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The color of money
Corporations understand the
power of color and spend a lot of time and money making it work
for them.
- Three different colors of flecks
- red, blue and yellow - were used in the original testing of
Cheer detergent in the 1950s. Consumers reported that the yellow
flecks didn't get clothes clean enough, and that the red flecks
actually damaged clothing. Only the blue flecks were singled
out as getting clothes cleaner. In truth, color had nothing to
do with cleaning ability. But those blue flecks helped make Cheer
one of the longest-lived detergent brands on the market. 1
- A Supreme Court decision, Qualitex
Company v. Jacobson Products Company (1995), clarified that color
alone, as used on a product, might be protected as a trademark
if it had achieved secondary meaning as a trademark (such as
through customer recognition) and is nonfunctional, that is the
color does not improve the product's utility (not essential to
use or purpose and won't affect cost or quality).
- Colorists - people whose job
it is to determine color schemes on products and product packaging
- can be highly sought after and well paid. The top free-lance
consultants can command a five-figure salary ... per day. 2
On to next page
1. The wonderful world of color.
Marketing Tools, Oct97, p44
2. Does orange mean cheap? Forbes, 12/23/91, Vol. 148 Issue 14,
p144
Harlen Makemson © 1999 All Rights Reserved.
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at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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