Play It Again

As colors go, red is clearly no shrinking violet. It's bold, it's eye-catching, and it's definitely on the rebound in the consumer marketplace. Coloring everything from clothing to linens, this most audacious of hues is--for lack of a better description--red-hot.

"There are sophisticated reds, there are deep wine reds, and then there are reds that come up a bit more pink," says Michelle Lamb, owner of Minneapolis-based color trend forecaster Marketing Directions Inc., explaining the wide range of reds cropping up in the consumer marketplace. "We're also seeing a lot of red-and-green combinations. At one time, if it weren't Christmas, you wouldn't do [that], but that's not the case now."

Speaking of holidays, you can undoubtedly expect an even bigger sea of red products this month in honor of Valentine's Day. Nothing new about that, right? Long after Cupid goes on hiatus, however, we expect the nation's love affair with red to continue--at least, for the foreseeable future. Despite the fact that blue reigns as most Americans' favorite color, red looks to be the color of money.

This article was originally published in the February 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Play It Again.