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CHERYL SWANSON
Optimism, familiarity and comfort are chords marketers can expect to strike with emotional resonance in these times of consumer retrenchment, said brand image developer Cheryl Swanson, president of Toniq.
Americans are in a holding pattern, as they seek greater meaning, simplicity and things they can use with ease, she observed. In the current atmosphere, anything too terribly new will prompt people to question whether they need it, Swanson said. In an interview in her Manhattan studio, she gave the thumbs down to PepsiCo's redesign of its Pepsi, Gatorade and Tropicana branding; since then, the company decided to bring back its traditional Tropicana, straw-in-orange imagery, citing consumer complaints.
While she is anticipating more people will be donning brightly colored fashions as a mood elevator Swanson herself has taken to black. I caved, she admitted. I now say I am a New Yorker. I am doing the black thing.
WWD: What kind of marketing messages and images could be effective in the year ahead, given the economic morass?
Cheryl Swanson: Brands that have a...