When you think of big chocolate companies, what are the major companies that you think of? The ones that come to mind are Hershey, Ghirardelli, Nestle, and Cadbury. Each of these big companies, or even any big companies for that matter, has a certain brand image. Apple has the whole i-thing going for them…iPod, iTunes, and iPad, along with an apple for a logo too. McDonald’s has the golden arches. Nike has the swoosh. Cadbury’s brand image is a color: Pantone 2865c. For those of you who don’t know what Pantone 2864c is, well, it’s the color purple.
Cadbury has been using this distinctive color since 1914, according to this Marketing Week article, and now has won the battle with Nestle. What Cadbury had to do to win the battle was show that they have been using this color for a long time, and that this color is what people think of when they think of the company. The lawyer for Cadbury in the case, Fiona McBride, says: “Color registrations are notoriously difficult to obtain, largely because it can be difficult to prove sufficient use to demonstrate that the color has become synonymous with the brand in the mind of the consumer. Brand owners should definitely continue to consider registering a color for trade mark protection where they believe that it has become a powerful and distinctive part of their brand.”
Cadbury thinks that if its competitors gain access to this trademarked color, the other major players in the market would use this color with their products as well. When Cadbury goes to such lengths as a legal battle to protect just a color, it shows us how important that these little things are to a company’s brand image. And these companies will go to all lengths to protect them.
I believe that color is a major factor when your trying to establish brand equity. When the color purple comes to mind Cadbury wants you think think of them. I read an article about Starbucks and its use of the color green. Starbucks CEO was adamant how important their logo and color were to their companies success. I believe that Cadbury should protect its trademark because losing it would cause their company to lose their identity. I understand that is difficult to trademark color, but if Cadbury thinks purple is essential to its success I say fight for it!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler, being that color does a play a major role when creating brand equity. Personally, when I see that color, I do think of Cadbury and no other brands. If they start to allow other brands to use this color, it will almost become misleading to the consumers. Some people may believe that it is Cadbury solely based on the color and not even pay attention to the name of the company written on it. All in all, I believe that they have every right to fight for the color in order for their company to stay as successful as they are.
ReplyDeleteCadbury has even more of an issue with brand recognition because of the actual product they produce. Lets be honest Cadbury and Nestle may be the best chocolates, but if you buy a chocolate bar from Hy-Vee its going to taste the same for the most part. By being able to keep their color solely to themselves it will keep people from using Cadbury's colors and in turn having customers confuse the color for Cadbury's brand. This has the same effect for other products as well. If you can create a product that is original and almost impossible for other to recreate then you wouldn't be worried about color recognition. With chocolate though its a little different story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of you to a certain extent. The fact that color has a defining role in a company's brand is really important. Like Tyler said, Starbucks is known for their green. At some point though, the trademarking of colors is going to run out. You can't allow companies to trademark colors because you are going to have companies that will attempt to trademark primary colors red blue yellow and then so on until there is nothing left to trademark.
ReplyDeleteSo yes the color is very defining of a company, but you can't restrict other companies from using a color just because you are using it. I think there are more angles to looks at other than who had the color first.
I agree with Paul completely. To some degree you can trademark things: slogan, graphics, etc. But color is so arbitrary. Almost every product could claim its right to a trademark color. At some point though the legal battles over these rights will run out and marketing will be entirely limited and new companies will not be able to develop a brand to sell. I think that Cadbury should be protective of their color and image, however if companies were concerned with ousting the competition, they should be focused on doing everything they can to set themselves apart rather than copying an already successful company.
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