Color draws Customers

In product development, we talk about "color" all the time - even if we are talking about hundreds of variations on beige. An article on ABC news gives us just a little history on the consumers' interest in color:

"In the early 1980s, the Gap became the first major retailer to show clothes folded on tables, not hangers, to show people the colors"

Now we know, we owe our color awareness to the GAP and our own ability to manipulate color on our computers adds to this awareness everyday. But, what is more important is the fact that the Gap uses color to draw customers into the store to buy their most important product - jeans. Jeans are mainly variations on a shade with slight variety in shape. Reminds me of our industry... yes - variations on beige sell just like jeans, but you have to draw attention to your offering in someway because everyone offers the same beiges. As Gap shows, carefully selected and featured color is a powerful tool to do just that.