The Tiffany Blue Box HOW an ORDINARY PIECE of FOLDED BLUE CARDBOARD BECAME the WORLD’S MOST COVETED CONTAINER

ON THE ORIGINS OF BRANDS AND THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD THEM PerspectivePORTRAIT 31 // INFO DIET 32 // FACETIME 33 // LOOK BACK 34 THE ACCENT A white satin ribbon, tied on at the counter, THE NAME is the de rigueur accompaniment to Tiffany & Co. boxes the signature blue are embossed, in box. During the Baskerville Old Face, holidays, Tiffany uses with Tiffany & Co.— a red ribbon instead. but they really don’t need to be. The blue pretty much says it all. THE COLOR THE BOX Pantone No. 1837 (coined for the year of Pantone makes the Tiffany’s founding) is blue-coated paper also known as forget- packaging for Tiffany. me-not blue and The store’s flagship robin’s egg blue. It is might be on New the most protected York’s Fifth Avenue, color in branding. but the boxes come from Carlstadt, N.J. BRAND NAME The Tiffany Blue Box HOW AN ORDINARY PIECE OF FOLDED BLUE CARDBOARD BECAME THE WORLD’S MOST COVETED CONTAINER. BY ROBERT KLARA ➜ PHOTO: NICK FERRARI ADWEEK | SEPTEMBER 22, 2014 29 BRAND NAME or the sake of you intellectual- property aficionados out there, the color is No. 1837 on the Pantone Matching System chart. It is not commercially available; since a 1998 filing with the federal government, the color is trademarked. The Fpackaging on which the color appears is also trademarked, as is the white satin ribbon tied around said packaging. In all, it is very possibly the most recognizable and most desired retail container in history. It’s the Tiffany Blue Box—and yes, the term Fast Facts “Tiffany Blue Box” is trademarked, too. 1837 The year Tiffany & Young Most brands would kill for the sort of (the store’s instant recognition value of Tiffany & original name) Co.’s robin’s egg blue and that tiny box. As opened Bernd H. Schmitt wrote in his 1999 book 65 Number of U.S. Experiential Marketing, “It’s happened more stores than once that someone has put a gift, bought $11,000 Starting elsewhere, into a Tiffany box in order to price of a Tiffany enhance its value.” As if there were any doubt, engagement ring empty Tiffany boxes are sold on sites like Etsy and eBay—at least until Tiffany’s attorneys find out. 1961 But just how did a little turquoise-colored Paramount Pictures releases Breakfast at cardboard box become the cubic embodiment Tiffany’s, based on the of our material dreams and desires? 1958 Truman Capote It started in 1845, when Charles Lewis novel and starring a Tiffany put out a catalog for his “stationery young Audrey Hepburn. and fancy goods” store at 259 Broadway in For the first time ever, New York. The shop, opened with a $1,000 Tiffany opened on a loan, had been in business just eight years but Sunday to allow for had already made a name for itself by selling filming. It also posted fine silver wrought in the new “American 40 armed guards on style,” a clean, natural look that scuttled the the floor to prevent any fussy ornateness of the Old World. of its blue boxes from Some say Tiffany chose its signature blue disappearing. to reflect the popularity of the turquoise 1905 jewelry then in vogue, but nobody is sure. “Diamond King” Charles What is certain is that the shade became Lewis Tiffany (at left, instantly identified with Tiffany—and with without hat) helps the finest jewelry in the business. a customer at the When the company introduced its Union Square store diamond engagement ring in 1886, the effect in New York. Tiffany was complete. The Tiffany Blue Box became was already hailed every bit as coveted as the ring, or whatever as America’s leading else might be nesting inside. In 1906, the New purveyor of fine jewelry. York Sun reported that Charles Lewis Tiffany “has one thing in stock that you cannot buy 1886 of him for as much money as you may offer; Tiffany introduces the he will only give it to you. And that is one of engagement ring with the signature six-prong his boxes.” setting (below, left). Of course, you have to buy a little Love and marriage have something first. And so it has been for the been pricey ever since. century since. These days, Pantone produces Tiffany’s proprietary blue No. 1837 that 2014 goes on those little boxes, of which Pantone The box has even Color Institute executive director Leatrice inspired actual pieces of Eiseman said, “It evokes positive thoughts jewelry—like this $250 and reactions, and this, combined with the enamel and sterling status that Tiffany has assigned to it, makes silver charm. for perfect packaging.” And perfect this package might just be. HEPBURN: EVERETT COLLECTION; STORE: THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR; RING AND EGG: CARLTON DAVIS 30 SEPTEMBER 22, 2014 | ADWEEK.

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