In the most economically depressing holiday season in decades, there's one
buzzword — besides cheap — that's still got game at retail: color.
"Color is the one area where consumers are saying, 'I'm going to indulge,'
" says Marshal Cohen, retail guru at NPD Group. When Cohen advised retail
clients about the 2008 holiday, his No. 1 suggestion for most was to expand
color selection. Some are adding color and nothing else. Cohen says that's OK:
"When you add color to a product, you stimulate the consumer's awareness that
the version they already have is obsolete."
• Large appliances. Upscale Viking Range is always rolling out new colors.
The palette jumped from 14 to 24 for 2008.
Picking new ones is hard. "Every
single color is a huge debate," says Brent Bailey, design director at Viking
Range. But new colors can make an old product "look like a fresh product." Among
this year's new hues: Pumpkin and Cotton White. Racing Red and Apple Red also
were introduced in 2008.
"Color can make all the difference," he says. "I've
had consumers come into trade shows who had to have cobalt blue — and nothing
else — for their kitchen."
A recent USA Today article discusses how important color is this holiday season when choosing a gift. Viking major appliance’s array of color offerings is included in the article. Excerpts follow.
The full article can be found here.