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. Designed for the students of JOMC 50 Electronic Information Sources in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All copyrighted material used in this site is intended as fair use for educational purposes only.