The Psychology of Color in Marketing

Shoppers today have been found to consider color more than any other factor when making a decision to purchase. The psychology of color in marketing is intense, and can be used to evoke a variety of different emotions and actions in consumers. For example, color can increase or decrease appetite, enhance mood, increase memory, boost attention spans, calm down customers, reduce perceptions of waiting time, and even encourage sales or conversions.

How We React to Color

The human brain reacts to different colors in several ways. Red increases pulse rates, while green environments reduce heart rate by 11 points over white or red environments. Orange stimulates circulation, and yellow increases metabolism and stimulates a hunger response. Over 50% of people who sleep in blue rooms wake up happy, and 75% of children prefer purple. White makes rooms look larger, as it reflects up to 98.1% of sunlight. Finally, the color pink reduces aggression in children by 45%.

It is for these reasons that home colors are one of the make or break factors in real estate. High performance home colors are light blue, gray, taupe, and black. On the other hand, low performing colors in a home are brown, red, and cream yellow. In fact, studies show that yellow is only liked by 5% of people.

What Individual Colors Mean

Oscar Wilde once said “Mere color, unspoiled by meaning and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.” It is for this reason that successful brands are able to so effectively use color to maximize their marketing value. In commercial settings, red draws attention and denotes urgency and value, while blue quells buyers remorse and promotes feelings of trust. Green encourages action, and purple denotes power, luxury, and royalty. Black offers sophistication and mystery in the product, and orange combines the urgency of red and the cheerfulness of yellow. Brands like Target, Ikea, Sesame Street, Prada, Roku, and The Home Depot are only a few of the many that use these feelings associated with color to their advantage.

In Summary

Color based marketing is a strong tool that all brands can and should be using to take their business and customer experience to the next level. It is a simple method to subconsciously persuade consumers to feel a certain way and have a specific response to the product that is being sold. Harnessing this power is a beneficial skill that all businesses who wish to have success in the future are starting to focus on.