Can you feel the buzz and the excitement?! The biggest sporting event on earth will begins today in South Africa, the 2010 FIFA World Cup. For those of us who follow soccer/football this is the pinnacle of the sport, where players from all over the world come to together to claim the sport’s biggest prize, the World Cup. The countries that are in the tournament have been playing qualifying matches for the last four years in order to earn their right to play. We all have our favorites to win the tournament, but it’s also a time for us to show our national pride and back our team no matter what the chances are of lifting the trophy at the end of the tournament. I for one will be proudly wearing the red white and blue this Saturday as the United States will begin their quest against England!
Speaking of colors…The flags of each nation become symbols of every national team attending the tournament. 32 countries will be in attendance. Its amazing how visual the World Cup has become. Flags, banners, face paint, jerseys, every fan in the stadium has become a walking symbol for their country. The colors of our country have become the brand we follow and display so that everyone knows who we’re shouting for.
Unless you’ve been asleep for the last few months you’ve also seen that the World Cup has become a world wide marketing phenomena. Commercials, soundtracks, concerts, shoes, clothing, internet content. The most recent final was watched by more than 715 million viewers worldwide, whereas the Super Bowl was watched by 106 million in just the U.S. Soccer stars are selling everything from shoes to underwear and are among highest paid athletes in the world. Business productivity will lower and governments will shut down just to watch (400 channels in 208 countries). So, if you don’t know what a corner kick is now you will know in the future.
The world cup was first played in 1930 and is held every four years. Since then there have been posters designed for each tournament representing the country holding the event. Being the poster junkie that I am, I would love to have several of these to display. These designs are not only something to admire visually, but they also represent a significant time in the history of the sport. The stories that unfolded at each have been told many times over. I’m excited to witness the stories that unfold in South Africa!
Tags: Branding, Color, Kurt Palmquist, Ripple Marketing
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I was reminded of the challenging task of selecting colors for a new logo as we are nearing completion on a new identity for a company called Timberline Tool. Think of any major brand in the marketplace and you can probably identify the color that is associated with them. IBM Blue, UPS brown or the color of a school bus. A person doesn’t need to read a package to know that it is a Coca-Cola. Over time these companies have invested millions of dollars to make sure they “own” a color an
d spend millions protecting their color as well.
Our association with color is closely connected to our emotions and senses, just like our sense of smell and taste. It affects our mood, what we wear, and what we purchase. The brain reads color after it registers shape and before it reads content. The human eye can distinguish some 10,000 hues of color. This presents both opportunities and dilemmas in the world of corporate identity and branding.
Early in my career I worked for a corporate identity firm in Seattle, WA, where I first learned how important this was. The project was for Boeing www.boeing.com and we were updating their corporate standards which included standardizing the colors for their corporate identity system. There was no doubt that there needed to be standard color when at the time they had over 200 different versions of business cards in use. They had realized that over time their core brand had deteriorated partly due to the abuse of the color blue. I have never looked at so many different shades and hues of blue, but the end result was two specifically formulated colors known as “Boeing Blue” and “Boeing Gray.”
For smaller business enterprises this should not be overlooked. It is the one tool in your marketing belt that is quite often overlooked and ignored. Companies that control their color in their industry will have a distinct advantage over those who don’t. Ensuring proper reproduction of the brand color across a broad range of mediums is a tall challenge, but one that is well worth the investment considering the equity you can gain by establishing standards.
Here are a few basic questions to test the effectiveness of a color strategy:
Last but not least, once standardized colors have been established, create identity standards and guidelines that make it easy to use for those who are involved with your marketing efforts.
How strategically did you select your colors? Does your brand identity truly represent your company or product well? Have you established usage standards and guidelines to maintain and manage your identity?
Tags: Color, Kurt Palmquist, Logos, Small Business Branding
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