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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (6294)	11/16/1998 7:07:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 9523

11/16 18:45 FEATURE-The future is here and marketers say it's blue By Hester Abrams LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Blue jeans, blue computers, blue cola cans, blue pills. Blue -- the colour of introspection, open space and the future -- will soon seep everywhere, even into your bathwater and wallet, as marketers latch onto a mood for the Millennium. Green has been the decades-old metaphor for environmental friendliness in companies like the Body Shop <BOS.L>. But new research suggests that in the 2000s marketing thinking will adopt blue to symbolise an integrated, rewarding experience from brands. "Though there is some debate over what colour or colours consumers will most associate with the year 2000 and beyond, our research shows that the clear front-runner is blue," the Brand Futures group at advertising agency Young & Rubicam forecasts. The agency said it polled colleagues in 41 countries about the connection between colours and the Millennium and found those who mentioned blue consistently associated it with sky and water, a sense of limitlessness and peace. COLOUR YOUR WORLD Colour theorists are often involved in marketing decisions where shades and tones are essential to corporate image, packaging and product design. A mood registered in market research can be captured by a colour choice in a finished product or advertising to promote a subconscious connection of feelings with a brand. Young & Rubicam's research started with an observation that, in the United States, wearing jeans to the office on Fridays is regarded as normal. The agency's trend analyst Marian Salzman calls blue jeans archetypal Millennium wear. She cited a raft of manufacturers hooking up to a blue bandwagon -- from PepsiCo <PEP.N> rebranding its red cola cans blue to ice-blue makeup to Apple's <AAPL.O> new blue iMac computer. Pfizer's <PFE.N> Viagra tablets, the impotence cure and the marketing sensation of 1998, are also blue. But British marketers may be slow to link blue with the Millennium. For the New Millennium Experience Company, which is in charge of the activities for the Thames-side Millennium Dome in London, 2000 conjures up an exciting yellow. Millennium Experience asked consumers what they associated with 2000 and found a feeling of "positivity and sunlight", a spokesman said. The company's logo shows a bronze-yellow standing figure and the suggestion of a breaking dawn. FROM GREEN TO BLUE Other companies have tapped into the blue dimension in consumer attitudes. Handmade bath products maker Lush says one of its best-sellers is a powder-blue "bath ballistic" which fizzes in water, releasing a stream of blue flower petals. "Our customers think that green is healing and good for them. But they almost expect that now, they almost take it for granted," said Helen Ambrosen, who formulates Lush products. "So the next move is the introspective, de-stressing thing which they get from blue." When American Express <AXP.N> recently launched a new charge card, it chose the name "blue" to distinguish it from the well-known green card and to tie in with the company's blue box logo. "Blue is always in fashion. It's cool in terms of colour and hipness," said American Express spokesman Doug Smith. It speaks to people aged 25-35, he said, "who work to live rather than live to work".