Why care about color?

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn about how color empowers your business and how Sherwin-Williams helps you invest in the best palette. 

In Season 1, Episode 28 of MetalCast, Kiki Redhead and Brynn Wildenauer of Sherwin-Williams visited with host Karen Edwards to talk about color in contracting. Kiki and Brynn are both color experts, meaning they work in color development and color trend analysis. Brynn specifically is "the architectural color designer for the Sherwin-Williams coil and extrusion business,” and Kiki is “the global head of color, material, finish and trend for the performance coatings group at Sherwin-Williams.”  

They both know color and they know the power color can have in the industry. Kiki explained, “If you've got the right colors in your collection to guide your customer or even the consumer, you'll see your sales drive more towards those colors.” Often the colors that are available fall into two areas – the traditional and the trending. The traditional are the tried-and-true palettes that have withstood the test of time in the market. The trending are what Brynn and Kiki spend time developing and forecasting. Brynn explained a possible use-case for these colors, “When people build a building they care deeply about, it's more about the pride and so when we update those color palettes and have colors that are really desired, the customer is willing to spend money upgrading their facility.” These newer, trending colors give clients more customization and unique options.  

But taking the leap into nontraditional colors can be intimidating. As Kiki put it, “Colors do have their own lifecycle and their own lifespan.” At some point the trending color withstands the market long enough to become a part of the reliable traditional options. But how do you know which newer palette will last? That’s where Brynn and Kiki’s work comes in – their job is to determine which palettes are the best investments for each client. Brynn explained, “We do a lot of research in regional markets. When we analyze a customer color palette and they're in the southwest, we know northeast colors don’t work."  

Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast or Watch the webinar to learn more about picking the right color for your region and your business!