The Science of Color in Marketing.

How do colors affect purchases?

Infographic by Kissmetrics




- Nizam

Well, since most of the prospects in the make money online niche are women, red is the color to use. That is what my mentor has taught me and is true.

Color marketing is junk science. It's just something for marketing academics to talk about. When you look at what the colors are supposed to mean and think of a company that fits into the equation, you can always think of ten other companies who are successful selling the same thing who don't fit into the equation.



When you are in WalMart do you feel a greater sense of trust than Target? Is K-Mart more exciting than Best Buy? Does Harley Davidson seem more friendly than Toyota?

The bottom line is that colors are chosen based purely on aesthetics. Not because someone was trying to use color voodoo to increase sales.

If it looks good, go with it.

Having studied this extensively (and spent more money and time than I care to mention) I've come to the following conclusion. There are no absolutes. In fact there are too many considerations to take onto effect including but not limited to:

CULTURE

It needs to be noted that colours have different associations in different cultures. In western society yellow is often associated with happiness but in Egypt yellow is associated with mourning and in France with jealousy.

SOCIETY

Often in the states green is associated with money (due to the colour of the US dollar) you would naturally assume that this would be a good colour to use in finance and mmo. Sadly this association does not exist in other markets where the connection between green and money does not exist.

INDUSTRY

The industry you are in can have an effect on what colours you choose to use and sometimes more importantly which colours not to use. In the UK a lot of medical and health companies use the colour combination of blue and white. This has a lot to do with the link of these colours to the NHS. Other companies such as oral b use this colour combination. It is also worth noting that oral b as an oral health company avoid the use of yellow in their branding. Other examples include feminine hygiene products and toilet roll which have 'do not use' colours.

BRANDING

If you have a strong brand like Starbucks you should use those colours on your site etc. The brain recognises brands and by continuing the consistency of colour you ease the friction in the mind of the visitor as to whether they are in the right place. There's a takeaway here for people who use banner add.

GENDER

This is an interesting area as there is a lot of stereotypes to overcome. In several surveys both men and women have choosen their favourite colour as blue. The biggest difference is that women are more aware of shades. A quick warning however is to know your audience. Working with one company they assumed that due to the nature of the product that their customers were female. When we researched it we found that over 70% of transactions were from males for females. Moving away from the traditional pink saw an increase in conversion.

A final point that's often raised is the magic colour of orange as a buy button. When these claims are examined the increase in roi for having an orange button depends on the colour combination on your site.

Our best practice is to use two or three complimentary colours from a colour wheel but to use a different colour on your buy now button so that it stands out. Combine this with good conversion architecture and you can get a gain from the use of colour.

Eric

Interesting infographics.

Another suggestion would be get hold of Russell Brunsons 108 Proven Split Test Winners. He has a ton of useful results from these tests and he spent $$$$$ to get those winners.

Well if someone is color blind forget it right? But yes color does play an important roll in marketing. For example: Barbie dolls are marketed to girls usually with pinl being the main color.

Would the overall message be effected if the colors were grey. Possibility as it is such a dull color.

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Looking at the infographic that I posted, imagine if all of those companies had launched with a different color scheme. How would that have affected their success as we know them today?

Talk about that. I'd like to hear some opinions on that topic.

The color yellow is perceived by the eye gracefully. I use it in alot of my marketing, and the paperback version of my ebook is yellow on the spine. Just in case somebody puts it on your bookshelf, and it stands out like a sore thumb. They (or somebody else who's interested) can find my book with ease... even as soon as they walk into the room.

Casinos are a prime example of color in use. Just look at the slots. They use colors that attract and entice people from all cultures. Each one is a tiny salesperson and there's a reason they're not all just silver medal boxes.

Sometimes, a person has a personal color preference or just hates a color, so that can influence whether or not they buy a particular product or stay on a site. For instance, someone who hates purple might not stay very long on a site that has purple as a main color palette.

It's interesting to see how colors can affect our minds and we don't even realize it.

Fast food does this with red and yellow it is supposed to make you hungry for some reason.

Big corporations know marketing on a whole different level.

Big companies spend millions each year just to have successful marketing campaigns.

You better believe it colors do matter and the Infographic by Kissmetrics mentioned in an earlier post is one I use regularly