How Brands Can Affect Employee Moods

Image: Renovated Adobe HQ Artistic Space 

​Corporate Challenge: Using paint colors to create employee value.

Ironbound Strategy: Sometimes creating value for customers, employees, and society is as simple as choosing what color to paint the walls.

Ironbound Action: California based Adobe has been creating value for employees by making conscious efforts in the colors chosen for spaces in their San Jose office building.  Entrances were deliberately painted with yellow to energize employees when they arrive.  Orange was selected for communal spaces to promote the feeling of community.  Blue was chosen for hallways leading to meeting rooms to destress and calm.  Within meeting rooms are greenery to liven the room and provide natural uplifting emotions.  Creating value for employees does not have to cost a lot.  In the case of Adobe, the simplest action of painting offices can be deliberate and intentional methods of enhancing employee value.

​* Adobe’s revenues increased to $11.2B this FY, from $9B last FY, and $7.3B the year prior.
 
** Colors significantly impact how people think and act. In a 1996 paper, it was discovered that the color of medication effects how patients believe in a drug’s effectiveness, including the effect of placebos.