As General Motors closes plants and lays off thousands of employees as yet another cost-cutting measure, the importance of color palettes may seem odd. Yet, like in marketing, color trends may be more important than ever to GM and other automakers.

As if GM doesn't have enough problems selling vehicles the public want, research shows that 40 percent of consumers will defect to another brand if they can't find the vehicle color they want. Thus "the world's No. 1 automaker" is not taking its color palette lightly.

"The greater attention to color comes at a time when consumers are demanding more style from the everyday products they buy," the article notes, pointing out the sudden selling points of sharp color and design "for everything from kitchen utensils to washing machines at Sears."

It also comes at a time when the company is bleeding money.

One of GM's design team's biggest missions in recent years has been to cut waste and streamline its own processes. In order to build stronger brand identities and bring more cost-saving uniformity to manufacturing, the Detroit, Mich.-based company is being more judicial about how it selects colors for its vehicles, paring down its international paint palette.

A few years ago, GM used about 111 vehicle paint colors in North America. That number has been trimmed to around 60 since, at a savings of millions per year, according to Helen Emsley, GM's global director of design, color and trim, in a Detroit News article last week.

Designers are seeing a resurgence of color in not only consumer products such as cell phones and appliances, but also a "return to color" in vehicle paints.

GM's current lineup's colors go by a host of names: Gunmetal Metallic, Lunar Quartz and -- we're not kidding -- Antique Bronze.

"But don't expect an explosion of green, yellow and purple cars on roads in coming years," Detroit News says, as the trend is more about richer, more complex appearances by "infusing" neutral shades with more color.

Conventional wisdom may say consumers' tastes in car colors would be more adventurous in these modern times, yet more than half (50+ percent) of consumers still select silver, black, white or beige when they go to purchase a vehicle.

To embolden such boring enduringly traditional color choices, GM and other automakers are developing high-tech finishes that add depth and texture to these more-popular neutral paint colors. For instance, GM is adding microscopic flakes to the paint that appear to change color in the light. The new Cadillac DTS sedan is one of the first to have this high-tech coating applied, with a hue-shifting Titanium gray that "can look almost green, or even violet," at times.

Of course, the high-tech coating comes at an extra charge: $1,000.

Chris Webb, GM's creative designer for interior-exterior color, recently told The Chicago Tribune that one reason the hue-shifting Cadillac exterior adds to the bottom line is because the process requires two paint lines in the factory. Webb said the vehicle "must pass through separate lines to acquire two colors before progressing to the clear coat, typically at the end of every color line."

The 2006 Buick Lucerna also sports the tri-coat process with a color dubbed Sharkskin, Webb said.

As interest in vehicle customization grows, bolder, louder color choices are gaining strength.

"Believe me, we want to have more colors," Emsley said.

Experts say color shifts go in cycles and could be driven by economic climate or political and social trends. Green was the most popular car color choice during the '90s due in part to the prominent rise of the environmental movement. And silver has dominated during the past six years, "a possible nod to the increasing role of technology in daily life," The Detroit News article posits. Further, "blue is making a comeback . . . and red is moving out of its lowbrow yellowy stage into a richer, blue period." Blue has broken into the top-five vehicle color choices during the past two years, and red made gains in 2005.

The problem with autos taking color and design cues from cell phone trends and the like, of course, lies in timeliness. Staying current with color trends is more difficult for automakers, as they must lock in vehicle designs and paint color choices about three years in advance of a car or truck hitting the market. It's not a fast process. For instance, the small design team at GM's color lab in Warren just completed color selections for the 2009 model year and has begun working on 2010, says The Detroit News. In addition, each new color costs GM about $1 million from the idea stage to production.

But if you can afford the Cadillac DTS sedan with the $1k hue-shifting Titanium gray, and depending on the light, you could get two (gray and green) or even three (gray and green and even violet) colors for the price of one.

Sources

Crazy for color
by Brett Clanton
The Detroit News, Aug. 7, 2006

Distinctive new hues color supplier trends
by Jenny King
The Chicago Tribune (Special to), Feb. 10, 2006