Signature look

1 and 2. All of Bachman’s signage—from big displays down to bench cards—displays the company’s signature purple color.

The right color scheme can make or break your store's brand identity. A consistent, signature look becomes synonymous with your retail mission. Deviate too much from this recognizable scheme, and you've got problems.

It's a lesson that Coca-Cola learned firsthand just a few short months ago. Yes, even consumer-product giants have their missteps. Kevin Dugan, a public relations and branding expert, chronicled the debacle on his blog, prblog.typepad.com.

To commemorate the holiday season, Coca-Cola decided to put regular Coke in a white polar-bear themed can. The results were disastrous.

Customers were confused, and the marketing faux pas become fodder for online commentary.

"From store shelves to the packages on those shelves, Coke realized how well they've used color to differentiate their three big brands from each other when they broke their own rules," Dugan said. "A holiday-themed design for the Coke can seems harmless enough. But as you can see, Coke and Diet Coke fans alike were understandably confused by the temporary switcheroo."

Indeed, there's an important lesson to be learned from this high-dollar mistake.

"You can call this a Coke fail, but I call it a reminder of how good Coke's established its individual brands with just color," Dugan continued. "But then again, I'm not covering the cost from recalling the holiday cans earlier than planned and replacing them with 'the right colors.'"

3. Yes, even the umbrellas that allow customers to browse the plant yard on a rainy day are purple. 4.Bachman’s eye-catching fleet of purple trucks delivers more than 5,000 packages during an average week.

Color done right.
To see an example of effective color-branding in the green industry, head over to www.bachmans.com. Bachman's Floral Gift & Garden, based in Minneapolis-St. Paul, is all about the color purple. For locals, this distinctive hue immediately brings "plants, flowers and Bachman's" to mind.

The company has been in business since 1885, and purple has been its signature color since the mid-1920s, when its first retail store opened. Albert Bachman chose the company's distinctive color when a paper salesman presented him with three color choices for wrapping. Albert chose purple —much to the salesperson's dismay—because no other company wanted to use purple as a company color.

Fast forward to the present, where Bachman's fleet of purple floral trucks delivers more than 5,000 packages during an average week. That's one way to spread a color-branding concept!