COLORS: How To Market With Them

We've previously discussed on Fund-House's 'Launch Pad' how colors impact people and how they should be used in logos, names, and imagery for promotion and marketing.

Ad people, graphic designers, and marketers all know full well how certain colors effect consumer behavior and purchasing.  To the extent that color may be the determinant in a purchase - 93% of buyers focus on visual and 85% say color was their primary reason for the purchase.  So, lets look at the various colors and their impact on consumers' purchasing decisions.

RED - Great for sales. An attention getter. Used often in consumer goods packaging or to generate                  interest in a product.

BLUE - Men's preferred color. Associated with peace, water, tranquility, reliability. Provides a sense
              of security. Used by conservative Brands looking for trust - ie. financial institutions.

GREEN - Think healthy, power, nature. Used in stores to relax customers. Stimulates harmony and                     encourages decisiveness. Starbucks only major Brand to use green for it logo.

PURPLE - Royalty, wisdom, respect. Stimulates problem solving and creativity. Frequently used to                      promote beauty and anti-aging products.

ORANGE & YELLOW - Cheerful and optimistic. Yellow can made babies cry, while orange                                                         triggers caution. Used to create a sense of anxiety which can be used to                                                draw-in the impulse buyer and store browser.

BLACK - Authority, stability, strength. A symbol of intelligence, but not if used to frequently.

GRAY - Practical, solidarity, oldness. Too much is not good as it can be depressing.

WHITE - Purity, cleanliness, safety. Perceived as unaltered and clean.

HOW BRANDS USE COLOR

McDonald's - High-energy colors of red and yellow. Green would not work for McD's. As stated, Starbucks is the only major brand to use green. Why? To promote a sense of relaxation.

Contrast reduces eye strain and focuses the user's attention. It is best to use a very bright color for background and a dark color for the product and text.

For websites the use of a monochromatic color in various shades is easy to read. For example, using shades of black/gray/white together. Complementary colors, using two colors that are opposite, for example, red and yellow. Triple scheme - using three colors close on the color spectrum, ie red, blue, and purple.

Note: Information for this article was derived from Small Business Trends 'The Psychology of Colors'.

Stay in touch,
Jim Lavorato