Probably, the psychology of color as it relates to persuasion is one of the most interesting aspects of marketing.
When we buy something we are affected by different things such as the perfume, the light, the disposition of the stuff, the music etc.
Moreover, the interest to the customer’s experience continues to grow up and there are a lot of theories and studies, linked to this emotional aspect focusing on how to increase that in order to achieve a strong brand identity ,a clear brand
awareness, and brand loyalty as conceived in the brand storytelling strategy.
From beverages to electronics consumer, marketers are using color in innovative ways.
Despite this, an academic research has investigated the role that color plays in marketing.
The authors of this research “Exciting red and competent blue: the importance of color in marketing” also demonstrate how marketers can strategically use color to alter brand personality and purchase intent, and how color influences the likability and familiarity of a brand.
They provide a framework and empirical evidence that draws on research in aesthetics, color psychology, and associative learning to map hues onto brand personality dimensions.
In another research called “Impact of Color in Marketing”, researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone.
The psychologist and lecturer of Stanford, Jennifer Aaker, explored in her studies 5 main dimensions of the brand identity: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness.
The results underscore the importance of recognizing the impact of color in forming consumer brand perceptions.
Nevertheless, it’s the feeling, mood, and image that your brand creates that play an important role in persuasion.
In addition, our brain tends to prefer known brands so in this case the choice of brand color is very important in order to create a strong brand identity.
THE MEANINGS OF COLORS
There have been myriad attempts to classify consumer responses to different individual colors:
- Yellow for optimism, clarity and warmth. A brand that chooses this color is because it aims to happiness like McDonald’s and Chupa chups.
- Orange for friendly, cheerful and confidence. This color is the most versatile and that is why brands like Harley Davidson and EasyJet chose it for their logo. It communicates power, action, and security.
- Red for excitement, youthful and bold. Is the first color that the human eyes senses. Not only it draws attention and it gives immediacy, but it also transmits energy and passion. This is why brands like Coca-Cola, H&M, and Netflix chose it for their logo.
- Violet or pink for creative, imaginative and wise. When you think about Barbie or Taco Bell you just think that creativity is the reason why the brand exists. Indeed, Barbie is a doll that requires children’s creativity to play. Taco Bell is based on creativity inherent to food’s field, you can eat whatever you can imagine.
- Blue means trust, dependable and strength. This color is pleasant and clean. Moreover, it has such a familiar and sensible feeling. This is why Pfizer, DELL, HP, Vimeo and IBM chose it. But blue it’s also the color of the most known social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Lots of brands with different products, from banks to hygiene products, chose this color because it is the most well-rounded.
- Green for peaceful, growth and health. This reminds you of nature, of course, and this is why companies choose it for environmentally friendly products. But it is also used in the beverage field because of the call to freshness like Heineken.
- Grey for balance, neutral and calm. It is the middle ground of maturity, classic and serious. In fact, it is used mostly in the car brands, and cultural brands, for example, Wikipedia or Alfa Romeo.
- Black it shall communicate modern, mysterious and luxurious so it is why the newest smartphones or cars are black. But this color is also used by sport brands like Puma or Nike or for couture dresses companies. Black is also associated with white that means purity, simplicity, and clarity in order to call the attention to quality and simplicity.
- If you want to make your brand rugged, masculine and serious, Brown is the best choice. For example there are Ups, UGG, and Hollister. In addition, brown is the most popular in the coffee’s brands like Nespresso, Nescafé or chocolate brands like M&M’s and Hershey, probably because it’s the same color as the product’s.
CONCLUSION
Another aspect of the color perception is about the gap between male and female. It’s important to note that one’s environment plays a strong role in dictating color appropriateness for gender, which in return can influence individual choices.
It appears from many studies that there is the supremacy of blue across both genders and the disparity between groups on purple. Women list purple as a top-tier color, but no men list purple as a favorite color.
Additional research in studies on color perception and color preferences show that when it comes to shades, tints and hues men seem to prefer bold colors while women prefer softer colors.
Also, men were more likely to select shades of colors with black added, whereas women were more receptive to tints of colors with white added.
These researches are meant to help marketers understand the needs of people and create markets which are more oriented towards satisfaction of those needs.
So you just go round and round on what you would like to buy but probably your brain may be determined it already.
The point that you should keep in mind is all about your brand’s values and strengths that you would like to communicate.
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