By examining current color trends and popular shades used in communications, we can determine what puts specific customers in a buying mood and whether it’s appropriate to deliver a message in black or white or use a hint of color to reach the intended audience.

For the past few years, business has been mostly dire, with depressing financial forecasts and record job losses. Now, as the economy recovers, we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Consumers are trying to maintain a brighter outlook and companies are beginning to change their marketing collateral, messaging and tone to provide confidence and optimism.

Last year, Pantone® selected Mimosa as the color of 2009. Described as embodying hopefulness and reassurance in a climate of change, the warm yellow tone garners attention, yet also creates a sense of relaxation. Yellow is seen before any other color and appeals to both men and women, making it the perfect shade for point-of-purchase displays and direct mail.

In 2010, Pantone® chose Turquoise as the color of the year. Inspired by water and the sky and considered a color of deep compassion, healing and truth, turquoise is a color most people respond to positively. It is universally flattering, appeals to both men and women, and translates easily to fashion, interior design and point-of-purchase displays.

Like

Unlike

While you may think your buying decisions are based on more than just the color of a logo, package or communication piece, subconsciously we have predisposed notions of what colors represent that influence how we relate to products and messages.

In business, choosing the right color is just as important as determining the message. Color is the first thing that attracts a customer’s eye and it may determine the overall tone of a piece. It helps facilitate a message and create a stimulating visual that catches our attention. Because much of the human reaction to color is subliminal, it is important for businesses to recognize the emotions each color evokes and how to use color to their advantage.

Colors are an important part of how people view the world. While specific shades may bring about certain feelings based on an individual’s cultural or historic background, they are constantly evolving to illustrate the steady change in consumers and society.

For example, during this time of economic uncertainty we’ve seen muted tones of grays and off-whites. Now, as the U.S. economy recovers, more vibrant shades are emerging as companies adapt to this new time. Light greens, oranges and pinks are coming back, representing a sense of renewal and youth. Seen as fun, cheerful and energetic, these bright colors tend to attract a younger audience.

Understanding the meanings of color and what colors appeal to your target audience will help you transition your business and its communications.

How does color influence your mood, buying decisions or change your perspective? Do you think you would be more apt to support a business or purchase a product if their logo were a different color?

Like

Unlike

As baby boomers begin to retire and the next generation becomes the leaders of tomorrow, companies are recognizing that they must change to meet new consumers and influencers. This new, younger generation has been influenced by technology. Digital cameras, MP3 players, DVDs and mobile phones have all played a role in defining the latest color trends. Noticing this, companies have used these palettes — bright, vivid and futuristic pinks, silver and bright purple — to attract the new audience.

While Generation Y continues to age with Generation Z at their heels, don’t forget about the classic colors of black and white; they will always have a place in any communications piece or logo, no matter what the target audience.

Like

Unlike

Pictaculous generates color palettes from images and then it references other color resources to give you additional palettes to incorporate into your designs. It is slick. Here is the color palette generated from my Go East avatar:

There is too much beige in my palette, but I like some of the ColourLovers suggestions!

Color crowd sourcing is the way to go!

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

My earliest memory of 3-D is from childhood. I remember getting my blue/red 3-D glasses from the store in anticipation of watching “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” in 3-D on television. As I recall, it wasn’t as cool as I had hoped it would be. I was actually pretty bummed out when the creature failed to reach through the TV into my living room. But 3-D has come a long way since then. Today’s 3-D movies are pretty remarkable. I honestly can’t imagine seeing “Up” or “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” in 2-D. The technology has gotten so good you actually feel like you’re part of the action. So, is 3-D a passing trend or is it here to stay?

In my opinion, it’s not going anywhere. In fact, you’re only going to see more of it. You may have noticed that the topic of 3-D has been in the headlines a lot lately, especially during the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Last year, everyone was talking about 3-D televisions and programming – wheareas this year, manufacturers like Sony and Samsung are actually showing 3-D products. Sure, it will take time for the technology to be affordable and widespread; that was the case with color television and more recently, high-definition television, but I would bet it will take hold. You can even expect to see 3-D make its way into other products such as hand-held devices like smartphones. Last summer, 3M announced a new film that will let people view 3-D images on hand-held devices without using special glasses. Efforts are even underway to make video games a true 3-D experience.

3-D technology is exciting because it raises the level of realism by virtually eliminating the divide between audience and action. It’s interesting to think about the possibilities for advertising. To be able to feel as if you can reach out and touch a product or walk into a destination. It simply comes down to engaging the audience and 3-D will always initiate a sense of wonder. Even low-tech 3-D can be extremely entertaining. The 2009 Go East holiday card used anaglyph 3-D photographs which helped underscore the overall message and made the viewer feel as though they could reach into the card. It was fun, engaging and it initiated a lot of positive feedback.

I think the prospect of an enhanced entertainment experience in the home and on-the-go is truly exciting. Personally, I don’t like messing with classics, but a part of me can’t help but wonder what “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” would be like if created with today’s technology. Perhaps someday that Creature will invade our living rooms again.

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are jumping on the social media bandwagon and justifiably so. Many no longer view social media as simply a “nice-to-have,” but rather a “must-have,” and are incorporating social media plans into their 2010 marketing efforts. But, as exciting as social media seems, many businesses still wonder about the best way to approach it. They question which social media is the best fit and wonder how they can leverage it to engage their customers. Many experts have blogged about 2010 social media trend predictions, but one in particular caught my eye.

Business Week recently featured an article by Dave Armano, a respected social media expert. He identified six social media trends for 2010. Here they are, along with some of my personal thoughts around his insights.

1. Social media will begin to look less social because users have the ability to filter out clutter and get more value out of their networks.
I think this is an interesting trend for businesses to consider as they begin to engage, or continue talking to, their customers through social media. It’s more important than ever to deliver compelling messages that are relevant and provide value to the recipient. This sounds cliché, but you really do only have one chance to make a first impression.

2. Corporations will look to scale their social media initiatives beyond the norm.
As more and more big companies leverage social media, they will enlist their most passionate employees to take on implementation and management tasks. Social media will no longer be the responsibility of one person, but rather many people — if not everyone — will get involved. I think it will be important that companies not only empower their employees, but also guide them by setting measurable goals and objectives, and give them the right tools to meet them. Organizations will benefit from enlisting those with their eyes open and ear to the ground; people who are keeping tabs on new and developing trends. Ultimately, this can help an organization grow organically at a much faster rate than it would had it built  and followed a roadmap. One project I hear a lot about is Twelpforce (@Twelpforce), an initiative by Best Buy. It’s essentially an online team of over 2,300 Best Buy employees that offer tech support and advice via Twitter.  They have done an excellent job of getting their employees involved and, to date, have answered over 18,000 customer questions. (Full disclosure: My husband works at Best Buy and leads the project.)

3. Social business becomes serious play.
New networks, like foursquare, are bringing some friendly competition to the game. As new social network sites are born, it will be important for businesses to leverage what they can. The challenge for businesses in 2010 will not only be to figure out how to play nice in the sandbox, but also how to monetize and determine the ROI of their investments. To play for play’s sake will not cut it any more.

4. Companies will outline and enforce a social media policy for their employees.
Guiding behavior online is a tricky proposition, but when an employee is participating in social networking they often become a voice of the brand. They need to understand that it can’t just be a free-for-all. Policies might outline which social network sites can and cannot be viewed during work hours, or companies could simply explain what type of behavior is expected, especially if current or prospective customers are within the network.

5. Mobile becomes a social media lifeline.
With many businesses and organizations banning personal use of social networking (kind of like banning use of the Internet a few years back) employees will find new ways to talk to their social networks. It will likely be via their smartphones. Sales of smartphones have significantly increased recently and adoption is steadily on the rise. This should be a consideration for 2010 as more people in the U.S . invest in smartphones. More user-friendly and innovative mobile versions of our favorite social networks will evolve in 2010. Using mobile marketing tools can be an effective and creative way to reach an audience anywhere and at any time.

6. Sharing no longer means email.
As we’ve already begun to see, Web sites are supporting the function to easily broadcast articles via Twitter or Facebook. We will see more of this in 2010, to the point where consumers will expect it. Today, a shopper is likely to email a product of interest to a friend, but very rarely do you see an option to post that information to a network to share with your all your friends. Businesses that either sell products online or publish information online should consider implementing this option in 2010. If not, they could lag behind.

I think 2010 will be an interesting year as it relates to social media and how people are engaging in and embracing it. I would love to hear what your 2010 social strategies are and how they fit into your full marketing plan.

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

While there are numerous sources predicting trends on the Internet, sometimes we need to see what is trending on a microlevel. With all the information out there, it is important to quickly cull or illustrate the information available and get an immediate impression of what topics might be trending. There are many awesome apps available that let you quickly see what’s popular.

Wordle

If you want to create a quick tag cloud of any Web site or copy deck, check out Wordle. Wordle is an online app that takes a URL, a del.cio.us user name, or any bit of writing and creates a tag cloud from your input. You can use it to get a quick sense of the important topics for a brand audit or Web site redesign. Above:  a wordle of Go East’s blog.

Google Fight

Sometimes, just to make a point, you need to compare topics. Google Fight is an online app that compares two terms in Google and gives a simple bar graph. Its simplicity is helpful and leads to some good conversations about search techniques. It also spurs philosophical trend questions like, “Why would ‘go west’ be searched more than ‘go east’?”

Spy

Spy is a social media visualization tool that pulls information from a variety of social media sites and feeds results to you as they appear. It pulls from Twitter, Flickr, blog comments, Google Reader and more. It is a completely spontaneous look at the what people are saying online about your topic right now.

My Year in Status

When it comes to highlighting trends in my own life, I like this Facebook app. It aggregates my status updates and pulls them into a cute collage that posts to my Facebook profile. I used it to pull all my statuses out and added them to a log I keep for future use. Now I can see my own trends in 140 characters or less.

Googlism

Finally, if you want to have some fun looking at what the Web is saying about a person, place or thing, you can try Googlism. Googlism is a fun tool that provides a random overview of searches related to your key word. Ever wondered what design is?  According to Googlism, as you can see above, “design is not a therapy session.”

What tools do you use to illustrate microtrends?

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

In researching top trends for 2010, I found trends for everything from fashion (ripped jeans and jumpsuits are back), to colors (turquoise, tomato puree and pink champagne are gonna be hot), to “value is the new black.” How did I narrow down these lists to the top five trends? I started by picking five that are relevant or interesting to me.

Sorry, but that means no turquoise jumpsuits made my list.

1. Facebook replaces personal email
Facebook has so much appeal (share photos and thoughts and keep up with long-lost pals). When you can write on someone’s wall or send a message through Facebook, why use personal email? Is this a new trend? I wouldn’t use Facebook for long, personal emails, but for quick exchanges – why not?

2. Targeting
We all get direct mail pieces that are specifically targeted to us, or are intended to be targeted to us. I immediately think of a magazine insert with my name printed on it. Whatever it is, chances are it was sent to you because of your age and gender. A new trend is to target consumers based on their  personality and individual needs. A recent article in Deliver magazine explained how a travel company named Backroads uses automated marketing engine technology from Nimblefish to mail postcards to past customers with photos of places these customers have visited. Not only will the message speak specifically to the recipient of the postcard (with their name) but it will also remind them of a past trip and suggest other trips they may like based on their history.

3. Smaller workspaces
I’ve heard about a trend toward smaller office spaces. Are private, enclosed offices going away? According to Executive Travel Magazine, more and more people are working in teams rather than solo. As a result, companies are making bigger common areas. Bigger common spaces mean more places for collaboration. More places for collaboration, means smaller personal offices spaces (most are now 7′ x 7′, down from 8′ x 8′).

4. Embedded generosity
People feel good about donating but sometimes it takes more effort than they’d like. Embedded generosity makes giving and donating virtually painless. Buy a pair of TOMS Shoes online, and the company will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. Buy a pack of Pampers with a “1 Pack = 1 Life-Saving Vaccine” logo, and Procter & Gamble will donate the cost of one vaccine to UNICEF.  How easy is that?

5. Clean and simple
One of my favorite design blogs is Brand New. Something I’ve noticed on the blog this past year is the refinement of logos. Cleaner and simpler refinements. I hope it’s a trend that continues into 2010. Which do you prefer: the before or the after?

1 person likes this post.

Unlike