Akzo-Nobel, our giant neighbour in Amsterdam, bets on a virtual painter to boost revenue. Guess what? It works. Akzo's app has been downloaded over 10 million times by now. And Akzo's first-quarter decorative-paint sales volumes were 6 percent higher than in the same period last year. According to David Manko, Akzo's chief marketing officer: “One in three customers struggled to buy paint because they didn’t know what it would look like on their wall.”
“That’s kind of the only way they can compete, because paint is paint,” commented Nathalie Debruyne, an analyst for Bank Degroof Petercam. The app probably won’t immediately deliver a significant impact but could help maintain existing growth momentum, she said.
Akzo-Nobel, along with other giants such as PPG and Sherwin-Williams, produce their own virtual paint apps, which involves years of R&D. This is obviously not an option for small and mid-sized companies. But the smaller companies might perhaps do even better by having their own branded apps from specialized developers such as Colorjinn. It saves them the huge investment, but still provides them with proven technology.

We live in an age of visual culture. A camera phone is carried in more than 2 billion pockets. Full color LCD screens are everywhere. Obviously, this creates a new paradigm with new opportunities.
We humans are, by nature, very visual beings. 30% of our brains are devoted to visual processing, whereas touch accounts for 8% and hearing only for 3%. (source) So it should come as no surprise that content with relevant images gets 94% more views online than content without relevant images. (Source) A modern brand cannot do without visual content to connect and engage consumers. Moreover, the content should preferably be interactive. Without images, most marketers feel they simply cannot fully tell their brand's story.
It is no wonder that images and interactive media have become an important part of the paint marketer's toolbox. In the paint industry, color visualizing tools emerged already as early as 20 years ago. We've come a long way since then. The tools have become much easier to use, more realistic and a lot cheaper. Today, consumers can easily and freely upload a photo of their own home to virtually apply new colors before buying a can of paint. The advantage of painting virtually is that new colors can be tried out safely, without all the work and costs of repainting if they don't like it. So visualizers tend to make people more confident and makes them try bolder colors. For the marketer, it is a chance to show the value and transforming power of the paint's color.

For your inspiration, here are 3 examples of powerful use of color by brands:

Fiat 500

Fiat were not the first, nor the last ones in the car industry to use color as a way to add more value their product. But they sure did a great job. Nowadays, the Fiat 500 is available in a myriad of color options, not only for the paint, but also for the upholstery and interior. Fiat even added textures, two-tones and more. The real neat part is that while they offer a nearly infinite amount of options, the result always adheres to the overall image of the car, which is a cute life-style fashion statement, referring back to the 1950-ties.

Ask Val

The Valspar brand of paint recently launched 'Ask Val', a very well designed website to help people pick paint colors. Even though it lacks a visualizer, and the 'Discover Your Color Personality' doesn't always quite match everyone's preference, it still remains a strong statement on brand and design.

eryone'sNike

Not the first, not the only ones either, but Nike also did a great job on customising their products. Today, Nike shoes can be had in a huge range of color options. But like Fiat, with a limited but smart palette of colors that adheres to the overall design. And like Fiat, the key is not so much the color options as it is the color combinations that can be created. Here's a sports shoe in a Colorjive Widget for you to play with.

The last couple of years we've seen a major growth in the number of paint brands that offer color visualizer tools. Colors sell. And pictures of color sell even more. Most major brands have been offering ways to virtually paint a house for a while now. They are often in the second or even of third generation of software. But now the mid-size and smaller brands are catching up. There's a growing offering of generic tools such as our own Colorjive Lite that can be configured for a specific brand.
Moreover, our statistics show that generally per brand there's a substantial growth in the number of visualizer users. And some brands even show exponential growth. Though the success appears to depend on the way a visualizer is embedded in the visitor's journey. Obviously, a visualizer should pop up at the right place at the right moment and should be accessible without much hurdles.
The old saying, 'a picture is worth a thousand words', seems more relevant than ever. Brands keep investing heavily in visual communication, online as well as in shops. Which stands to reason: a strong picture draws a lot more attention than text. People have a stronger memory for images and imagery is quicker to convey a mood or feeling. As a result, images can be a strong boost for sales.
_{(Photo by Janssem Cardoso)}