Ford Customer Tastes Revealed by Global Color Studies

American automaker Ford recently released details of various studies conducted on European and U.S. customers that analyzed color trends by market. According to that study, both regions remain loyal to traditional core colors, namely white, black, silver and gray.

Only one country in Europe has a top color other than white, black or silver: The Czech Republic chooses blue.

“The trend continues to be toward core colors – the classics,” said Susan Swek, Ford’s group chief designer for Color and Materials. “We strive within Ford to achieve the best black, silver, white and gray. We’re always working to make them even more appealing.”

Paint, she said, is no different from clothing when it comes to color and style. “The classics are continually upgraded – and always with a modern twist,” Swek said. “In Europe, we’ve added tri-coat pearl technology to give gray-scale colors a glimmer. And in North America we are creating more tinted clear coats for a rich, luscious effect.”

Also, French and Italian motorists like cream-colored vehicles, the Irish like silver, while customers in Denmark prefer black, and those in Belgium like gray. Nearly 50 percent of all vehicles sold in Turkey are white. Black is the color of choice for most drivers in Norway, Portugal, Germany and Russia. And, besides Ireland, Romania, Finland, Poland and Sweden chose silver more times than not.

"Red used to be, far and away, the most popular color,” said Vince Show, Marketing and Product Strategy manager for Ford of Europe. “White is in the ascendancy now. Dark grays, blacks and blues are popular, as they are in men or women’s clothing.”
 
“It’s important to get the right color into the market at the right time,” Swek said. “Too early, and it won’t have registered on customers’ radar. Too late, and the popularity of a particular color may have already reached its peak.”