care products use a strong relationship between their usage of colour and how the potential consumer base can interpret their meaning in a given social context.

Examining five products from the Comfort Fabric Softener range helps to understand the usage of colour and theming within a product line. This is less focused on the individual brand itself but subsections of one of Comfort’s product lines.

Different product ranges and their usages of inherent colour understanding (Comfort, 2022).

This sample size is admittedly small, but an observation was made using the colour wheel as the colours used from purple to yellow tended to lay towards the outer ring of the space providing the strongest contrast, whereas blue to green landed further into the centre where white resides. This proved interesting as there is a correlation between using cooler and warmer colours and where these colour extractions fall on that scale.

Colour extraction from the most dominant colours of Comforts standard line. The warmer colours tend to delve towards the outside of the colour wheel (Comfort 2022).

The colours typically seem to derive their naming conventions such as “Sunshiny Days” using a vibrant yellow and “Strawberry and Lilly” using a deep red colour scheme, as users of these products can use inherent context with these names based on our western cultural perception of colour and meaning.

It is argued that “Colour is stressed as it has the powerful physiological ability to attract visual attention. Moreover, colour has the further capacity to retain attention, which enables cognitive information processing” (Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2014).

The basic range of products share this aesthetic across the board, yet it gets more interesting when examining the “Ultimate Care” line. This product line carries a more premium feel due to the usage of black in the centre and the symmetry of the container. Black is used in contemporary design to provide an aura of sophistication and minimalist design (Ferreira, 2019)

This shift can be partially attributed to Apple as they used to be more reliant on a clean white aesthetic in the pre iPhone 6s’ era of advertising and design aesthetics evolved with them as one of the dominant brands in the design space. “Whether you’re in Macao or Milan, Brussels or Beijing, you’ll recognize the iPhone’s standardized sleek design, minimalism, and ease of use that appeal across the globe while instilling the Apple experience with nuanced local features important to consumers” (Moorman, 2018).

Apple has developed a strong brand identity over the usage of Black and “inspired” others to follow suit (Apple, 2022).

Further into the research stage of the five brands under investigation, the more established brands tend to follow suit with their overall brand cohesiveness based on their primary product offering.

Red Bull Energy Drink established 1987 (Red Bull, 2022)

Red Bull use their iconic Red, Blue and Yellow colour palette from their primary product across the brand (Bull, 2022).

Monster Energy Drink established 2002 (Forbes, 2022)

Monster energy uses an Electric Green that evokes an unatural aura across its brand identity (Monster, 2022).

Rockstar Energy Drink established 2001 (Forbes, 2022)

Rockstar Energy creates a strong visual identity with Black and Gold (Rockstar, 2022).

Whereas the two more contemporary brands being examined do not appear to have a “default” product offering and came straight out of the gate with multiple flavours, not relying on the more tested method of incorporating a strict colour palette for the brand.

Prime Energy Drink 2022 (Paul, 2022)

Gif taken from the Prime product launch video showcasing a vivid colour pallete (Paul, 2022).

Prime focuses less on a cohesive dominant colour but relies on the strong Black logo in contrast to the colourful isolated background (Prime, 2022).

Reign Energy Drink 2019 (Reign Body Fuel, 2019)

All of Reign’s packaging follows a base layer of the Black background with the two toned logo creating a 3d effect and cohesive design across the range (Reign, 2022).

At face value, this applies more pressure on the logo design and public knowledge of the brand and its ambassadors to help to sell the product as opposed to simple colour recognition of the more established competition. “The idea of owning a colour is one of the highest priorities in managing logos and corporate identities and Is generally important to all design and advertising visual systems” (Morioka & Stone, 2006).

How is this research useful?

Colour is a powerful tool that can help to bypass the conscious rational part of the mind. Colour evokes feelings and helps to tie a brand identity together.

Bibliography

Ferreira, 2019. Color psychology: How color meanings affect your brand. [Online]
Available at: https://www.oberlo.co.uk/blog/color-psychology-color-meanings
[Accessed 15 10 2022].

Forbes, 2022. Forbes Profile – Rodney Sacks. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/profile/rodney-sacks/
[Accessed 16 10 2022].

Forbes, 2022. Forbes Profile Russ Weiner. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/profile/russ-weiner/
[Accessed 16 10 2022].

Kauppinen-Räisänen, H., 2014. Strategic use of colour in brand pacakaging. Packaging technology and science, 27(8), pp. 663-676.

Moorman, C., 2018. Why Apple is still a great marketer and what you can learn. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinemoorman/2018/01/12/why-apple-is-still-a-great-marketer-and-what-you-can-learn/
[Accessed 16 10 2022].

Morioka, A. & Stone, T., 2006. Convey Information. In: Color Design Workbook. Beverly MA: Rockport Publishers, p. 39.

Paul, L., 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmXTBjM0is4. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmXTBjM0is4
[Accessed 16 10 2022].

Red Bull, 2022. Product Q&A. [Online]
Available at: https://www.redbull.com/us-en/energydrink/when-was-red-bull-founded
[Accessed 16 10 2022].

Reign Body Fuel, 2019. Introducing: REIGN Total Body Fuel (feat. Natalie Eva Marie and “Thor” Bjornsson). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1BjDJxQOIE
[Accessed 16 10 2022]

Image Bibliography

Apple (2022) Apple (United Kingdom). Available at: https://www.apple.com/uk/ (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Clothes Care Products (2022) Comfort. Available at: https://www.comfortworld.co.uk/home.html (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Monster Energy | Energy Drinks, coffee, tea and juice (2022) Monster Energy. Monster . Available at: https://www.monsterenergy.com/ (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Prime Products (2022) Prime Hydration. Available at: https://drinkprime.uk/collections/all (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Red Bull gives you wings (2022) Red Bull. Available at: https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/ (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Reign total body fuel: Fitness & performance energy drinks (2022) Reign Total Body Fuel | Fitness & Performance Energy Drinks. Available at: https://reignbodyfuel.com/en-gb/ (Accessed: October 16, 2022).

Rockstar Energy (2022) Home | Rockstar Energy Drink. Rockstar Energy. Available at: https://www.rockstarenergy.co.uk/ (Accessed: October 16, 2022).