Raising the white flag

From BlackWhite magazine - issue 03, covered

Resene Technical Director Colin Gooch shares some ‘off colour’ humour.

As you know, Resene is really noted for its strong colours but it would have been fair to say that some years ago we didn’t have the greatest range of off-whites. Not that we didn’t have any – we had been making three – Resene Dutch White, Resene Pearl Lusta and Resene Spanish White – since Adam was a boy. Records show that these products were first supplied in hogsheads and firkins! It was decided that we should smarten our act up and do something more expansive in this area.

To say that I was unimpressed with the outcome would definitely be an understatement!

I railed at the very name of the chart; ‘White Colours’ – an oxymoron, I cried! And the colour names! Red White, Red Haze, Tint Of Red, Red Squeeze; Green White, Green Haze, Tint Of – well, you can see the way it’s going! I asked if their imaginations had gone on holiday? Had their creative juices curdled? As well as other perfectly reasonable observations. But they had saved the best until last: ‘Black White’. ‘Black White’, the last resort of the incompetent! Don’t you know that black and white make grey? Such a mangling of the English language.

The rest is history. The only survivor of that misbegotten colour card, ‘Black White’ ascended to the pinnacle of Resene colour popularity where it remains today and indeed has become an iconic name; so iconic, in fact, that it has become the masthead for this magazine.

And the moral to take out of this story? In matters of marketing, do not let the technical types within a country mile of the creative marketing process. If I do forget my place and offer a new name suggestion, just four words from Nick Nightingale, “remember Black White, Colin”, is sufficient to send me slinking on my way with my tail firmly between my legs.