The Power of Color on Individuals & Marketing
Color has a potent effect on people's feelings and activities. You can influence your customer's purchasing behavior and choices, to your company's benefit, by the usage of the perfect color in your logo design, branding, and advertising campaigns.
Science Proves that Color Sells
Scientific research has found that 93 percent of customers credit the visual appearance of a product as their primary buying deciding variable and 85% state that the most important reason they bought was the color! This is because 80 percent of these visual information that's communicated by great logo designs are out of the colors used.
- 92% Believe color presents an image of impressive quality
- 90% Feel color can assist in attracting new customers
- 90% Believe customers remember presentations and documents better when color is used
- 83% Believe color makes them appear more successful
- 81% Think color gives them a competitive edge
- 76% Believe that the use of color makes their business appear larger to clientsSource: Conducted by Xerox Corporation and International Communications Research from February 19, 2003 to March 7, 2003, margin of error of +/- 3.1%.
When asked to approximate the importance of color when buying products, 84.7 percent of the total respondents think that color accounts for more than half among the various factors important for choosing products.
Source: Secretariat of the Seoul International Color Expo
Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.
Source: CCICOLOR – Institute for Color Research
Color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent
Source: University of Loyola, Maryland study
Now that you know the the enormous power of color to influence your customers to utilize this business research to construct your own very best new advertising campaigns.
Colors & Industry
According to this 2017 analysis of Shade in Branding, covering different businesses, these will be the predominant colors utilized in their logos as well as the emotional reaction it generates:
- Restaurants – Red for Care and vitality. Green for wellbeing and health.
- Banking – Blue for dependability. Red for Warmth. Yellow for Cheerfulness
- Apparel and Accessories – Dark for elegance. Red for fire. Orange generates feelings of assurance.
- Automobile and Truck Manufacturers – Grey for caliber. Red for masculinity. Blue for Reliability.
- Home Improvement – Blue for comfort. Orange for Excitement. Red for inspiration.
- Pharmaceuticals – Blue for cleanliness. Orange for optimism. Green for energy.
Color Preferences by Gender
As a company owner, your target clients could be mainly of a specific gender, now you will be able to use certain colors to more efficiently market to such individuals.
According to this revolutionary color study from Joe Hallock, here are the findings by sex of color preferences:
Men's Best Favorite Colors
- Blue – 57 percent
- Green – 14 percent
- Black 9 percent
- Red – 7 percent
- Orange – 5 percent
- Grey – 3 percent
- Brown – two percent
- White – two percent
Women's Best Favorite Colors
- Blue – 35 percent
- Purple – 23 percent
- Green -14 percent
- Red – 9 percent
- Black – 6 percent
- Orange – 5 percent
- Brown – 3 percent
- Yellow – 3 percent
Men and Women's Least Favorite Colors
- Brown – 20-27 percent
- Orange – 22 -33 percent
Color Shades Preference by Gender
Unsurprisingly, studies have decided that Men favor bolder tones and girls like softer, paler colors. Thus Men's manufacturers have enhanced their brand awareness with darker, darker colors and feminine concentrated products do nicely with lighter tints of colors as brand colors.
Emotions of Colors for Business Purposes
- Red — Creates a sense of urgency, which can be extremely great for clearance and sales earnings. Fast-food chains, therefore often used to stimulate our desire. Stimulates the full body, heart rate and raising blood pressure, associated with excitement, excitement, and movement.
- Blue — The most preferred color of men. It's linked with peace. Blue provides a sense of productivity, curbs appetite, and promotes security. The color used by manufacturers looking to advertise trusts such as banks and brokerage houses.
- Green — Associated with health, tranquility, ability, and private character. For relaxing shop surroundings and also to encourage green living and products. Green stimulates and promotes confidence and equilibrium.
- Purple — Ordinarily connected with royalty, wisdom, and admiration. Stimulates creative problem solving and imagination. Often used to market beauty and anti-aging products.
- Orange & Yellow — Cheerful colors that promote optimism and enjoyment. While orange can make sense of caution, yellow is likely to make babies cry. Used to make sense of stress that brings in urge shoppers.
- Black — Associated with electricity, capability, stability, and endurance. If used in surplus it can get overwhelming.
- Grey — Symbolizes feelings of practicality, older age, and solidarity. In excess, it can lead to feelings of depression and nothingness.
- White — Associated with feelings of purity, cleanliness and safety. White area in branding layout helps since it could be seen as a clean slate and provoke the imagination.
Conclusion and Action Steps
Use these proven effects of color on people's minds to your benefit by integrating the colors that convey with your target clients gender, the feelings you would like your products to evoke. Review your logo, site design, and advertising materials to establish whether you're positively or negatively utilizing color to interest your clients.
References: Studies about Color for Branding
- https://www.towergateinsurance.co.uk/liability-insurance/professional-indemnity-insurance/colour-in-branding
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2235253
- http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/preferences.html
