Last week, Diriyah Company announced the launch of a new co-created colour with  Pantone, Diriyah Tan. The colour, described as a ‘golden tan hue (that) has been derived  from a rich blend of mud brick materials’, cleverly ties in with their positioning ‘City of  Earth’ and illustrates the Najdi architecture that defines the gigaproject. 

This activity follows a number of similar moves by brands to launch their own bespoke  colour, more recently Assouline (who recently opened Maison Assouline, a flagship  boutique, restaurant and piano bar in Diriyah’s Bujairi Terrace) announced the launch of  Assouline Red, a “full-bodied warm red with a hint of yellow” in 2024 to mark its 30th  anniversary. 

Doing this is a statement, and one that certainly generates press coverage and media  attention. One only has to look at Pantone’s Colour of the Year initiative to see the interest  that colour generates. And, being a colour analyst in training, as well as an experienced  brand strategist, I know firsthand the power of colour theory in personal branding, which  has seen a surge in popularity across TikTok and Instagram. 

But how effective is colour truly as a brand asset, compared to a logo, slogan, and of  course, a product? I’m sure a few legacy examples will spring to mind when considering  this, but is that because of the effectiveness of colour, or because they have had  centuries to build brand equity? 

Let’s turn to the research. In 2023, Ipsos conducted a study on the distinctiveness of  assets across five categories – logos, slogans, mascots, colour and product – enlisting  thousands of respondents globally to test their perceptions of a diverse mix of brands and  their assets. Based on that data, they divided the brands into three levels of  distinctiveness: from bronze which denotes assets with weak associations that would be  unlikely to signify the brand when used in isolation, silver for above-average assets in  need of further amplification and consistent usage, and Gold to signify assets that  immediately and uniquely brought the brand to mind and could be used in isolation. The  irony of using colour markers to denote categories is not lost on them. 

The operative term here is ‘in isolation’. On that basis, Ipsos found that only 4% of brands  had colour as a Gold standard asset, with 16% scoring Silver and the remaining 80%  marked as Bronze. This is the lowest score of the five asset classes tested, compared to  the highest, product, in which 31% scored Gold. If this is surprising, remember that there  is a reason (and cognitive heuristic at play) that we recall Tiffany Blue or Coca-Cola Red  so easily – because it’s pretty rare for colour to have this much power as a standalone  asset, given the time it takes to build the necessary equity. These are legacy brands with  hundreds of years of heritage, and even at that, Tiffany only trademarked its blue ‘1837’  160 years after the formation of the brand). 

But the power of colour is in its context. The results show that when colour is deployed  alongside your other assets, the colour can be elevated to Silver or Gold standard.  Beyond your logo, a colour can also allow you to ‘own’ seemingly generic elements for a  brand. 

Returning to the Tiffany Blue example, I would argue that the Tiffany box, containing a  dazzling six-prong diamont ring or ‘Return To Tiffany’ necklace worked as an 

ancillary product in tandem with the colour to increase the value of Tiffany Blue. The 21st  century version of this is Glossier, whose brand is synonymous with a generation,  Millennial Pink. In 2020, they won the right not to trademark the colour, but the  combination of Millennial Pink and its application on their Instagrammable ‘Pink  Pouches’, as well as use of the colour on the Inner surface portion of packages. 

Similarly, Charli XCX’s ‘2024 album was always destined for greatness, but there’s no  denying that the addition of that audacious green on her album cover propelled her  marketing campaign to new levels, leading to the colour officially been christened ‘brat  green’. If Charli had just come out and launched ‘brat green’ we would all have been  scratching our heads. I also highly doubt that anyone would drink Matcha if it wasn’t so  aesthetically pleasing. 

My take? Colour can be a powerful brand asset on its own, but only if it becomes one  organically and over time. It’s like chasing virality – your audience can tell, and will be  turned off. Like anything in brand, you aren’t the one to decide whether something will  become a cult classic – your audience is. But the best way to improve your chances of  success is to consider how your brand assets work together, and how their unique  combination can dial up distinctiveness. When it comes to brand assets, the whole is  greater than the sum of its parts. 

Maeve O’Neill is a freelance brand strategist based in Dubai.