As the weather heats up, so too does the fashion scene

One element that runs through all the fabulous and eclectic spring fashions in stores this year is color.

"It's all over the place," said Danielle Pflederer, owner of Azura Boutique in Peoria Heights. "It's bright to seriously neon, it's pastels, which you see in jeans and some of the dresses, and primary colors - navy and red."

Kristin Snider, one of the owners of Pink Sugar Boutique in Peoria agrees. "Color has always been big in spring, but this year I feel like it's brighter."

Color can be added in splashes to otherwise neutral outfits, or whole outfits can be created using multiple shades mixed fearlessly. Color blocking, which combines two or more bright saturated shades in one piece, is huge this season, Pflederer said. Azura will be carrying shoes, handbags and clothing in a variety of color combinations.

Fashion jewelry this spring also celebrates color. Pink Sugar carries many fun, chunky pieces to give an outfit a modern edge. One locally-created line called Monarch uses a wide range of materials - from fabric to metal to string - to create statement-making pieces.

At Azura, rose gold is still hot, but Pflederer believes silver will be the go-to metallic this summer. "You can also combine the different tones of metal," she said. "Whatever works best for your skin tone."

While any length hemline is in, the maxi-dress is making a strong showing again this spring, said Snider. One of her favorite pieces is a floor-length sundress by Free People.

"That's a gorgeous piece," Snider said as she showed off the navy and kelly green dress with a lingerie-inspired top and a striped chiffon skirt. A thin wire sewn into the hem makes the skirt flare.

"I love that 'cause it really makes a difference in how it lays," she said. "It just kind of kicks it out at the bottom."

Azura is also carrying a variety of pieces in the maxi-length. "You see long skirts that are very elegant, and you see long skirts that are like sweat shirts," Pflederer said.

There are even skirts that combine both short and long hemlines. At Azura, a black jersey skirt by Lola and Sophie with the hi-lo hemline has short, subtle ruffles that show off a bit of leg in front then swirl into an ankle-grazing length in back.

How To Make Boring Businesses Exciting

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone got as excited about your company as you are? Unfortunately some businesses just aren't very sexy; in fact, some businesses are downright boring. As a consequence, companies that sell commodity products and routine services tend to rely on presentations that load-up on features, specifications, and statistics that may be relevant to anal-retentive types, but hardly compelling to the vast majority of your audience.

There is no reason why every company can't deliver an exciting image to its audience; one that generates the kind of buzz and excitement usually associated with companies like Apple, Victoria's Secret, Benetton, Absolut Vodka, and Sony.

It may seem impossible to produce a whole lot of steam for things like sand paper, accounting services, and facial tissue, but thanks to the Web and it's extraordinary ability to deliver multimedia content, even the most mundane offerings can get hearts racing and the blogosphere blogging.

Emotional Experiences Connect

Let's take facial tissue as an example; it is one of the most common, boring everyday products you can imagine. There is just not much you can do to sell this stuff other than telling people yours is softer and cheaper than the other guys, but then the other guy is saying the same thing; the result, consumers buy whatever is on sale. But wait, the clever fellows at Kimberly-Clark instituted a brilliant website campaign for their facial tissue, called "Kleenex - let it out."

The campaign zeros in on the emotional experience associated with why people use facial tissue: to wipe away tears of joy or sadness or maybe to clean-up cute little runny noses - in each case the result of some moving event.

Tapping into this emotional association is key to the Kleenex campaign and key to your new thinking on how to make your boring stuff, exciting.

Video - The Best Way To Tell A Story

The Kleenex campaign features prominent videos of articulate people telling their personal stories, all resulting in the need to use a facial tissue.

A pregnant woman discusses the emotional impact of having a child and as her eyes begin to tear, the interviewer hands her a Kleenex. A second video features another well-spoken woman talking about her return to New Orleans after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Again as the woman becomes emotional and begins to cry, the interviewer hands her a tissue. Nothing more needs to be said, this is very powerful story telling that connects to the audience and delivers an image of the brand as caring and sensitive; the exact kind of impression the company wants to portray.

Even companies that aren't exactly dead-from-the-neck-up boring can benefit from this approach. The Home Depot ran a series of advertisements with a husband showing his wife a series of power tools that he wanted. Rather than try to convince his wife, and by association all the wives in the audience, that he needs another expensive toy, the husband points to each tool and states, "this is your new shelving unit" and "this one is your new kitchen" - a far more dramatic and effective way to make the case for a new purchase.

You can deliver the same kind of powerful marketing messages for your own company by presenting Web-based videos that follow a few very simple guidelines.