A Colour Selection System to Better Inform the Colour Forecasting Process

Colour forecasting is a process where attempts are made to accurately forecast colour for fashion-related products that consumers will purchase in the near future. Seasonal colours are recognised as a powerful driving force of fashion-related products and consumer research of desires and preferences has become an important integral part of design and marketing processes. Trend forecasts are marketed globally by forecast companies to many fashion-related industries in order to increase their market coverage. They do not take into account colour acceptance levels of target markets on which fashion-related industries focus their design and marketing efforts. The information they sell is broad and generalised, even so, they claim to aim for 80% accuracy in their predictions. In a previous study, the anticipation of consumer acceptance was identified as the weakness of the current colour forecasting process. An improved system model, which replaced the anticipation stage with consumer colour acceptance data was conceptually developed and tested. In order to generate sales on the high street, this improved process requires accurate knowledge of consumer colour acceptance which would entail additional cost and time for the fashion industry to implement. It is therefore critical for a tool to be made available that does this part of the process for them. Hence, this research proposes to establish a framework necessary to develop and provide such a colour selection tool that will enable the users of colour forecasting information to generate colour ranges for their products that will have greater consumer acceptance. The tool will enable fashion companies to take control of their own colour forecasting process through the colour selections they make for their ranges. Essentially the tool will benefit the UK fashion industry’s competitiveness in the global market and assist waste reduction (unwanted goods) that impact on the environment.