Brands over time

Dulux
over time

Every year keeps its colour across every chart.│ ChatGPT, 30 Nov 2022

134 of Dulux's own blog posts, press releases and announcements, 2016 to 2022, measured sentence by sentence. How the writing has moved over the years, how it compares with 8 other DIY and home brands, and what it sounds like in its own words.

Pages measured
134
Years covered
2016–22
Archived before ChatGPT
0
Blog · press
130 · 4

01 · Homepage

One capture a year

Dulux's homepage from 2007 to 2026, closest to 1 July, from the Internet Archive. Pick a year or press play. Each headline is quoted from its capture and links to the archived copy.

2026dulux.co.uk13 Jun 2026
Dulux homepage, 13 Jun 2026

Screenshot of Dulux’s homepage (dulux.co.uk) as archived by the Internet Archive on 13 Jun 2026. © Dulux or its licensors. Shown for comparison and review; not endorsed by Dulux.

Homepage

2026

“Life is what you paint it”

Page title

Dulux Paints - Find The Perfect Paint Colour for You | Dulux

Open on the Internet Archive
  1. 2010Dulux - Helping you find the colours you'll love
  2. 2013A Tough and Bright White
  3. 2014Mix more than colour with Dulux Paint Mixing
  4. 2020Covid-19 Homepage Strapline
  5. 2021Welcome to your world in colour
  6. 2026Life is what you paint it

15 captures. Screenshots are rendered from the archive and can pull in images archived later than the page itself; dates come from the capture. Years without a capture are greyed out in the strip.

02 · Measures by year

How the writing moved

Every year’s pages, averaged. Pick a measure. Hatched bars rest on fewer than 10 pages: context, not a finding. The page count sits under each year.

Sentence lengthAverage words per sentence.
8
16
24
Home avg 12.8
11.7
12.6
9.3
11.0
13.1
10.4
22.2
ChatGPT · Nov 2022
2015no pages
20161 pp
20172 pp
20183 pp
20191 pp
20202 pp
20211 pp
20221 pp
2023no pages
2024no pages
2025no pages
2026no pages
10 or more pagesFewer than 10 pages: context, not a findingSector averageChatGPT released
Show as a table
YearSentence lengthPages
201611.71
201712.62
20189.33
201911.01
202013.12
202110.41
202222.21

Years with pages: 2016 (1), 2017 (2), 2018 (3), 2019 (1), 2020 (2), 2021 (1), 2022 (1). Dates come from page metadata, structured data, the URL, or the month a page was first archived (a latest possible date).

03 · Against its sector

Dulux among DIY and home brands

Each dot is one brand’s mean across all its measured pages; the tick is the sector average. Only brands with 10 or more measured pages are shown or counted. Select a dot to open that brand.

  1. Em dashes

    76% more than its sector

    2.24 against a sector average of 1.28; highest of 8.

  2. "We"

    35% more than its sector

    46% against a sector average of 34%; 2nd highest of 8.

  3. "You"

    27% less than its sector

    45% against a sector average of 62%; 2nd lowest of 8.

Sentence lengthMid-table, 5th of 8
Dulux 12.4
9.716.6
Contractions3rd highest of 8
Dulux 13.6
8.714.3
"You"2nd lowest of 8
Dulux 45%
9%88%
"We"2nd highest of 8
Dulux 46%
7%88%
QuestionsMid-table, 4th of 8
Dulux 3.4
0.16.4
Long wordsLowest of 8
Dulux 20%
20%31%
Em dashesHighest of 8
Dulux 2.24
0.182.24
AI-associated words2nd lowest of 8
Dulux 0.68
0.492.59
Exclamations3rd highest of 8
Dulux 1.38
0.001.97
Page length3rd lowest of 8
Dulux 725
5941,613

Pages measured: Wickes 135 · Screwfix 8 · Homebase 121 · Dunelm 45 · Habitat 35 · Oak Furnitureland 18 · Magnet 88 · Farrow & Ball 16 · Dulux 134. Measures and method: SGR-010; this sector and its brands were added by Brands over time, measured exactly as the studies measured theirs. Sector averages and ranks cover every brand in the sector on this site.

04 · Vocabulary

Words Dulux uses more than its peers

The words this brand reaches for more often than the rest of its sector. This is subject matter more than voice.

paint128.0 vs 27.4
colour142.3 vs 42.8
shades52.7 vs 7.1
grey59.9 vs 11.1
decorating38.6 vs 4.3
colours78.4 vs 20.9
bedroom44.5 vs 9.1
walls49.4 vs 13.1
blue58.4 vs 17.3
DuluxSector peers

Uses per 10,000 words, ranked by weighted log-odds (Monroe et al. 2008) across 134 pages. Checked for product names and page furniture.

05 · In its own words

What it sounded like

Openings of real pages, quoted word for word, oldest first. Each links to the page, or to the Internet Archive’s copy when it has gone.

2016 · Announcement
“Not quite muted, not quite bright, Blue Opal is a versatile shade that could work anywhere. But, because of its calming qualities, we think it works best in spaces for contemplation such as offices, bedrooms and bathrooms.”
Introducing our new colours for 2016
2019 · Blog
“Every year the color experts at the Dulux Global Aesthetic Centre team up with design and societal trend forecasters to select the Dulux Colour of the Year 2019. This year our chosen shade is Spiced Honey – a warm amber tone that reflects a new mood of positivity.”
Ways to use Spiced Honey around your home
2020 · Blog
“As 2020 is the start of a new decade, it’s a fresh start. A new dawn. In an increasingly hectic and digital world, there is a desire for meaning and kindness. So, inspired by the colours of the morning sky, our colour experts have created an inspiring new shade, Tranquil Dawn.”
Tranquil Dawn – the Dulux Colour of the Year 2020
2021 · Blog
“Every year, our colour specialists, plus a team of top international design experts discuss the latest global trends that will affect every area of our lives. We then translate these insights into one key colour that reflects the mood of the moment – a tone that’s set to have an impact on homes all over the world.”
Dulux Brave Ground – Colour of the Year 2021

06 · Every page

All 141 pages, by year

The full list behind every number above, with links to the live page or the archived copy. 134 count towards the measures; the rest were not measured (1 pdf report (annual report, info pack), 6 mostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose). Pages with no reliable date count in the overall numbers but in no year.

20221 page
20211 page
20202 pages
20191 page
20183 pages
20172 pages
20161 page
In the overall numbers, no year123 pages
Not measured7 pages

07 · Method

How this was measured

The pages

Dulux's own blog posts, press releases and announcements, fetched from the live site in 2026 and from the Internet Archive for 2015 to November 2022. Homepages are shown as captures; product and help pages are not measured.

The measures

Code counts from ScriptGrain’s writing instruments: sentence length and rhythm, contractions, pronouns, punctuation, long words, and three published lists of AI-associated words. No AI model reads or judges any page.

What it cannot say

These measures describe style. They cannot tell who or what wrote a page, and nothing here says or implies that any brand used AI to write.

Sample sizes

Every number carries its page count. Years under 10 pages, and before-and-after comparisons with under 10 pages on a side, are shown as context only.

Sentence length
Average words per sentence.
Sentence rhythm
How much sentence length varies (standard deviation over mean). Higher reads less even.
Contractions
Contractions (we're, you'll, it's) per 1,000 words. A rough gauge of how conversational the writing is.
"You"
Share of I/we/you pronouns that are "you": how much the writing addresses the reader.
"We"
Share of I/we/you pronouns that are "we": how much the writing talks about the organisation.
Questions
Question marks per 1,000 words.
Exclamations
Exclamation marks per 1,000 words.
Long words
Share of words with seven or more letters.
Em dashes
Em dashes per 1,000 words.
AI-associated words
Words from SGR-007's three AI-associated lists, per 1,000 words. These are style markers that people used long before ChatGPT; a higher rate says nothing about who or what wrote the page.
AI-era marketing words
Marketing words that became more common in AI-era copy (seamless, elevate, unlock...), per 1,000 words. A style measure only.
Quieter LLM-favoured words
Everyday words language models are known to over-use, per 1,000 words. A style measure only.
AI-associated sentence shapes
Sentence patterns such as "not just X, but Y", found by ScriptGrain's cliche checker, per 1,000 words. A style measure only.
Page length
Average words per page.

Studies: SGR-009: Do brands in the same sector sound the same? · SGR-010: How UK brands write · SGR-011: Did brand writing change after ChatGPT?.