The Eleventh-Hour Upgrade

Worried Sellers Splurge on Redos
But Many Won't Recover Costs;
Focusing on the 'Icky' Item

By JUNE FLETCHER
February 1, 2008; Page W8

Christina Lee just spent $150,000 to remodel her house -- for a stranger.

Ms. Lee has lived in her 19th century New York City brownstone for nearly three decades and in that time did just one major upgrade -- a $25,000 makeover of a kitchen 13 years ago. Now, the attorney wants to relocate her law practice to Seattle and sell her place -- which she bought in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of northern Manhattan back in 1979 for $70,000. So for the past few months, the 4,400-square-foot house has been a frenzy of contractors, who have refinished floors and woodwork, overhauled her second kitchen, changed two bedrooms into sunrooms and redone a bath, complete with vessel sink, new shower and recessed lighting.

The modernistic redo doesn't quite match her own taste. But it did mimic the décor in newspaper real-estate sections. Ms. Lee says she hopes it will cement a quick sale when she puts her house on the market at "something north" of $2 million. "If I didn't do this, I wouldn't get my best price," she says.

Add another hassle to the headache of home selling: the last-minute renovation. With the housing market continuing to weaken, many sellers are going beyond the usual cleaning, painting and "staging" with flowers and pillows, by taking on big-ticket projects.

Some experts warn that sellers are unlikely to get their money back from extensive renovations. But owners often feel they have no choice if they want to sell, especially when builders of newly constructed homes are throwing in hardwood floors, finished basements and other free upgrades.

"There's so much competition, you need to stand out," says Brian Goe, a waterproofing-company owner. He spent $28,000 to upgrade a Bedminster, N.J., house that he bought in 1987 for $187,000. Before it hit the market a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Goe had contractors add pickled oak flooring to the dining room and new carpeting. They installed skylights in the living room, new stainless-steel kitchen appliances and separate sinks in the master bath. He had the interior walls painted in faux finishes.

PAYBACK TIME

 

Selected remodeling projects with average estimated percentage of costs recovered when home is sold.

PROJECT	COST	AMOUNT RECOUPED
Deck addition (wood) Build a 16-by-20-foot deck, including a built-in bench, planter, stairs and rail system	$10,347	85.4%
Siding replacement Replace 1,250 square feet with new vinyl siding, including trim	$9,910	83.2%
Minor kitchen remodel Includes new laminated countertops and fronts for 30 linear feet of cabinetry, oven, cooktop, sink and faucet, flooring	$21,185	83%
Window replacement – wood Replace 10 3-by-5-foot double-hung windows with new insulated windows	$11,384	81.2%
Bathroom remodel Includes new tub and tiling, solid-surface counter and sink, recessed medicine cabinet, vinyl wallpaper	$15,789	78.3%
Basement remodel Includes a 5-by-8-foot bathroom and a wet bar with under-counter refrigerator	$59,435	75.1%
Two-story addition A 24-by-16-foot wing including family room with prefabricated fireplace and a bedroom with full bath	$139,297	73.9%
Master suite addition A 24-by-16-foot bedroom with walk-in closet and bathroom with shower and raised whirlpool tub	$98,863	69%
Sunroom addition Build a 200-square-foot room with 10 large skylights, casement windows with movable shades and quarry tile floor	$69,817	59.1%
Home office remodel Convert a 12-by-12-foot room with custom cabinetry including 20 linear feet of laminated desktop, computer workstation, wall storage and rewiring for computer, telephone and other electronics	$27,193	57%

Source: Remodeling 2007 Cost vs. Value Report. Cost data from HomeTech Information Systems; includes labor. Recoup values are based on a 2007 survey of 2,700 members of the National Association of Realtors. Data for 60 cities can be downloaded free from www.costvsvalue.com

Such are the decisions homeowners make in a market where the news, for sellers, goes from bad to worse. According to the National Association of Realtors, the pace of sales of existing homes fell 22% in December compared with a year earlier. The median price fell 6% to $208,400.

The depressed market is hurting remodeling overall. Homeowner spending is expected to fall at an annual rate of 2.6% through the third quarter this year, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. The center doesn't break out separate home-improvement spending by owners preparing to sell. But Kermit Baker, director of the center's Remodeling Futures Program, says, "I suspect that there is a fair amount of this happening, given the softness in the housing market."

An online poll of 445 contractors conducted last week for The Wall Street Journal by ServiceMagic, a national contractor-referral service in Golden, Colo., indicates last-minute renovating is propping up a sizable chunk of the remodeling industry. According to the poll, 26% of contractors said they had been contacted in the past year by prospective home sellers looking to do substantial work. Of those contractors, 48% said such work had boosted their business by 20% or more.

Extensive presale remodeling is often fraught with conflicted decisions, because homeowners are making aesthetic choices they hope will please people they don't know. Tracey Born Fitzgerald, a marketing consultant, recently spent weeks visiting 20 open houses, buttonholing real-estate agents and watching makeover shows on TV to figure out what to do to the 1930s Los Angeles house that she and her two sisters inherited from their mother. She discovered that it wasn't important to install top-of-the line appliances. Instead, she put in good-quality, matching appliances and new countertops -- she had them tiled in seafoam green -- and replaced cabinet fronts, carpeting, doors, faucets, fixtures and lighting in a traditional style that didn't clash with the English Tudor home. All these upgrades cost her $55,000.

Ms. Fitzgerald says it was essential to let go of her personal preferences for the house, which she is planning to list "in the upper $3 million range." "I had to think, if I were a buyer, what would I want?" she says.

No matter what the upgrade, homeowners aren't likely to recoup all the money spent when they sell. According to Remodeling magazine's annual Cost Versus Value Survey, the overall return for remodeling projects is on the decline, falling to an average of 70% in 2007 from 86.7% at the market peak in 2005.

For a project using midrange products, the best returns come from putting on a new deck, replacing the siding and sprucing up the kitchen; the lowest returns come from remodeling a home office, adding a sunroom or putting in a backup power generator.

Tricia Sinn, a Ladue, Mo., remodeler who recently oversaw a seller's $24,000 last-minute redo, says rather than splurge on major upgrades, it is often better to remove aging window treatments and other dated features and to selectively replace worn and "icky" items, such as countertops, shower doors and hardware. "A comprehensive, clean look is better than one newly renovated area," she says. The house she worked on sold at the first open house for $645,000 -- $4,900 less than the asking price.

Some sellers aren't worried about recouping what they've spent. Carl Frederick, a landscape-lighting company executive, spent $23,000 preparing to sell his four-bedroom Boston Heights, Ohio, home. It was only nine years old, but Mr. Frederick replaced laminated countertops with granite, installed new sinks with brushed-nickel faucets, replaced light fixtures -- and put the house on the market in April for $879,000.

Several contracts fell through before it finally sold for $775,000. Mr. Frederick paid $700,000 for the house five years ago -- leaving him with little profit after the agent's fees and closing costs. But he has no regrets. "At the end of the day, I sold the house," he says.

Write to June Fletcher at june.fletcher@wsj.com¹

 

WANTED: REFERRAL PARTNERS

If you've been in business for more than five minutes, you already know that the best way for any decorating professional to get clients is by referral. But the process of building sufficient word of mouth to produce the number of clients you need can seem daunting. You can count on some referrals from your existing clients and people who already know you, but that's a fairly limited number. How can you start getting referrals from people outside your circle?

Actually, a better question is how to increase the size of your circle to include more people. In order to refer you business, people need to know, like, and trust you. They want to be sure that you will take good care of the clients they send you. For that, they'd like to be better acquainted than just hearing your name.

Imagine that you had a group of 100 people who were willing to refer clients to you. Now, imagine further that this "circle of 100" were people whose own work put them in touch with your potential clients every day. Sounds ideal, doesn't it? Building a circle like this of your own may be easier than you think.

One of my clients, set about doing exactly this when she first launched her business. She identified a list of people in her city who were likely to be strong referral sources, and began methodically making their acquaintance. Within a few months, she had a steady stream of new clients. Better still, since all these clients were referrals, they were usually ready to do business when they first contacted her, and required little selling on her part.

To use this approach effectively, it's not just a matter of knowing enough people. You have to know the right people. Here's how to begin:

1. Create a most-wanted list of businesses that are frequently in touch with the type of client you desire. A good source are those in the Home Improvement Business. Look for businesses that serve the same clientele as you but don't compete with you. I have started a networking group just for this purpose. You can check out the website: www.rockbiz.org

2. Seek them out, meet with them, and familiarize them with your expertise and the benefits of the service you offer. Find out more about what they do and the type of clients they serve so you can refer business to them as well.

3. When you connect with someone who seems open to sending you referrals from time to time, you have found a referral partner. Add their name to your list.

When you have a specific goal like this in mind, your networking can become much more focused. As you meet new people, you'll be able to decide just from looking at their business card whether following up with them should be part of your plan. Whenever you meet someone whose occupation matches one on your list, ask, "I think we might be able to refer each other clients. Can we get together and talk about that?"

Don't be concerned if you fear that you won't have any referrals to give the people you're talking to. Neither of you are making a promise to send each other clients; you are simply expanding your circles to increase the likelihood of that happening. As you get to know more people in your niche, it's quite likely that you will find yourself making referrals more often.

Over time, you may find that some of the people in your circle aren't particularly good referral sources. That's to be expected. The reason you want so many names to start with is that only a few of them will consistently refer. You can always add more names later to replace some of the people who don't seem as helpful. It's likely, though, that just a few steady referral partners will be more than enough to keep you busy.

Here is a brief list of potential referral partners for our industry:
Painters, Plumbers, Landscapers or Lawncare, Remoldelers, Builders, Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Headhunters (people relocating), Roofers, Home Inspectors, Title Insurers, Insurance Brokers, Attorneys, Housekeeping Services, Closet and Storage, Art Dealers, Bath and Kitchen Cabinets, Oriental Carpets, Electrician, Security, Heating and A/C.

 

IF YOU WANT TO GET CLIENTS, YOU'LL HAVE TO TALK TO THEM
"I've done everything I can think of to get clients," a desperate self-employed professional writes. "I printed a brochure, I have a web site, and I've placed ads. But no one is hiring me. What am I doing wrong?"
This unhappy business owner has made a common mistake. He seems to believe that investing money in placing ads and creating marketing materials will somehow produce clients without the direct involvement of the business owner.
Perhaps professionals who make this mistake are trying to follow a big business model. They hide behind a company name, expensive marketing literature, and a web site. They spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on ads, directory listings, and trade show booths. Far too many self-employed professionals don't even disclose their own name in their marketing.
But people don't buy decorating services from an anonymous company; they buy them from individual people they have learned to know, like, and trust. The more personal -- or the more expensive -- the service you offer is, the more likely this is to be true.
As a decorator, you are asking people to trust you with one of the most personal areas of their lives. You don't earn people's trust by sending them a brochure.
Here are the five things that work best for most decorators to get clients:1. Meeting people in person -- at events or by appointment2. Talking to people on the phone3. Sending personal letters and emails4. Following up personally over time5. Speaking to groups at meetings and networking events
And here are the five things self-employed professionals most often try that don't work:1. Placing ads in the Yellow Pages or local newspaper2. Distributing flyers around their community3. Mailing mass-produced letters or brochures to strangers4. Sending their newsletter to people who haven't asked for it5. Posting their brochure on the Internet and calling that a web site
The main difference between these two lists is that the first list requires you to talk to people. On the second list are anonymous activities that allow you to hide out and never meet the people you are in business to serve.
If you want people to become your clients, they need to get to know you, learn to like you, and believe they can trust you. And for that, they really do need to meet you.
It is understandable why so many business owners gravitate to the least effective marketing tactics -- they are so much easier! To buy an ad, all you have to do is put up the money. To send a letter, all you need is an address and a stamp. It's much more challenging to go out and meet strangers, or to call people on the phone and ask for their business.
But the reality is that this is what it takes. Even if you have the world's best web site, it's a rare client who finds their way to it, reads it, and decides then and there to work with you. The same is true for a brochure. Both of these marketing tools are simply that -- tools. Just like a pair of pliers, they need a person holding them in order for them to work.
What clients want is to get a sense of who you are as a person. They want to see your face or hear your voice, to get to know you over time. If you don't have enough confidence in your business to speak to people in person about it, how will they ever have enough confidence in you to hire you?
What you'll discover if you begin to meet clients in person, talk to them on the phone, and ask directly for their business, is that it gets easier the more you do it. It will build your confidence in yourself -- and the confidence your prospective clients have in you -- at the same time.
If you're in the business of serving people, your best marketing tool is your own voice. So put it to work and start talking to them.To your success,
Neil

No Excuses for 2008

Interior designers predict a busy 2008.
The San Francisco Chronicle (1/1/08, G1, Fornoff) reported that in San Francisco, Calif., area "interior designers are looking forward to a busy 2008 -- and, odd as it seems, the nation's mortgage crisis may deserve credit for that." Kelly Keiser, Allied Member ASID, noted, "The design market is thriving, and I think that has to do with the shift in the economy." According to Keiser, instead of flipping houses, people are "staying in homes longer" and "investing in their houses." In one sample, the consensus of 11 design professionals "was that business is booming, with budgets so unconstrained that increased customization and one-of-a-kind elements are taking center stage."

To your success!
Neil

Anxious? You Should be!

NY Times
December 30, 2007
Preoccupations
Anxious? You Should Be. It’s Good for Business.
By ROBERT H. ROSEN
ANXIETY is usually something people want to avoid. The dictionary defines it as “a state of being uneasy, apprehensive or worried about what may happen.” People who experience too much anxiety may find themselves on a therapist’s couch, and doctors prescribe pills to keep this feeling away.
And yet, in my work as an adviser to executives, I have found that in corporate life there is a place for anxiety, as long as it is understood and managed the right way. I have interviewed or advised 250 top executives at companies that include Procter & Gamble, Toyota, PepsiCo, Four Seasons Hotels, Ericsson, Samsung and Novartis. I have seen the positive effect that anxiety has had on their organizations — whether intentional or not.
The success of great leaders is all about creating just enough anxiety — within themselves and their organizations — to unleash the energy that drives powerful leadership, accelerates growth and helps companies succeed.
I have come to realize that both personality and culture influence the way leaders handle change and uncertainty, and the anxiety that comes with them. Just enough anxiety enables the best leaders to embrace uncertainty and to turn challenges into opportunities. It prods them to make meaningful and necessary changes within themselves and their organizations.
What is just enough anxiety? It is the exact amount we need to respond to change, tackle a tough problem or take a leap of faith. It is the right level of energy combined with the right attitude that enables us to perform at our best. Just enough anxiety is a catalyst for individual and organizational growth.
Contrast this with too much anxiety, which is mired in negative thinking and characterized by the desire to attack change. This can lead to arrogance, fear, mistakes and low morale. Or contrast it with too little anxiety, which is grounded in complacency and the belief that everything will turn out O.K., without intervention. This can result in a failure to confront hard issues, mediocre performance and untapped potential. Both too much and too little anxiety inhibit top performance and lead to deterioration and decline.
Having just enough anxiety has led me to become a better teacher and motivator. It propelled me to stretch myself to get my Ph.D. It enabled me to step outside my comfort zone and start my own business. It continually challenges me to grow. And it helps me coach senior executives as they deal with ever-changing issues in an ever-changing world.
Like all leaders, I am constantly moving back and forth between too much, too little and just enough anxiety.
Not long ago my company was working hard to keep up with a growth spurt. I was being pulled in many directions, traveling a lot, and was tired and overly impatient. Even though I am committed to healthy leadership, I was unknowingly taking out my anxiety on my team.
Fortunately, we were testing a new 360-degree performance evaluation at the time. People described me as “bold, honest and a strong leader.” But they also told me I was being “unpredictable and moody” at times. They helped me realize that I wasn’t listening to them very well and was jumping to conclusions. To be honest, I was surprised and embarrassed by the feedback but grateful for the chance to examine my actions. After a candid conversation, we got our team back on track.
I recognized that it was my resistance to my discomfort with the stresses of the business that had created too much anxiety within me. This led to increasing levels of tension and conflict between me and my team. At the same time, it was my acceptance of my discomfort in hearing people’s feedback that allowed me to have an honest conversation with them about my performance. The experience helped me make positive changes in how I look at and handle the pressures of a growing business.
IF you’ve ever taught a child to ride a bike, you know all about managing anxiety in yourself and the people around you. You know it’s up to you to help the child conquer fears. After all, you’re the adult. But you’ve got fears of your own. You want to help him become more independent, to build his self-confidence. But what if he falls? What if he gets hurt? You see the hesitation, fear, and excitement on the child’s face. But he says that he wants to do it, so you let go of the bike. That’s my idea of leadership.
Your relationship with uncertainty and anxiety has a profound effect on your life and your ability to lead people through change. It shapes how you see yourself and others, and how others see you. It influences how you think about problems and make decisions. And it’s a crucial factor in how you manage performance and interact with people.
When you manage this powerful force correctly, you create just enough anxiety inside and outside yourself. You are better able to learn, change and navigate in a complex world. You unleash vast amounts of human energy. And you lead people and companies to levels of success they’ve never reached before.
Robert H. Rosen is a psychologist and chief executive of Healthy Companies International, a consulting firm in Arlington, Va. His book “Just Enough Anxiety” will be published by Portfolio in March.

NY Times, July 31^st, 2007

Who’s Minding the Mind?

By BENEDICT CAREY

In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee.

The study participants, college students, had no idea that their social instincts were being deliberately manipulated. On the way to the laboratory, they had bumped into a laboratory assistant, who was holding textbooks, a clipboard, papers and a cup of hot or iced coffee — and asked for a hand with the cup.

That was all it took: The students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot java.

Findings like this one, as improbable as they seem, have poured forth in psychological research over the last few years. New studies have found that people tidy up more thoroughly when there’s a faint tang of cleaning liquid in the air; they become more competitive if there’s a briefcase in sight, or more cooperative if they glimpse words like “dependable” and “support” — all without being aware of the change, or what prompted it.

Psychologists say that “priming” people in this way is not some form of hypnotism, or even subliminal seduction; rather, it’s a demonstration of how everyday sights, smells and sounds can selectively activate goals or motives that people already have.

More fundamentally, the new studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses.

The give and take between these unconscious choices and our rational, conscious aims can help explain some of the more mystifying realities of behavior, like how we can be generous one moment and petty the next, or act rudely at a dinner party when convinced we are emanating charm.

“When it comes to our behavior from moment to moment, the big question is, ‘What to do next?’ ” said John A. Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale and a co-author, with Lawrence Williams, of the coffee study, which was presented at a recent psychology conference. “Well, we’re finding that we have these unconscious behavioral guidance systems that are continually furnishing suggestions through the day about what to do next, and the brain is considering and often acting on those, all before conscious awareness.”

Dr. Bargh added: “Sometimes those goals are in line with our conscious intentions and purposes, and sometimes they’re not.”

Priming the Unconscious

The idea of subliminal influence has a mixed reputation among scientists because of a history of advertising hype and apparent fraud. In 1957, an ad man named James Vicary claimed to have increased sales of Coca-Cola and popcorn at a movie theater in Fort Lee, N.J., by secretly flashing the words “Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coke” during the film, too quickly to be consciously noticed. But advertisers and regulators doubted his story from the beginning, and in a 1962 interview, Mr. Vicary acknowledged that he had trumped up the findings to gain attention for his business.

Later studies of products promising subliminal improvement, for things like memory and self-esteem, found no effect.

Some scientists also caution against overstating the implications of the latest research on priming unconscious goals. The new research “doesn’t prove that consciousness never does anything,” wrote Roy Baumeister, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, in an e-mail message. “It’s rather like showing you can hot-wire a car to start the ignition without keys. That’s important and potentially useful information, but it doesn’t prove that keys don’t exist or that keys are useless.”

Yet he and most in the field now agree that the evidence for psychological hot-wiring has become overwhelming. In one 2004 experiment, psychologists led by Aaron Kay, then at Stanford University and now at the University of Waterloo, had students take part in a one-on-one investment game with another, unseen player.

Half the students played while sitting at a large table, at the other end of which was a briefcase and a black leather portfolio. These students were far stingier with their money than the others, who played in an identical room, but with a backpack on the table instead.

The mere presence of the briefcase, noticed but not consciously registered, generated business-related associations and expectations, the authors argue, leading the brain to run the most appropriate goal program: compete. The students had no sense of whether they had acted selfishly or generously.

In another experiment, published in 2005, Dutch psychologists had undergraduates sit in a cubicle and fill out a questionnaire. Hidden in the room was a bucket of water with a splash of citrus-scented cleaning fluid, giving off a faint odor. After completing the questionnaire, the young men and women had a snack, a crumbly biscuit provided by laboratory staff members.

The researchers covertly filmed the snack time and found that these students cleared away crumbs three times more often than a comparison group, who had taken the same questionnaire in a room with no cleaning scent. “That is a very big effect, and they really had no idea they were doing it,” said Henk Aarts, a psychologist at Utrecht University and the senior author of the study.

The Same Brain Circuits

The real-world evidence for these unconscious effects is clear to anyone who has ever run out to the car to avoid the rain and ended up driving too fast, or rushed off to pick up dry cleaning and returned with wine and cigarettes — but no pressed slacks.

The brain appears to use the very same neural circuits to execute an unconscious act as it does a conscious one. In a study that appeared in the journal Science in May, a team of English and French neuroscientists performed brain imaging on 18 men and women who were playing a computer game for money. The players held a handgrip and were told that the tighter they squeezed when an image of money flashed on the screen, the more of the loot they could keep.

As expected, the players squeezed harder when the image of a British pound flashed by than when the image of a penny did — regardless of whether they consciously perceived the pictures, many of which flew by subliminally. But the circuits activated in their brains were similar as well: an area called the ventral pallidum was particularly active whenever the participants responded.

“This area is located in what used to be called the reptilian brain, well below the conscious areas of the brain,” said the study’s senior author, Chris Frith, a professor in neuropsychology at University College London who wrote the book “Making Up The Mind: How the Brain Creates our Mental World.”

The results suggest a “bottom-up” decision-making process, in which the ventral pallidum is part of a circuit that first weighs the reward and decides, then interacts with the higher-level, conscious regions later, if at all, Dr. Frith said.

Scientists have spent years trying to pinpoint the exact neural regions that support conscious awareness, so far in vain. But there’s little doubt it involves the prefrontal cortex, the thin outer layer of brain tissue behind the forehead, and experiments like this one show that it can be one of the last neural areas to know when a decision is made.

This bottom-up order makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. The subcortical areas of the brain evolved first and would have had to help individuals fight, flee and scavenge well before conscious, distinctly human layers were added later in evolutionary history. In this sense, Dr. Bargh argues, unconscious goals can be seen as open-ended, adaptive agents acting on behalf of the broad, genetically encoded aims — automatic survival systems.

In several studies, researchers have also shown that, once covertly activated, an unconscious goal persists with the same determination that is evident in our conscious pursuits. Study participants primed to be cooperative are assiduous in their teamwork, for instance, helping others and sharing resources in games that last 20 minutes or longer. Ditto for those set up to be aggressive.

This may help explain how someone can show up at a party in good spirits and then for some unknown reason — the host’s loafers? the family portrait on the wall? some political comment? — turn a little sour, without realizing the change until later, when a friend remarks on it. “I was rude? Really? When?”

Mark Schaller, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, has done research showing that when self-protective instincts are primed — simply by turning down the lights in a room, for instance — white people who are normally tolerant become unconsciously more likely to detect hostility in the faces of black men with neutral expressions.

“Sometimes nonconscious effects can be bigger in sheer magnitude than conscious ones,” Dr. Schaller said, “because we can’t moderate stuff we don’t have conscious access to, and the goal stays active.”

Until it is satisfied, that is, when the program is subsequently suppressed, research suggests. In one 2006 study, for instance, researchers had Northwestern University undergraduates recall an unethical deed from their past, like betraying a friend, or a virtuous one, like returning lost property. Afterward, the students had their choice of a gift, an antiseptic wipe or a pencil; and those who had recalled bad behavior were twice as likely as the others to take the wipe. They had been primed to psychologically “cleanse” their consciences.

Once their hands were wiped, the students became less likely to agree to volunteer their time to help with a graduate school project. Their hands were clean: the unconscious goal had been satisfied and now was being suppressed, the findings suggest.

What You Don’t Know

Using subtle cues for self-improvement is something like trying to tickle yourself, Dr. Bargh said: priming doesn’t work if you’re aware of it. Manipulating others, while possible, is dicey. “We know that as soon as people feel they’re being manipulated, they do the opposite; it backfires,” he said.

And researchers do not yet know how or when, exactly, unconscious drives may suddenly become conscious; or under which circumstances people are able to override hidden urges by force of will. Millions have quit smoking, for instance, and uncounted numbers have resisted darker urges to misbehave that they don’t even fully understand.

Yet the new research on priming makes it clear that we are not alone in our own consciousness. We have company, an invisible partner who has strong reactions about the world that don’t always agree with our own, but whose instincts, these studies clearly show, are at least as likely to be helpful, and attentive to others, as they are to be disruptive.

 

 

Pantones Color of the Year is...

December 20, 2007
Pantone's Color of the Year Is...
By CATHY HORYN
AT least one color authority, Pantone, has taken the plunge and announced its favorite color for 2008. To be sure, this news doesn’t seem as delectable as People’s Sexiest Man Alive or as snugly affirming as Time’s Person of the Year. You probably did not even know that chili pepper red was the color for 2007.
Nonetheless, Pantone’s choice of blue iris, or No. 18-3943, got some news media attention last week, which seemed to be partly the objective of the company, which is based in Carlstadt, N.J. In a statement, Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said: “Blue Iris brings together the dependable aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast. Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic.”
Later, in a telephone interview, Ms. Eiseman said the selection process had been very thoughtful, based on various influences, and that indeed the final choice reflected a “need for thoughtfulness.” Five individuals were involved in the selection process. “With blue iris, we felt that it answered several needs, hopes, desires, that kind of thing,” she said.
If that strikes you as hazy, you’re not alone. “It’s a little bit on the funny side,” said Micha Riss, the creative director of Flying Machine, a branding and design firm in New York, whose clients include ESPN and Sky Italia. “I respect Pantone a lot, but I see them as a technical service. If Helmut Lang were to make such a projection, I would listen.”
Mr. Lang is, alas, no longer making clothes. Still, designers of his caliber tend to avoid such industrial predictions, on the ground that it leaves them less room to exert their particular influence. After all, where would the world be without Miuccia Prada’s beautification of ugly brown, Tom Ford’s elevation of candy-floss lilac? If a fashion label can be said to own a color, then shocking pink belongs to Schiaparelli. Red is to Valentino what orange is to Tide.
The higher-ups in fashion tend to profess a horror of predictions, anyway. It’s so prosaic, like In and Out lists. As Alber Elbaz, the designer at Lanvin, characterized the shortcomings of forecasts, in a call to his Paris office: “We think we can read ‘How to Become a Millionaire’ or ‘Find a Gorgeous Husband in Three Weeks,’ but a book is a book is a book. We have to go with intuition.” He said forecasts are for the mass market, for retailers and manufacturers who want to be sure they have enough blue sweaters in stock next winter.
Pantone provides standardized palettes for a number of industries, mainly graphics, fashion textiles and interior design. Not surprisingly, Pantone’s competitors in the area of forecasting are skeptical of its choice, if not the motive behind it.
“It’s very good for publicity, and it certainly shows a lot of bravado,” said Margaret Walch, the director of the Color Association, a forecasting group founded in 1915, when the vast majority of its members were milliners, glove makers and hosiery suppliers. Because consumer tastes and values are under a variety of influences — economic, environmental, global — anointing one color isn’t all that meaningful, she said. Is there a color she might have picked instead? Ms. Walch laughed lightly, as if to say, “O.K., I’ll play along.” She answered, “My color for 2008 is bamboo.” A yellowed green, chosen from the association’s interior palette, she said, it “represents the stable green that is most on people’s minds.” She said it’s similar to a hue called Vineyard, adding: “I feel it just has a power. You know, these are very insecure times.”
Before you have a complete freak-out and crawl into your bamboo-colored hole to await the purple dawn, let’s pause and consider a few things. There has indeed been a surge of blue on the runways in the last year, beginning last February with Raf Simons’s dresses and pantsuits, in an Yves Klein blue, for Jil Sander and extending into the spring 2008 collections with Nicolas Ghesquiere’s explosive floral prints for Balenciaga. Mr. Elbaz used a deep lagoon blue in his spring Lanvin show, and one found lighter but no less robust shades in collections by Marni and Chloé, and in the men’s lines of Prada and Alexander McQueen. Dolce & Gabbana called its new fragrance Light Blue. And JWT, the advertising and marketing company, just named blue as one of the top 10 trends for 2008, saying that “blue is the new green,” particularly as it denotes ecological concerns.
“I’m thrilled,” Terron Schaefer, senior vice president of marketing at Saks Fifth Avenue, said of the blue news. This fall, Mr. Schaefer worked with an Amsterdam-based designer, Pete Paris, on new shopping bags for the spring. As it happens, the bags have a large element of a watery blue.
Ms. Eiseman of the Color Institute said she gathers information from various sources, including trade shows like the influential Milan furniture fair. From a marketing standpoint, there’s plenty of reason to think that blue may have eclipsed green.
“I think green is being abused to death,” said Regis Pean, creative director of Studio Red, a branding and design division of the Rockwell Group, which works with companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble. “Everybody wants to be green.” (Notably, Barneys New York, which is promoting a “green Christmas.”) For educated consumers, Mr. Pean said, the overuse of green in marketing is increasingly a turn-off.
There is no doubt that color influences consumer choices, whether it’s as durable as a Tiffany blue box, as sharp and crystal clear as an Apple store, or as seasonal (and socially attuned) as Gap’s Red campaign.
“What if Coke decided to become green?” said Leslie Singer, the president and chief creative officer of G2 Branding & Design. Well, for one thing, the public would lose a prime visual signpost in the supermarket. “Color drives the way you navigate through a store,” Mr. Pean said, pointing out that stores employ what’s called an r and K strategy, based on a mathematical equation. Either they flood an aisle with a block of color or they go for selective, standout placement.
As Ms. Singer points out, heritage brands like Coke and Burberry aren’t really affected by color forecasts. They already have a look and a palette: why confuse matters? For fashion designers the concerns are different. Mr. Elbaz says a color can look one way in a swatch, another in a bolt of cloth, and still another when you cut into it. “There are three stages and each is different,” said Mr. Elbaz, who finds that some of his best colors come from cosmetics — “because they’ve been tested on the face.”
Paradoxically, fashion may not be as responsible for stimulating interest in color as other creative fields — architecture, furniture design and technology. “In the fashion business, we’re a bit dead at the moment because we sold out to bling,” said David Shah, a clothing maker and a forecaster based in Amsterdam, whose View publishing company produces magazines on color and retail trends (including one for Pantone). “The architects and the furniture designers are the new sexy ones.”
Nonetheless, all these creative forces, along with a desire to have more humor, will feed demand for color, Mr. Shah predicted. “Color is now seen as an item of luxury,” he said. Yes, like an orange Hermès box, or a once-humble box of chocolates.