What does the colour Pink mean? And how can it be used within marketing?
“Pink is a girly colour, right? It certainly isn’t for boys!” Well, that still may be, to a certain extent, the prevailing view in society when it comes to dressing babies and children (a social norm that extends to clothing for men), but this hasn’t always been the case.
Up to well into the 20th Century, this idea didn’t exist, in fact in 1918 the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department claimed that the “generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” In the centuries before this, infants were generally dressed in white, and across the ages, colourful garments were clothes that only the wealthy could afford. This continued up to at least 1927 when an American department store chain, still suggested pink for boys.
However this idea was never as firmly fixed, compared to how it has been the other way around since the second half of the 20th Century. Today, while it may be very common, and fashionable for men to wear very colourful ties (including bright pink ones) and other accessories to complement their suits, and sometimes pink jackets and other types of clothing, the long racks of black, dark blue and brown clothing in shops like Marks and Spencer, shows there is still a long way to go.
As we approach Valentine's Day it is worth considering the psychology of pink. OK, red is perhaps the colour most associated with this aspect of love, but I ‘did’ red in December! Pink, though, comes a very close second, and perhaps as the mix between red’s passion and white’s purity, pink symbolizes love, nurture and compassion. It evokes feelings of comfort, warmth and hope.
Pink is also a sign of good health with the phrase “in the pink.” It symbolises success in the expression that “everything is rosy” and happiness with “tickled pink.”
Some studies show that a pink environment may stimulate the feeling of calm, so it has been used in prisons and hospitals. Perhaps that is why a lot of basic equipment in hospitals was the colour pink (according to this author’s memory!)
Pink, like all colours, comes in a variety of shades, but one of the most famous and maybe the brightest is Shocking Pink, which was made popular by the fashion icon Elsa Schiaparelli in the early 1930s.
Of course, pinks had previously been used in history, in all forms, but it was she who described Shocking Pink as: “Bright, impossible, impudent, becoming, life-giving, like all the lights and the birds and the fish in the world put together, a colour of China and Peru but not of the West – a shocking colour, pure and undiluted.” By 1937, Shocking Pink was Schiaparelli’s signature colour. This colour has been on the menu of designers and artists ever since, playing its part across the last century, up to today.
So, how can you use pink in your promotional marketing? Maybe it is your own house colour, or you simply want the items you use to stand out from the crowd. Maybe, and my apologies based on the opening paragraph, you are marketing towards women. Maybe it’s simply that you want to attract children with a pink, fluorescent pencil.
Fortunately, pink is a very widely available promotional colour among the products I supply – whether that means the actual item is produced in pink, or just the trim, or the accents are in this colour. An A5 softeel notebook, for example, will come in pink, or white (or black) with a pink elastic band. And if you need to source pens, I can offer this colour in lower cost pens, and even the fabulous Bic Grip Roller, which along with bright green, and orange, sits comfortably with its more sober black, blue and grey siblings.
Let me know what you think about the colour pink, and if I have done nothing more than to remind you to go and buy a Valentine’s Day card, then my work here is done!
