Colour me Pink
Colour me pink. Make that Reverie Pink. Colour and customer choice; there’s a definite link. And if there’s an enterprise well aware of it, that would be Sensient.
Each year, after a hefty consultation process, Sensient launches a Colour of the Year.
Reverie Pink - a soft, comforting pink shade designed to promote serenity, mindfulness, and mental well-being in a chaotic world – is this year’s colour. It reflects a desire to slow down and offers a gentle, optimistic, and calming hue that’s suitable for beauty, food and fashion consumer trends.
Anyone unconvinced about the connection between colour and consumer choice may wish to take note. According to a recent consumer study, 80 per cent of all general purchases (not just food) are based on colour.
Colour is a big player in the world of Sensient – a leading global manufacturer and marketer of colours, flavours and extracts that help bring their customers’ products to life.
While globally, the company deals in pharmaceuticals and personal care as well as food, Sensient NZ’s enterprise is food-focused with customers throughout the food production industry including the bakery and dairy sectors as well as the beverage one.
As the team here well knows, customers buy with their eyes, not just for taste, so an announcement around Sensient’s annual colour of the year is eagerly anticipated.
The campaign is considered an engaging way of representing the mood of the consumer in the moment.For example,Last year’s colour was Zesty Yellow, which represented a renewed zest for life, hope, vigour and exploration. Immediately post Covid-19 the colour was Rising Orange, with a focus on optimism, recharging and new beginnings. In 2023 it was Power Berry – a rustic, natural berry colour with the mood of the moment wrapped around self-empowerment, resilience, confidence.
So how will Reverie Pink show its face on the supermarket shelves (and online shopping carts) in New Zealand? Sensient NZ General Manager and NZBC co-chair Nick Sawyer says this will impact both product and packaging. From a product perspective in the beverage space, he says we are likely to see this colour presenting in soft, pastel pink health and wellness tonics, or as pale pink in light, sparkling, refreshing drinks.
He says the Sensient colour-selection consultants are confident that products will be purposefully purchased in line with what Reverie Pink represents – whether that’s to help achieve a calm and relaxed state when at home (it’s considered a soft landing amongst a world of chaos), or joyful energy when out and about socialising.
“The colour shade reflects a shift towards holistic self-care, and intentional living, where our consumer considers their mood and health and wellbeing, in every moment, and before every purchase.”
Natural products
Meanwhile, irrespective of colour but once again with consumers in mind, Sensient NZ continues to invest in the natural product space, extending its offering. This range fits with the consumers’ need to find products that meet their physical and emotional state.
Nick says Guarana has been sold as a natural, caffeine source in NZ for decades, but the extract range has been broadened significantly over the last five years. Many energy drinks producers are looking for natural sources of caffeine and so the range has been extended to include tea-based products including Matcha, and White tea.
“We are always keeping eye on what consumers are doing and what they want and so, what we offer, evolves. We want to support them and supply them with what they are looking for in the moment,” Nick says.
Toitu Net Carbon Zero journey
Nick says that understanding that sourcing local is the sustainable choice, Sensient is at the forefront of sustainable supply with its Toitu Carbon Zero operational certification being market leading in NZ. From a sustainable and clean label ingredient perspective, in addition to upcycled NZ citrus extracts, Otago stone fruits deemed unfit for market are being used to make NZ peach and nectarine extracts designed to go in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
“It is really interesting and rewarding to be taping into what would have been a waste stream and using the peels, skins, fruit as a flavouring component. It gives it another life,” Nick says.
With that in mind, Sensient NZ invested, in 2024,in natural extracts processing capability which enables it to manufacture fresh local extracts. A citrus range was the first win, with a number of other options involving other fruit planned - Otago stone fruits is the latest development.
By Monique Balvert OConnor
(Supermarket News - March 2026)