If your brand lost its colour, would your customers care?

Mark Christou, chief creative officer at CBX, takes a closer look at Japanese snack giant Calbee, which switched to black and white packaging. Does this misfortune provide crucial information to brand designers?

The chips are down.

Ink shortages, driven by the Iran War, have forced Japanese snack giant Calbee to strip the colours from its packaging. Since late May, the manufacturer has replaced its typical bright, appetite-inspired palettes (you know, the ones you can almost taste) on its best-known bag designs with monochrome versions. So if you suddenly can't make out your favourite chips on the shelf at your neighbourhood grocer (in Japan), just know it's not you, it's Calbee.

But what might seem like a simple, black and white packaging challenge is actually a fascinating test of brand equity.

Because many brands mistake visual recognition for brand equity. They're not the same thing.

Colours, logos, packaging, shapes, sounds and other distinctive assets help consumers recognise a brand. Equity is what makes them choose it.

That's what makes Calbee's situation so interesting. This isn't simply a packaging story. It's a brand story. A real-world test of what happens when one of a company's most recognisable assets suddenly disappears.

Would consumers still buy it? Would they still trust it? Would they even notice?

Every brand eventually faces a version of this challenge. Supply chains fail. Markets shift. Regulations change. Categories evolve. Cultural expectations move on. The brands that endure aren't the ones that perfectly preserve every asset forever. They're the ones that build enough trust, relevance, memory and emotional connection that consumers stay with them when those assets inevitably change.

When colour disappears, what's left?

It's important to note that this wasn't planned. Not a rebrand, not a campaign and not a stunt. Japan imports nearly all of the oil it consumes and, until the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens, manufacturers will continue to experience supply chain pressure on printing ink.

But the move, while enforced, also unintentionally tests one of the most important truths in branding: visual assets are expressions of a brand. They are not the brand itself.

Now, colour matters, a lot. It builds recognition, creates distinction, owns mental real estate and often becomes inseparable from the brands we love. It's why Cadbury and Starbucks have secured trademarks around their iconic purple and green shades, while brands like Coca-Cola and Dunkin' have spent decades and billions of dollars ensuring their colours are instantly recognisable around the world.

But colour alone shouldn't be the thing holding a brand together.

The strongest brands live deeper than their visual systems. They live in trust, taste, memory, habit, relevance, experience and consistency built over time. Consumers don't buy a product simply because the packaging is colourful. They buy because they trust what's inside.

Calbee's temporary monochrome packaging therefore creates an unexpected experiment in brand equity. If colour disappears, will product memory remain? Will shoppers still recognise it? Will it still feel familiar? Or will the absence of colour suddenly make the brand feel cheaper, less desirable or less trustworthy?

Packaging changes demand explanation, not silence.

The answer depends less on the design change itself than on how the change is communicated.

Without context, consumers may assume corners are being cut, quality has changed, or the brand is in decline. In Calbee's case, the company has been transparent that the decision is directly related to supply chain challenges. That transparency transforms a potential liability into a trust-building opportunity.

A brand that openly says, "We're doing this to keep products on shelves and avoid disruption," tells a very different story from one that simply appears overnight in a cheaper-looking pack.

Other brands have navigated similar moments. Skittles Pride Packs famously removed colour from both their packaging and candies to reinforce the idea that "only one rainbow matters during Pride." PepsiCo's Simply NKD range for Doritos and Cheetos intentionally strips away some of the visual intensity associated with the core brands to emphasise simpler ingredients and a different product promise.

Even luxury brands have faced similar decisions. Rolex reportedly discontinued its iconic "Pepsi" model this year due in part to production and sustainability challenges associated with the red-and-blue ceramic bezel. Different category, same principle. Brands can only make these kinds of moves when they're confident they possess enough equity beyond the asset itself. When consumers understand the reason, subtraction can become just as powerful as addition.

There's an old creative principle that if an idea works in black and white, it will work in colour.

Calbee is now inadvertently testing the commercial version of that truth in real time.

For designers, marketers, and business leaders alike, it's a reminder that resilient brands are built to survive outside perfect conditions. Strong brand systems create multiple layers of recognition and meaning. If a colour disappears, can consumers still recognise you? If a logo changes, will they still trust you? If a category evolves, will they still choose you?

Because the real question isn't whether your brand could survive losing its colour.

It's whether you've built enough equity everywhere else.

The strongest brands understand that colours, logos, packaging and visual assets are powerful shortcuts. But they're still shortcuts.

Trust. Relevance. Cultural connection. Product experience. Memory.

That's where enduring value is built.

Calbee may have lost its colour for now. What we'll discover next is whether consumers were buying the brand – or simply recognising the packaging.