If you heard the waves of announce­ments on the inter­net, you already know about the excite­ment around the Tiffany & Co. and Nike col­lab­o­ra­tion. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the reveal of the Air Force 1 1837 with the “Tiffany Blue” Nike swoosh mark, fell flat for many. This part­ner­ship had the poten­tial to build a cross-over mar­ket with new con­sumers. But, it failed to res­onate with con­sumers who were expect­ing some­thing more from the icon­ic jew­el­ry company.

Why was this part­ner­ship a co-brand­ing and mar­ket­ing flop?

They had the team, cre­ativ­i­ty, and bud­get to make this stick. Despite that, it over­looked the pow­er col­or nos­tal­gia plays on branding.

In this arti­cle, we will explore this col­or nos­tal­gia fail and ana­lyze the impli­ca­tions of their col­lab­o­ra­tion from a brand strat­e­gy perspective.

Unpacking Color Nostalgia: Why The Tiffany & Co. and Nike Collaboration Failed to Resonate with Consumers

The collaboration between Tiffany & Co. and Nike

The recent col­lab­o­ra­tion announce­ment between Tiffany & Co. and Nike sent shock­waves across the inter­net. This spe­cial-edi­tion sneak­er, set to release to the mar­ket on March 3, 2023, was named Air Force 1 1837 as a nudge to the found­ing year of Tiffany & Co.

The Air Force 1 1837 fea­tures pre­mi­um black suede with Tiffany Blue® as the icon­ic Nike swoosh mark, laser-etched co-brand­ed sil­ver plates on the heels, and an archival Tiffany & Co.  logo on the tongue. To add appeal to the co-brand­ing, the shoe will include flat laces in Tiffany Blue®, yel­low, and white.

We can’t for­get about the odd acces­sories in this collaboration!

Added to the $400 sneak­er price, you can pur­chase co-brand­ed ster­ling sil­ver acces­sories, which include: a dubrae, whis­tle pen­dant, shoe horn, and shoe brush.

Why color nostalgia failed to resonate with consumers

Col­or nos­tal­gia con­nects to feel­ings, val­ues, and per­cep­tions evoked through his­toric brand col­ors. Many con­sumers had high expec­ta­tions for a part­ner­ship between an icon­ic jew­el­ry and shoe com­pa­ny. They expect­ed some­thing cre­ative that tru­ly cel­e­brates both brands and sym­bol­ized their lux­u­ri­ous heritage.

Tiffany & Co. has estab­lished a strong recog­ni­tion of its Tiffany Blue® hue (Pan­tone 1837 Blue). The asso­ci­a­tion of this col­or is so sym­bol­ic that they built an icon­ic con­nec­tion between the col­or of the Tiffany Blue® box and the brand’s lux­u­ri­ous essence. This con­nec­tion is so pow­er­ful that women rave about the excite­ment of open­ing a Tiffany Blue® box, know­ing they will find some lux­u­ri­ous trea­sure inside.

Here are a cou­ple of the many neg­a­tive Tweets we found:

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, car­ry­ing this col­or nos­tal­gia into this shoe failed to res­onate with con­sumers who want­ed some­thing more spe­cial, unique, and lux­u­ri­ous. You can’t sim­ply apply a brand col­or to a co-brand­ed ele­ment and hope your mes­sage car­ries through.

The implications of brand colors in partnerships

When two brands col­lab­o­rate, it is impor­tant to con­sid­er how their respec­tive col­ors will be used in the part­ner­ship. Col­or nos­tal­gia can be a pow­er­ful tool when used cor­rect­ly, as it allows both brands to release some­thing that res­onates with their consumers. 

When it comes to col­or usage, it is impor­tant for both brands to cre­ate a bal­anced visu­al pre­sen­ta­tion of the co-brand­ed ele­ments. This allows each brand to main­tain its dis­tinc­tive­ness while cre­at­ing some­thing that fans from both brands appre­ci­ate. How­ev­er, it’s cru­cial to build a strat­e­gy that con­sid­ers col­or nos­tal­gia and how that can influ­ence the pur­chas­ing deci­sions of their con­sumers. It’s not about lever­ag­ing a pret­ty palette. It’s about the sym­bol­ism and mean­ing a col­or holds.

Tiffany & Co. could have used the Tiffany Blue® hue more cre­ative­ly and tapped into a whole new mar­ket. It could have brought lux­u­ri­ous sports­wear that fea­tured the unmis­tak­able Tiffany Blue® on lim­it­ed-edi­tion appar­el. Think Burber­ry meets Nike. In fact, they could have tak­en this a step fur­ther and cre­at­ed a line that cel­e­brates accom­plish­ments in life that you can wear. Tiffany’s has pro­duced lux­u­ri­ous tro­phies for the sports indus­try for over 160 years! Why not devel­op a line that lets peo­ple embrace Nike’s “just do it” and give con­sumers a way to cel­e­brate what they did?

What to consider when developing co-branded partnerships?

When two brands col­lab­o­rate, it is essen­tial for them to under­stand how their respec­tive col­ors will be used in the part­ner­ship. Both brands must cre­ate a uni­fied visu­al pre­sen­ta­tion of the co-brand­ed ele­ments that allows both to main­tain their dis­tinc­tive­ness while cre­at­ing some­thing fans from both sides will appre­ci­ate. But they also need to con­sid­er how their brand col­ors can influ­ence or dis­suade con­sumer behav­ior. This is why, when co-brand­ing, brands must find syn­er­gy and strat­e­gy between their unique identities.

Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Lever­age col­or nos­tal­gia to evoke feel­ings and val­ues asso­ci­at­ed with each brand.
2. Cre­ate co-brand­ed ele­ments that pre­serve each brand’s distinctiveness.
3. Con­sid­er how dif­fer­ent col­ors may influ­ence con­sumer behav­ior and pur­chas­ing decisions.
4. Tap into cul­tur­al sym­bol­ism and how col­or influ­ences sales on a glob­al appeal. 
5. Iden­ti­fy shared goals between two brands out­side of tra­di­tion­al busi­ness objectives.

The col­lab­o­ra­tion between Tiffany & Co. and Nike was a missed oppor­tu­ni­ty to lever­age the pow­er of col­or nos­tal­gia. Although it may have been dif­fi­cult for both brands to bal­ance their dis­tinc­tive­ness while cre­at­ing some­thing fans from both sides would appre­ci­ate, a strat­e­gy could have been devel­oped that con­sid­ered how dif­fer­ent col­ors can influ­ence con­sumer behav­ior and pur­chas­ing deci­sions. Col­or is not just about aes­thet­ics; it’s also about sym­bol­ism, val­ues, emo­tions, and culture.

When two brands col­lab­o­rate, they must con­sid­er all of these aspects to cre­ate an effec­tive part­ner­ship that res­onates with con­sumers on an emo­tion­al lev­el. By under­stand­ing how brand col­ors work togeth­er in part­ner­ships, brands are bet­ter equipped to devel­op part­ner­ships that pre­serve each brand iden­ti­ty and evoke feel­ings asso­ci­at­ed with each one.