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256

Faculty Sections / Leapfrogging for Success: Change the Game via Innovation

« on: November 15, 2016, 02:41:00 PM »

It's official. We've been in a recession for more than a year now, and it does not look like things will improve in the short term.

As the macroeconomic situation worsens, marketers find themselves increasingly squeezed between a big rock and a very hard place: Their mandate is to demonstrably improve ROI, with reduced budgets, while communicating with skittish audiences that are less inclined to make purchases.

Not surprisingly, people are looking for ways to change the game altogether. And, as the market drops, the references to leapfrogging increase.

Leapfrogging—the idea of doing something so amazingly different and innovative that it transcends the best-in-class of a given industry—does not have to cost a fortune or require years to conceptualize and execute.

This article will explore how a marketing team can set the stage for low-cost, high-impact innovation. We'll review some examples of game-changing strategies and explore the requisite ingredients for building the successes that engage customers in a down economy. It comes down to three key steps:

    First, learn what the brand is doing well and where there is room for exploration in the digital channel.
    Second, understand how consumers are behaving, both in the context of a recession as well as increasing digital sophistication.
    Finally, explore how to take these learnings and apply them to the materials already in play. Sometimes it's not about wholesale change but about taking the pieces people already have and refitting them together.

257

Faculty Sections / 13 Brain Facts Every Educator Should Know

« on: November 15, 2016, 02:37:28 PM »

Read on to learn interesting facts about how the brain develops, what can affect that development, and how learning is impacted.

    Read aloud. Parents and teachers who read aloud and talk often to young children are promoting brain development.
    Bilingual brains. Children who learn two languages before the age of five have a different brain structure than children who learn only one language.
    Child abuse and the brain. Studies have shown that child abuse can change the way the brain develops and can negatively affect learning.
    New neurons. Throughout life, mental activity promotes the production of new neurons in the brain.
    Handedness. Those who are left-handed or ambidextrous have a corpus collosum that is about 11% larger than those who are right-handed.
    Brain growth. The human brain continues to grow until about age 18.
    Stimulating environment. If a child is in a stimulating environment, she has a 25% greater ability to learn . Conversely, if she is in an environment with low stimulation, she has 25% less ability to learn.
    Creative vs. methodical. Scientists have shown that creative thinkers’ brains work in different ways from the brains of those who think more methodically.
    Food and intelligence. One study looked at students in New York and showed that those who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14% better on IQ tests than the students who ate lunches with these additives.
    Boredom. Humans have an innate curiosity, but when they have a lack of stimulation, boredom sets in.
    Learning new things. A study shows that when people are learning new things, their brains change very quickly. Those learning to juggle showed change in the brain in as little as seven days.
    Music. Children who take music lessons show a considerable increase in the ability to learn.
    Reading faces. The area of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for the ability to read someone’s face for clues to how they are feeling.

258

Faculty Sections / Re: Bank Reconciliation as a Due Process Imperative for Effective Financial Manageme

« on: November 15, 2016, 02:34:19 PM »

Good to Know

259

Departments / 'Wow factoids -2'

« on: November 15, 2016, 02:33:14 PM »

 Eighty percent of people who are hit by lighting are men
 
The biggest palace in the world is the Imperial Palace in Beijing. It has that many rooms that you can sleep for 25 years in a different room each night
 
An ant can lift ten times its own weight
 
On average, 100 people choke to death on chewing ballpoint pens. (the mind boggles but great discussion point if you have a group of pen chewers in your room)
 
Pheumatophobia is the fear of air (use it when they are all yawning)
 
There are 701 official breeds of dogs
 
A woodpecker can peck up to 20  times per second (ask your students to try that for a giggle)
 
A dolphin sleeps with one eye open (do you have any dolphins in your class?)
 
The longest nose belonged to Thomas Wedder. It measured 19 cm (so Pinochio was real after all)
 
The longest time spent standing on one foot is 76 hours, 40 minutes (do any of your students want to try this)
 
The world's smallest tree is the dwarf willow. It grows to 5cm and only grows in Greenland
 
An apple, potato and onion all taste sweet if you eat them with your nose plugged
 
Ninety percent of all extinct species are birds
 
Did you know you share your birthday with another 16 million people?
 
Strawberries contain more vitamin C than oranges
 
Cats can spend 16 hours sleeping a day (how many cats do you have in your class?)
 
The human heart creates  enough pressure to squirt blood over 9 m (lets not try this in your training room)
 
More people speak English in China than in the USA
 
The first email was sent in 1972
 
Bread was used as an eraser before rubber erasers were invented (why not give it a go)
 
Remove crayon drawings from walls and tables with a damp cloth dipped in bicarbonate of soda
 
Bread and beer are the oldest forms of manufactured food
 
Bubble wrap was originally invented as wallpaper in the 1950's
 
Cardboard was invented in the early 1500's by the Chinese
 
Keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up by polishing it with car wax
 
A raindrop falls about 12 km per hour
 
The most common name in the world is Mohammed (make it a competition and John or Mary probably win)
 
The word internet is a contraction of international and network
 
The internet was born in the 1960's

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Departments / 'Wow factoids'

« on: November 15, 2016, 02:32:31 PM »

 The black boxes in commercial aircrafts, are in fact orange (so does anybody know why it is called a black box?)
 
Snakes hear through their jaws.
 
Snails can sleep for three years without eating
 
You use more calories eating celery then there is in the celery itself
 
The earth weights abut 6,588,000,000,000 million tons. (how did they measure this?)
 
Teeth are the only parts of the human body that can't repair themselves
 
Four is the only number in the English language that has the same number of letters in its name as its meaning. (ask the class the question what makes the word FOUR so special?)
 
10,000 hours of tape are recorded during any one series of Big Brother
 
The Eiffel Tower in Paris has 2,500,000 rivets in it. (ask your learners to guess first)
 
A group of frogs is called an army
 
A group of crows is called a murder
 
The average person walks the equivalent of twice around world in their lifetime.
 
Food can only be tasted if it is mixed with saliva
 
More people are alive today,than have ever died
 
The elephant is the only animal with four knees
 
No words in the English language rhyme with month, orange, silver or purple. (Give your students the challenge to come up with rhyming words first before you tell them that apperantly there are none but this can be proven wrong of course)
 
The Cambodian alphabet is the largest. It has 74 letters

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Faculty Forum / The Changing Playing Field Of Ingredient Branding

« on: November 13, 2016, 04:53:38 PM »

In short, an “ingredient” brand is used by a “host” brand to borrow established brand equity.  By definition, an ingredient brand, unlike the cheese, doesn’t stand, alone.  Rather, it requires a host brand to which it lends some needed attribute.  In the previously mentioned examples, Teflon lends the attribute “non-stick,” a brand with Gore-Tex attached to it signals trusted weather protection, and the Dolby brand signals high-quality audio.

However, none of these ingredient brands manufacture their own line of products.  Instead they are content to use their marketing resources to reinforce their positioning and attract host brands.  Also note that a successful ingredient brand is perhaps the purest example of the marketing maxim that a brand should only own a single unique position − or risk brand dilution or confusion as to what it stands for.  But that’s a story for another article.

Another important aspect of an ingredient brand is non-exclusivity.  While the host brand would no doubt prefer only they be allowed to boast the benefits of any particular ingredient brand, the opposite holds true for the ingredient brand.  Strategically, it makes sense for the ingredient to attach itself to more than a single host brand – it increases its name recognition, solidifies its positioning, brings in more revenue, and spreads business risk.  This dynamic between host and ingredient brand is common and usually finds its own equilibrium.  However, that may be changing as we’ll see shortly.

Lastly, from a brand architecture perspective, the ingredient is always subservient to the host brand. The ingredient brand is there to lend credibility, not to share co-billing with the main brand.  One exception that comes to mind is the liberal use of the Teflon brand on generic cooking pans.  I see this as a sign of a mature brand seeking to expand market share at the risk of making itself less “special” for more popular brands of cooking pans.

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Business & Entrepreneurship / lexicographic heuristic

« on: November 13, 2016, 04:50:49 PM »

Lexicographic heuristic refers to when a consumer chooses the best brand on the basis of its perceived, most important attribute.

As a side note, heuristic, in this case, refers to a rule of thumb in a consumers decision-making process. The expectancy-value model (a compensatory model) states that a products (or services) perceived good qualities (things) can help overcome perceived bad things. However, consumers often take a mental shortcut (heuristics) to make a buying decision.

The lexicographic heuristic is one of three choice heuristics a consumer may use to make a buying decision.
As an example, a consumer may be faced with the need to buy a smartphone. Given that the available smartphone brands are equal in the consumers mind, the consumer will select a smartphone based on its perceived important attribute. This could be that one particular smartphone, over the other options, may have a perceived better camera or user interface.

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Business & Entrepreneurship / Re: গ্রামীণফোনের নতুন সিইও পেটার ফারবার্গ

« on: November 13, 2016, 04:49:48 PM »

Noted.

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Business & Entrepreneurship / Category Ownership Strength as a Marketing Performance Metric

« on: November 13, 2016, 04:48:07 PM »

Every major market category consists of subcategories. These subcategories are usually dominated by different players. If you’re like many companies you tend to focus on market share within the larger category.  But unless you’re among the top 3-5 players this approach may not pay off. Another approach to consider is pursuing ownership of one of the subcategories. So while a big player may dominate a market category, you can be the leader in the subcategory. Category ownership provides an additional metric of marketing performance.

Every  major market category consists of subcategories. These subcategories are usually  dominated by different players. If you’re like many companies you tend to focus on market share within the larger category.  But unless you’re among the top 3-5 players this approach may not pay off. Another approach to consider is pursuing ownership of one of the subcategories. Some experts believe creating your own category is the best route to market success and revenue growth. Category ownership provides an additional metric of marketing performance.
Defining Category Ownership

Before we discuss how you might measure category ownership, let’s be clear about what constitutes  a major category and its subcategories.  For example oral care products is a major market category and some of its subcategories are mouth rinses, toothbrushes, toothpastes, and dental floss.  So while Colgate-Palmolive is the worldwide leader in Oral Care, Oral B (a Gillette brand) is the leader in the toothbrush category.  We can see this same scenario in other categories, such as the retail market, where Wal-Mart with 6,000 outlets and more than $250 billion in sales, dominates the overall category but Amazon owns the online retailer space and iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world.  The software market provides another illustration of the concept of category ownership.  Microsoft can lay claim to the larger software category, but Oracle can claim ownership of the database software category, SAP can claim ownership in ERP software and Intuit owns financial software.

The message here is that you do not have to have significant market share in the major category in order to become a category owner.  While a subcategory initially can be very small, a niche that meets a key market and customer need has significant growth potential.
The Key to Category Ownership

The key to category ownership is to redefine how customers or businesses use a product in order to establish a category. If you are the first to create a category (no easy feat) you will be in the best position to own it.  It is very expensive to create and develop a category, but once you establish your company as the category owner the ROI is substantial. When you are evaluating a subcategory consider establishing the subcategory around how it will be viewed by the customers- both users and buyers- in terms of their needs, concerns, and buying requirements.  Once you have a category you will want to define how you measure your ownership and the role marketing will play.
Initial Category Ownership Metrics

There are two initial metrics that may be the easiest to use to monitor changes in ownership that marketing can affect:

    –    Your percentage of the category’s sales
    –    Your percentage of the customer usage rate

These are good metrics to start with but as you become more sophisticated about how you measure ownership you may want to go beyond monitoring ownership in terms of current sales and use category ownership strength as a metric.
Category Strength as  a Metric

Category Strength as a metric accounts for three variables: competitors, your degree of risk and your market relevance. These variables require examining more than your sales but also your product innovation and customer relationships.  If you are already a category owner now may be time to develop and use category ownership strength as a metric.

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Business & Entrepreneurship / Factors Influencing Effective Rebranding Strategy

« on: November 13, 2016, 04:42:16 PM »

Scholars and marketers have tried to formulate effective rebranding strategies to expand target
markets and retain loyal customers. Yet, advice from scholars seems largely based on qualitative
studies rather than on research evidence. To fill the gap, this study, using a quantitative approach,
sets out to examine how rebranding evaluation can be affected by consumer innovativeness,
brand loyalty and perceived brand image fit.

The findings demonstrate that brand equity can be improved when rebranding is evaluated
positively. Innovative customers tend to evaluate rebranding more positively than others.
Furthermore, customers who were more loyal to the initial brand may pay more attention to brand
image fit before and after rebranding when making evaluations

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Business & Entrepreneurship / Brand Architecture: What Is an Endorser Brand?

« on: November 13, 2016, 02:52:26 PM »

Endorser Brand Architecture

An endorser brand architecture is made up of individual and distinct product brands, which are linked together by an endorsing parent brand. The endorsing parent brand plays a supportive and linking role, and, in many respects, an endorser brand architecture can be seen as an inversion of a sub-brand brand architecture.
The key hallmarks of an endorsing brand architecture are as follows

    Product or service brands (for simplicity, all referred to as “product brands” in this post)  linked together by an endorsing brand.
    The product brands and the endorsing brands will each have their own brand attributes, including a name, logo, brand promise, position and personality.
    The product brands will have each have their own brand marketing and will need to rely on their own value propositions to succeed.
    Despite the distinctness of each product brand, the essential ingredient for a successful endorsing brand architecture is that there is a link between (i) the higher-level brand promise of the endorsing parent brand and (ii) the product brand. This link is what provides the assurance to the customer that if they like one product in the family of the endorsing brand, then a sibling brand is also worthy of consideration.

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Business & Entrepreneurship / Co-Branding Strategy in the Digital Age

« on: November 13, 2016, 02:50:05 PM »

I’ve talked a lot about branding in the last weeks and one of my favorite people, Gregory Stringer, asked me to talk about co-branding, so here goes.

Many brands use a co-branding strategy, like Cinnabon and Carvel. Think about a few you’ve seen recently.

    PC and Intel
    Pottery Barn and Benjamin Moore (Paint)
    Hershey’s and Betty Crocker (Brownies)
    Girl Scout Tagalongs and Dairy Queen Ice Cream
    Eddie Bauer and Ford (SUV)
    Jack Daniel’s and TGIF (sauced meats)
    KMart and Martha Stewart (branded products)
    Nike and Michael Jordan (shoes)

Co-branding

So, what is co-branding anyway?

According to Investopedia, co-branding is:

    A marketing partnership between at least two different brands of goods or services. Cobranding encompasses several different types of branding partnerships, such as sponsorships. This strategy typically associates the brands of at least two companies with a specific good or service.

A basic definition doesn’t really tell you much about co-branding strategy. Let’s take a look at the pluses and minuses of using a co-branding strategy for your brand.
Benefits of a co-branding strategy

Co-branding is particularly valuable as a means to create a positive image in the minds of folks who might not know much or anything about your brand — it gives you warm fuzzies about the lesser known brand.

If you’re a younger child, you already experienced how co-branding works. Remember when you went to school and people, especially teachers, expected you to act a certain way because of your older sibling? That’s how co-branding works — you expect certain characteristics and behavior from a brand based on the associated brand. Just like in the image that opened this post — you know and love the rich, cinnamon taste of Cinnabon and you transfer that positive image to Carvel.

The Intel partnership with PC manufacturers [Intel Inside] introduced a branded chip that, in its heyday, commanded a 2000% markup for the chip maker and created a loyal following that made the market unappealing for new chip manufacturers for many years until AMD came along to challenge the more established Intel.

Co-branding is also a way to create a positive brand image by transferring emotions related to one brand to the other. For instance, the partnership between Michael Jordan and Nike that made his branded shoes so popular folks stood in line for the chance to own part of the legend. Michael’s cache and athletic prowess created a cult following and led to consumers collecting his shoes, even if they didn’t wear them.

There’s a certain economy of scale that makes sense when you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck. Combining advertising efforts, co-locating operations, even collaborating on digital marketing programs makes sense in some situations.
Dangers of co-branding strategy

Probably the biggest danger is the vulnerability caused by reliance on two brands — if something terrible happens to one brand, both brands might suffer declining market performance. This is the same reason why some companies don’t use a family branding strategy, instead preferring separate branding for each product line — like Proctor and Gamble with Tide, Cheer, Gain, and others just within the laundry detergent market. Damage to one brand might bring down both brands.

Another danger to a co-branding strategy comes from loss of control and burgeoning bureaucracy to manage the efforts that cause a certain frigidity and slow down strategic responses.

Image, for example, you are co-branding with a local firm and that firm does its own advertising. How do you manage that interrelationship. Car manufacturers struggled with just this problem in their relationship and reliance on local dealerships to sell their product. Often, the local dealer advertising damaged the brand image the manufacturer wanted for the automobile. Over time, manufacturers controlled the situation by requiring dealerships adhere to their communication rules, which slows down the advertising process and might damage a working relationship between the two.

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Faculty Sections / 8 Types of Brand Extension

« on: November 13, 2016, 02:47:49 PM »

n studying more than 300 brand extensions, Brand Extension Research determined that there are eight types. Each has its own unique type of leverage.

1. Similar product in a different form from the original parent product. This is where a company changes the form of the product from the original parent product.

An example is (frozen) Snickers Ice Cream Bars identified in our brand extension study. The original Snickers bar is a shelf stable candy. The brand extension is a similar product, but in a different form. Jell-O Portable Pudding and Pudding Cups is Jell-O pudding in a different form and section of the store.

2. Distinctive flavor/ingredient/component in the new item. When a brand “owns” a flavor, ingredient or component, there may be other categories where consumers want that property.

Peanut butter is a characteristic ingredient in Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups candy. Chocolate is a characteristic ingredient of Hershey. Brand Extension Research identified Reese’s Peanut Butter as a logical extension that capitalizes on this association. Research also suggested Hershey chocolate milk.

3. Benefit/attribute/feature owned. Many brands “own” a benefit, attribute or feature that can be extended.

Brand Extension Research showed ArmorAll that that brand was defined by automotive surface protection – which can go beyond vinyl dressing. Paint needs protecting also. Arm & Hammer “owns” a benefit of deodorizing. Their baking soda product has claimed that it removes odors from refrigerators, etc. As a result, they extended the brand into other products such as Arm & Hammer underarm deodorant and cat litter deodorizer.

4. Expertise. Over time, certain brands may gain a reputation for having an expertise in a given area. Leverage can be achieved when extending into areas where this special expertise is deemed important.

Honda’s expertise in reliable engines led to lawn mowers, gas powered generators and a variety of other gasoline engine powered devices. What brand comes to mind when we think of baby products? – Gerber. As a result of this acceptance of their expertise, they successfully launched Gerber Baby Powder, Gerber Baby Bottles, etc. Sara Lee is known for baked desserts, so why not other baked goods like bread.

5. Companion products. Some brand extensions are a “natural” companion to the products the company already makes.

Contadina (now Buitoni) was a tomato paste and sauce brand. In brand extension research, consumers thought Contadina pasta was a logical companion product that would have the leverage of the Italian heritage of the parent. Aunt Jemima (the pancake mix brand) launched pancake syrup, as a companion to compete with Log Cabin syrup.

6. Vertical extensions. Some brand extensions are vertical extensions of what they currently offer. A brand can use their “ingredient/component” heritage to launch products in a more (or sometimes less) finished form.

Nestlé’s Toll House chocolate refrigerated cookies is an example. Most Toll House chocolate chips are used in cookies, so why not make a brand of Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Mrs. Fields Cookies were ready-to-eat. They offered frozen cookie dough, moving backwards as a vertical extension. Rice Krispies has always been used in kids' treats. Kellogg offered Rice Krispies Treats ready-to-eat.

7. Same customer base. Many brand extensions represent a marketer’s effort to sell something else to its customer base.

This works particularly well when that customer base is large and to some extent captive. VISA launched travelers checks directed to its credit card customers.

8. Designer image/status. Certain brands convey status and hence create an image for the user.

Designer clothing labels have been extended to furniture, jewelry, perfume, cosmetics and a host of other items. Some brands promote a lifestyle and can extend to items that people “wear,” as a badge of identifying themselves with that lifestyle.

269

Faculty Sections / Brand Architecture

« on: November 13, 2016, 02:46:45 PM »

How an organization structures and names the brands within its portfolio. There are three main types of brand architecture system: monolithic, where the corporate name is used on all products and services offered by the company; endorsed, where all sub-brands are linked to the corporate brand by means of either a verbal or visual endorsement; and freestanding, where the corporate brand operates merely as a holding company, and each product or service is individually branded for its target market.

270

Faculty Sections / Brand Color Theory

« on: November 13, 2016, 02:42:34 PM »

Remember back to your early school days, when having a 64-count box of Crayola crayons to choose from was the ultimate in creative freedom?

Well, as a designer in the digital era, you certainly don’t have to stick to the colors available from paints, inks, or other pigments, though there’s a lot we can learn from fine art’s approach to color. In fact, the human eye can see millions of different hues — but sometimes, choosing even just two or three to use from those millions can seem like a daunting task.

That’s because choosing colors for a design is both highly subjective and, at times, highly scientific. So where does that leave designers who just want a color palette that looks nice or makes a client happy? Like it or not, the most effective color choices go beyond just personal preference — because colors have an extraordinary ability to influence mood, emotions, and perceptions; take on cultural and personal meaning; and attract attention, both consciously and subconsciously.

For designers and marketers, the challenge is in balancing these complex roles that color plays to create an attractive, effective design. That’s where a basic understanding of color theory can come in handy. Traditional color theory can help you understand which colors might work well together (or not) and what kind of effect different combinations will create within your design.

And it all starts with the color wheel.
The Basics: Understanding Color

The Color Wheel

You’ve likely seen it in a school art class, or at least are familiar with its stripped-down form: the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue. We’ll be dealing with the traditional color wheel of 12 colors, often used by painters and other artists. It’s an easy visual way of understanding colors’ relationships with each other.

The color wheel is all about mixing colors. Mix the primary or base colors red, yellow, and blue, and you get the secondary colors on the color wheel: orange, green, and violet. Mix those with a primary color, and you get the third level of the color wheel, tertiary colors. Those include red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet. The primary and secondary colors (with the addition of indigo) are also part of the visible spectrum of light, or the “colors of the rainbow.” You many have memorized the acronym “Roy. G. Biv” as a kid to remember these colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

This way of understanding color is known as an subtractive model, which involves mixing colored pigments like paints or inks — both the traditional color wheel and the CMYK color system that printing equipment uses fall into this category. That’s opposed to the additive model, which involves mixing colored light (like the colors you see on your computer screen or TV) and uses a different set of primary colors: red, green, and blue, often abbreviated RGB.

In Canva, we have our own version of the color wheel that you can pick colors from. Any color you choose will be identified by a hexadecimal value (or hex code), a six-digit combination of numbers and/or letters (often preceded by #) used in many design programs to identify specific colors when designing for the web.

Before we get into how to use the color wheel to create color palettes for your designs, let’s take a quick look at some color-related terms that will help you understand the different types of colors you might be using as you work on design projects:

    Hue: synonymous with “color” or the name of a specific color; traditionally refers to one of the 12 colors on the color wheel
    Shade: a hue darkened with black
    Tone: a hue dulled with gray
    Tint: a hue lightened with white
    Saturation: refers to the intensity or purity of a color (the closer a hue approaches to gray, the more desaturated it is)
    Value: refers to the lightness or darkness of a color

Color Harmony

Now that we’ve got the more technical stuff out of the way, let’s look at how the color wheel can be a practical resource in choosing colors for a design project. We can pull a number of classic palettes from the color wheel that painters have been using for centuries to create balanced and visually pleasing (or high-contrast and striking) compositions. In most design applications, these color schemes will need to be split into one dominant color — dominant either because of how much it appears in the design, or because of how it stands out in comparison with other colors — and one or more accent colors.

1) Monochromatic: various shades, tones, or tints of one color; for instance, a range of blues varying from light to dark; this type of scheme is more subtle and conservative

2) Analogous: hues that are side by side on the color wheel; this type of scheme is versatile and easy to apply to design projects

3) Complementary: opposites on the color wheel, such as red/green or blue/orange; complementary colors are high-contrast and high-intensity, but can be difficult to apply in a balanced, harmonious way (especially in their purest form, when they can easily clash in a design)

4) Split-Complementary: any color on the color wheel plus the two that flank its complement; this scheme still has strong visual contrast, but is less jarring than a complementary color combination

5) Triadic: any three colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel

6) Tetradic/Double-Complementary: two complementary pairs; this scheme is very eye-catching, but may be even harder to apply than one pair of complementary colors, since more colors are more difficult to balance. If you use this type of scheme, you’ll want to choose one of the four to be the dominant color and adjust the saturation/value/etc. of some or all the colors so they work well in different parts of your design like the text and background.