By DR MASIMBA MAVAZA.
Color plays a vital role in defining and communicating a brand’s personality and this is widely evident across categories, be it perfumes and alcohol or medicines and banking. However, the psychology of color as it relates to persuasion is one of the most debated aspects in marketing.
One of the critical questions raised at the brand development stage is whether a brand must adhere with stereotypical color associations or instead, pick a color which best articulates a brand’s personality and sets it apart from the competition.
This is a catch-22 predicament. Most revolutionary parties in Africa have interwoven yellow as a brand colour of the revolution. Any launched revolutionary party has a brand wrapped in colour, a product category which has intrinsic, deep-rooted mental connections with the colour yellow. It would be futile to challenge and redefine colour associations within the category and at the same time it would be detrimental to look like the entire gamut of competitive brands with yellow packs on offer. The Colours of Protest Colour is a powerful way to represent hopes, ideals, but also frustrations and injustices. Yellow has become a symbol of protest in many movements across the world, drawing attention to social and political issues.The power of colour is undeniable. Colours affect our behavior, mood, and thoughts; they can soothe our spirits, excite us, agitate an enemy, and empower us to take action. This is particularly evident in our history of the struggle and protests and demonstrations, where activists have learnt that they can gain popularity by connecting their movement to a specific colour.
Tje question is why would Chamisa steal Yellow from the revolutionary history and attach it to betrayal. The answer, in this specific case, would lie in walking the tightrope between relevance and distinctiveness.
Mr Nelson Chamisa’s political outfit has undergone some metamorphosis. We know that the natural sequence of motamophosis is from the ugly to the beautiful; a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. With Chamisa’s party the metamorphosis is the dimunition rather than the enhancement of the creature; a butterfly turning into a caterpillar.
This dimunition is not about colour. It is about a party brimming with intellectuals and lawyers yet latching from one blunder to another, from one controversy to another and from one scandal to the other. It is a groupping with a propensity to quarrelling, scubbling and controversy. The fight over a building, over Ward and Parliamentary buildings and over a name.
The same party has decided to emulate Zanu PF colours in adopting yellow as its symbol. This behaviour is remnicent of an adolescent boy who has an irational hate of his father ( the hate stemming from the fact that the adolescent boy confuses freedom for licence and the father will not have lawlessness at home). However, when the father is either away or is looking away then the adolescent boy sits on his chair, wears his hat and eats from his plate.
That tells you that all the virulent criticism of Zanu PF by CCC while labouring to be identical to Zanu PF is insanity without parallel. This raises moral questions about CCC and the credibility of its political campaign. Is this lot taking itself seriously? Because in 2023 ZANU PF will take control of its colour and once again Chamisa will be left clutching to bundles of gas and looking like a mad man chasing nothing.
To exemplify this point, let’s take a look at the ZANU PF category. This was introduces in 1962 and as a first-comer, the brand had the unparalleled advantage of defining colour associations in the category and chose yellow as its primary colour. So main parties followed suit with the logo in yellow and other distinct clouts were established. Green yellow black red and little white.
The MDC because of its love for ZANU PF stole red. However, in 2022 Chamisa and CCC redeveloped its identity and was astute in retaining the colours for relevance, while introducing yellow as a secondary color to stay distinct. Additionally, the colour black green white, red represented the Zimbabwean national flag and insulted patriotism with the advent of mew dispensation.
NELSON Chamisa’s newly formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) is justifiably under attack from all angles, with the ruling Zanu PF party saying that he plagiarised their yellow theme colour and it will not be a surprise in 2023 when it will be barred from using it since it may confuse the electorate.
After 22 years of existence in the political arena in Zimbabwe ,and after seventeen years of bickering, accusing and finger pointing, it’s surprising that Chamisa has learnt no lesson and quotes controversy with the appearance of yellow.
Yellow is the new red in Zimbabwe and a potential source of controversy as Chamisa replaces Red which was always the colour of the opposition MDC party which was born in 1999 but fractured in 2005 into two parties, MDC T (Tsvangirai) and MDC N (Ncube). At each election from 2005 to 2018, and in between times too, the MDC in-fighting became more and more shameful and bizarre with continual disputes over leadership, assets, buildings and funds and now it will be a fight over colour with ZANU PF. Voters would get to polling stations and find two or three yellows on the ballot papers. Confusion will reign,and with it came disappointment and deep sadness as the sacrifices made by so many and the price paid by so many, will be attached to a symbol of shame. Even the 2018 coalition of leaders calling itself the MDC Alliance, which included the splintered arms of the MDC, could not stop the squabbling mess. Frankly it was embarrassing to see that the MDC had turned into a personality contest, ignoring the people who had voted for it. Now it is defecating on the revolutionary colours.
The CCC in all its various forms was dogged by infiltration and in-fighting and diluted by people who declared themselves the leaders of the party and proceeded to purge 133 elected parliamentary and local authority officials from office by having them recalled. Those recalls have left constituencies without MPs and local authorities without Councilors for over a year. Now that by-elections have been announced CCC in a new name but with old tricks of resting in controversy once again promises confusion supreme to the electorate.
There is also a legal question. The adoption of a colour symbol that is identical to the colours of its rivalry is mischief that borders on unlawfulness. The adoption of the yellow colours by the CCC may be unlawful if it violets any one of the following two tests:
1. Is such adoption likely to cause real confusion in the minds of reasonable voters, as to which party is which?
This is real in a country like ours where a sizeable number of voters , especially in rural areas may not be able to read the ballot paper (either due to illiteracy or to infirmity of the eye-sight)
Where this happens, there may be serious distortion of election outcomes.
2. Is one party or the other likely to benefit from the confusion and gain othewise unintended votes?
In rural areas, the stronghold of the Zanu Pf there would be many voters who rely on colour and would have associated yellow with Zanu PF. It is those voters who real run the risk of being confused to the benefit of the CCC.
This confusion can only be treated by one party being ordered to stop using the colour yellow. The axe will fall on the stubborn brows of the CCC.
Obviously the uninformed blind followers will be told that they are being victimised.
LEGAL experts yesterday said it would be very constitutional for the ruling Zanu PF party to bar newly-formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) led by Nelson Chamisa from using the yellow colour on its regalia and symbols. ZANU PF has the right to have the colour stopped from being used by the CCC for the avoidance of confusion during elections.
Chamisa recently dumped the MDC Alliance name, saying it had become toxic and unveiled a new political outfit, CCC, which uses yellow, departing from the MDC Alliance’s red colour there by creating more controversy which confirms that Chamisa is not a virgin to confusion and controversy.
“No one has a patent, trademark, copyright or any form of intellectual property right over a colour. No one can bar a competitor from using a particular colour,” he said.
“Trademark infringement is looked at holistically — name, symbol, design and colour. Under our laws, and under the laws of common sense, the alleged expression of interest to bar the use of a colour has more basis as most voters rely on colours and not symbols.
Another legal expert said
“The discussion around colours is not even for the courts to determine in these circumstances. Colours are generic, and if we were to associate and give full rights to parties, we will certainly limit the number of political parties to the number of available colours, which is obviously undemocratic and unconstitutional.”
He said even in business, colours could be associated with a particular brand or company, but they can be accompanied by other distinct features peculiar to that company.
“Zanu PF cannot claim ownership of any colour,” he said. But put together with other factors it is highly possible that CCC may lose its right to use the yellow colour.
At the launch of the ZANU PF by-election campaign in St Mary’s, Chitungwiza, the party’s senior officials told dozens of party supporters that Chamisa’s party had nothing to offer.
Acting youth league secretary Tendai Chirau, provincial chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa, deputy national political commissar Omega Hungwe said yellow represents the wealth of the country.
They said ZANU PF has four colours, green, yellow, red, and black. Chirau added:
These colours will never change because of someone who wants to take them. They remain our colours, they symbolise the importance of the rich minerals that we have.
Masimirembwa said ZANU PF supporters should not be ashamed of wearing yellow as it belonged to the ruling party.
Hungwe also weighed in, describing Chamisa’s new outfit as “satanic”, adding thatt voting for MDC or CCC shows that you are lost. She added.
Yellow is generally associated with the sun’s life-giving warmth and hope. That’s why in some countries yellow ribbons are displayed by families who have loved ones at war.
From a color psychology perspective, yellow stimulates our mental faculties; it activates the left or analytical brain. It’s related to creativity, original thought and inquisitiveness, decision-making, and the expression of new ideas and thoughts. It’s also anxiety producing and critical: yellow makes people more mentally analytical and critical of both themselves and others. So, it’s not a surprise that yellow has been adopted by many revolutionaries around the world as the symbolic color to communicate their ideals.
Come 2023 ZANU PF reserves the right to ban CCC from stealing and using the yellow colour.
Come 2023 the colour will be settled and those who love crying will go ahead and cry.
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