Beyond Turquoise, Yellow Is The Hottest Color Going This Year

While Pantone may have chosen a dreamy, vacation-inspired hue of turquoise as the color of the year for 2010, I have seen a prevelance of yellow just about everywhere.  And we're not talking about some subtle yellow, but bright, cheery, canary yellow.

Check out Bloomindales, Banana Republic, J. Crew, and Sur La Table, where canary yellow is sprinkled throughout nearly every image on its home page.

Color trends typically last more than one season. And this year is no exception as we saw the yellow trend take hold last year (I have my bright yellow polo among other apparel and I'm thrilled I'll get to wear it another year) and it shows no signs of abating.

THE REAL WORLD RETAILING TAKEAWAY

Use trend color to drive sales.

Canary yellow is a great compliment to the Pantone color of the year, simply because they're both tropical colors that work great together.

So how do you take advantage of it?

1. Stock yellow merchandise. With major retailers everywhere showcasing the color, the shopping public is trained to note that it's a hot color (and to snap up items in the color hue if they want to remain current and on trend). So stock items in yellow.

2. Feature yellow in your store.  Sometimes it's as simple as pulling together items in trend colors and subtely featuring them, as Sur La Table did on their home page. I you're running a feature during April on a particular line of products, pull the yellow (or turquoise for that matter) part of the line forward so it smacks customers in the face the minute they walk in. Beyond products, you can use yellow in visual merchandising, props and in-store signage.

3. Feature yellow in your marketing. A yellow background, a yellow font on a turquoise background, yellow color blocking, yellow products. All are ways to feature yellow in your marketing materials and show your customers you're in the know.

Surely I'm not advocating painting your store yellow, but use of the color in-store and in external marketing can boost your status among hip trendsters. And what better way to do that than with a color so closely associated with spring and warm summer sun.

How are you using yellow in your store?

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photo courtesy flickr user ornelles