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posted by Lee on Jul 31

Marketers need to sell products and consumers are expecting the products to get better and better. Often this is  done with  flashy but useless additions which are fluff but offer no real benefit. As a case in point, we have a new kettle in the office which  illuminates the water with a fancy blur light when you switch it on. What is the purpose of this other than a marketing gimmick? Think about it. Why? It is not to tell you the kettle is on because it still makes a noise as the water is boiling and steam comes out the top?

Some people might say it is the design. What drives the development of these things? The answer is technology. Have you noticed how most electronic devices now have blue LEDs? Before that they were green and years before that they were red only. The reason is that it was difficult to make LEDs in any other  colour. LEDs are not the same as light bulbs. Their colour is determined by the properties of the semiconductor materials used to make them. New materials such as GaN have allowed blue LEDs to manufactured. In the past blue LEDs were not available and so subliminally  blue lights are  distinctive and make the product stand out as modern over the boring, green and old fashioned red LEDs.  That is why there is trend for  blue lights; advertising marketing gone mad.