KitchenAid's Recipe For Success

Take a helpful kitchen innovation. Add color, features to taste, and a generous amount of customer care. Stir to combine.

Almond Cream. Green Apple. Toffee Delight. Despite the sensory sumptuousness they evoke, these delicious descriptions are not ingredients listed on a dessert menu. They are just a few of the colors available for KitchenAid stand mixers. Having celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 2019, this iconic brand has managed to remain as fresh as ever, even claiming the honor of being the brand most often selected by members of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

But how can a manufacturer of now-standard kitchen essentials become a household name—much less a kind of status symbol? Though KitchenAid is not the only kitchenware brand of its kind to achieve success in such substantial proportions, it was (and is) one of the frontrunners of fashionable kitchen appliance designs. Let’s take a look at how it all began.

Made to Aid

Developed as an all-inclusive countertop tool back in 1919, the flagship Model H-5 KitchenAid mixer emerged as a multi-attachment food-prep wonder that helped home cooks do it all—from slicing to stirring to straining—with a single ultra-versatile appliance.

During the Great Depression, when it was all most businesses could do to survive an economy in freefall, KitchenAid was steeped in product R&D, introducing the now instantly recognizable stand mixer silhouette in the form of the Model “K” in 1937. Later on, the brand’s revolutionary new dishwasher, available in a choice of classic white or pale pink, would be KitchenAid’s first tentative dip into the realm of color-trended home appliances.

Following the leaner years of the Great Depression and the Second World War, Americans were more intent than ever on making their houses feel like home, a place to entertain friends and invite color in unexpected places. The economy was booming once again, women were assuming their prewar roles in the household, and cooking at home became less about subsisting and more about expressing personal tastes.

New innovations helped make light work of household tasks; colorful kitchenware made them seem more fun and personal. Kitchens were no longer strictly functional; suddenly, they had become living spaces as well—a place to enjoy a cup of coffee with a neighbor, to congregate for family dinners, and to curate appliances and accessories that would “harmonize with the rest of the kitchen’s decor.”

A Pinch of Personalization

Savvy marketers of the 1950s began to see the benefit of selling appliances with some flair, recognizing that consumers would invest more in a kitchen that allowed them to express some sense of style, something that was not part of their lives at all just a decade before. Marketers reasoned that money otherwise intended for, say, a new television or vehicle could instead be allocated to a dishwasher or stove in trend-forward colors that would make consumers’ homes feel more personally expressive and modern.

The changing landscape of advertising in that era—especially as the television became a fixture in more and more households—gave way to widespread exposure of current trends: keeping up with clothing and culinary fashions became the height of sophistication and status among midcentury housewives.

These evolving opinions and behaviors inspired KitchenAid designers to concoct new colorways for the iconic stand mixer in 1955, and ultra-modern options such as Island Green or Antique Copper could soon be found in kitchens across the country. For the first time, consumers were not motivated by price, features, and quality alone—they could also add to those considerations a broad palette of contemporary colors (and in some cases, willingly pay a bit more for the option).

A Dash of Marketing Strategy

The trend of colorful kitchenware that began in the ’30s continued through the middle of the century and beyond, with the pastel greens, blues, and yellows of the ’50s giving way to earthier Harvest Wheat and Avocado shades in the 1970s, light and bright colors closing out the 20th century, and a wide variety of color choices—from subtle to saturated—still in vogue today.

KitchenAid has never for a moment stopped evolving. In the 1980s, KitchenAid launched its first full line of large home appliances, and the early ’90s saw the unveiling of several small appliances, such as blenders and food processors, upholding the brand’s mission to help home cooks “get the most out of making.” Today, the brand’s online stand mixer customization tool allows buyers to select engraving options; various bowl patterns, materials, and finishes; and a bevy of helpful attachments. These features, among others, contribute to the brand’s prestige—and its perpetual appearance, season after season, on lists of must-have wedding registry items.

From a social media perspective, KitchenAid is winning across the board. The content is consistent, cleverly rendered, and harnesses some of the many tools that give brands of its ilk a leg up in both organic reach and customer satisfaction. The brand also scored an ideal product placement spot as the mixer of choice on the workbenches of The Great British Baking Show. The pretty pastel KSM175 models can be seen on each and every episode (with the exception of season three, when a highly controversial decision was made to switch to Kenwood mixers), complementing the tent’s decor and prompting many of the shows millions of viewers to inquire about the model online.

With each new age of kitchen innovation, KitchenAid has answered the call and helped home cooks do it better. Adamant about ensuring that everything KitchenAid-branded is top of the line, from promotions to products to the brand’s online presence itself, the brand has found great success on a number of online platforms, constantly monitoring and evaluating customer experience at every touchpoint to ensure that, even if the consumer is purchasing a KitchenAid product on eBay rather than direct from the site, they enjoy a comfortingly consumer-centric approach. For many consumers, purchasing a KitchenAid mixer continues to be a basic, yet very special, home investment—one that will last a lifetime, and for which color selection is all-important.