Red or Blue - which color makes you push for a better deal?

12 replies
I read this short email last night about the effect of color on our willingness to pay a certain price for a product.

Here's the summary from the email:

The Color Red Makes You Push For a Better Deal
When people were shown online details about a vacation package against a blue background, their average "best offer" was $712, but it was $684 when the information was presented against a red background, say Rajesh Bagchi of Virginia Tech and Amar Cheema of the University of Virginia. The research participants were implicitly competing against the seller to get the best deal, and exposure to red induces greater aggression. Red has the opposite effect in auctions, where greater aggression makes people willing to pay more in order to best other bidders, the researchers say.
I found the full article and skimmed over it. You can find it here.
They divided purchasing situations into two categories:
  1. those where you're competing against other buyers i.e. an auction
  2. Those where you're competing against the seller i.e.a negotiated sale
In situations where a purchaser competes against other purchasers (an auction), they become more aggressive. By featuring the color red as a background color, the researchers found that the buyers became more aggressive and would bid higher.

When the purchaser buys direct from the seller, the purchaser wants to negotiate. To make them negotiate less aggressively, the researchers found that using the color blue made the purchaser less aggressive and more likely to pay a higher price.

Takeouts for marketers? If you sell anything in an auction situation, use red. If you sell anything that's more of a fixed price, aim to make the purchaser more willing to pay by using the colour blue to make them less aggressive.

As always, test everything!
#blue #color #deal #makes #push #red
  • Profile picture of the author Redwyn88
    Interesting read, I skimmed it for the sample sizes and was a little underwhelmed by how small they were (28 in one study, 88 in another)... seems like it'd be hard to really draw any conclusions from such limited data. Would be curious to see something like this done on a much bigger scale... what if ebay's main site colors "went red" for a day?
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    • Profile picture of the author Ben Clemons
      Originally Posted by Redwyn88 View Post

      what if ebay's main site colors "went red" for a day?
      Now, that kind of split testing grabs my interest!
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      • Profile picture of the author AllanWard
        Originally Posted by Redwyn88 View Post

        what if ebay's main site colors "went red" for a day?
        Originally Posted by Ben Clemons View Post

        Now, that kind of split testing grabs my interest!
        In the appendix of the report they show a couple of Ebay mockup ads that they used for one of their research projects. The only difference was that one used an ugly red background, the other an ugly blue background. Neither looked very attractive, yet the people exposed to the red background we more likely to make a higher bid.

        I wonder how much testing Ebay does? I'm sure they're always working on ways to get us to bid more, but the overall look of the site hasn't changed greatly over the years.
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  • Profile picture of the author Catchy22
    This isn't anything new, at all. Read up on color theory and marketing. If you are building a site and you want it to look professional typically you want to go with blue colors. In this case had you owned the website and it was in red you would be the one taking a hit.

    Almost all of my business sites are done in blue.
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  • Profile picture of the author riggsjerry
    Is it useful?
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  • Profile picture of the author LetsGoViral
    By the way, why do you think the theme of Warrior Forum is red? I don't think it's without a reason.
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    Time of thinking is over.
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    • Profile picture of the author AllanWard
      Originally Posted by LetsGoViral View Post

      By the way, why do you think the theme of Warrior Forum is red? I don't think it's without a reason.
      Brings a smile to my face

      Great point!
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  • Profile picture of the author RobIMJones
    It depends what it's for I guess..

    Red can give the impression of danger and fear - On the other hand it can create the sense of urgency.

    Blue can make people feel at ease - Which can be bad if you want a quick deal, customers are more relaxed and not rushing in to anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ankesh Kothari
    Umm most research on color theory is humbug.

    People will pay more when they see red because red is aggression is pure humbug. And here is why:

    Red-on-white has higher contrast than blue-on-white. Higher contrasting colours win attention. The fact that red pricing improves conversion has nothing to do with red evoking aggression. And everything to do with the numbers standing out on the page.

    The most important thing to know about colors is that without context, you can't test colors. Example: http://www.eyetricks.com/3605.gif

    The yellow in the left and the yellow on the right is the same yellow. Yet one looks lighter than the other because of the surrounding colors.

    So please don't go ahead and change your website colors to red today.
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    • Profile picture of the author jonathancarmel
      Originally Posted by Ankesh Kothari View Post

      Umm most research on color theory is humbug.

      People will pay more when they see red because red is aggression is pure humbug. And here is why:

      Red-on-white has higher contrast than blue-on-white. Higher contrasting colours win attention. The fact that red pricing improves conversion has nothing to do with red evoking aggression. And everything to do with the numbers standing out on the page.

      The most important thing to know about colors is that without context, you can't test colors...[/url]

      The yellow in the left and the yellow on the right is the same yellow. Yet one looks lighter than the other because of the surrounding colors.

      So please don't go ahead and change your website colors to red today.
      I agree with you that higher contrasts will evoke a higher level of awareness of those colors. However, I think that you are wrong to say that different colors do not evoke different emotions for consumers. In fact, I would argue that a higher contrast would create a higher awareness based around the two colors being contrasted. There has definitely been a lot of research into color theory and rather than nay-say, I would be curious to know where you get your information.

      On the other hand, I would also not recommend that everyone run to their sites and change their color schemes without a lot of thought and research . But there has to be something to color theory since all of the giant food companies contain the color red in their logo...I even recall a huge fast food chain (can't remember who) changing their old colors to be red because they cited that it increased awareness and appetite.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ankesh Kothari
    Thanks Jonathan.

    I don't claim that colors don't evoke emotions. I claim that colors evoke different emotions based on the context. Based on the surrounding colors.

    You have to take the entire color palette into consideration to zero in on the emotion.

    A "red and green" palette will evoke different emotions than a "red and yellow" palette. Red on its own is not aggression or anger or even hunger. Red on its own won't improve your conversion rate.

    Focus on color palettes. Not colors. Any research paper or article on color that doesn't consider the whole palette is really misleading and inaccurate.
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