How your choice of color could be costing your marketing efforts thousands...

Your choice of color could be causing your marketing efforts thousands in lost revenue…

No, I don't mean thousands as an exaggerated claim...

Because you could be losing even more than thousands – the culprit?

Color psychology – not color association - a topic that can differ from culture to culture and country to country.

I am referring to psychology – the nitty gritty stuff of our brains and human behaviour.

Have you ever heard of the study where use of the color pink in jail calmed violent prisoners?

The idea that just the use of one color could induce a specific human behavior must be an insanely powerful marketing technique.

Well, it is.

The problem is that most individuals don't know about the psychological power that color possesses, nor are they interested in learning more about it "because it's a designer job".

Sure, you can neglect your responsibility as an owner or marketer.

But you could also be one of the few that understand the benefit of color so that you could bring thousands, if not millions, extra in revenue.

Imagine having an extra holiday relaxing by the sunny beach side with all your close family and friends who all respect you more due to your newfound success – all because you learned about the use of colors.

Or coming at each quarter and looking at your analytics having skyrocketed while others still struggle to optimize much of their marketing efforts. You'd be the emperor that people awe at in respect when you walk past.

But I have to admit, I am not anywhere near the person that found and tested the idea of color psychology.

In fact, it has been tested academically tens of thousands of times – so it's kind of legit.

I originally stumbled across this concept while reading CA$HVERTISING by Drew Eric Whitman

In the book, he gave much info about color psychology, but the aspects that best stood out in relevance were his compiled ranking and section about color combos.

To give you a run down

Ranking Color

1. Blue

2. Red

3. Green

4. Violet

5. Orange

6. Yellow

These were the best-ranked preferred colors across the board.

This statistic was pulled from over 21000+ reports which is more than an office full of paper…

But Brendan, that is just ranking the colors…

Sure, but understanding the impact that each of these colors could pose in different elements is what separates your average run-of-the-mill marketer and or owner.

Color not only attracts readers, and besides differentiating your marketing efforts from another, it can also affect moods and feelings, thus changing consumer perspectives. (Ali, Khattak, Khan, & Shah, 2018).

Similarly, 62-90 per cent of assessment is based on colors alone (Singh, 2006).

So, if a color has such a significant impact, what are the corresponding effects of each color rather than just ranking them…

Well, lucky for you, I'll give a general idea of each color's impact (Singh & Srivastava , 2011).

Red – An intense color that tends to raise blood pressure and pulse rate while it excites the brain waves that contribute to stimulating people.

Blue: A cool and non-threatening color with tranquilizing effects on the mind and somewhat the opposite of red.

Yellow – A happy and cheerful disposition of the mind, but too much signifies anger.

Green – Signifies balance and rejuvenation, similarly growth and good luck.

Pink – The sister color of red but has tranquilizing effects on the mind, similar to blue while symbolizing innocence, sweet taste, and sympathy.

What's even more fascinating besides the individualistic effects each color possess is the color combos.

There are two theories mentioned in the CA$HVERTISING book about color combination…

Many insist that the best color combinations are those that do not cross a primary color.

However, others suggest that the best color combinations apply complementary colors.

There is not much experimentation done on which theory is more proven.

But there is research done on color combinations.

The study found that there was a complementary ranking and a consumer preference ranking. Which essentially is how good the colors look together versus the consumer's preference for it.

So even though a red-green color combination was most complimentary, it was not the most preferred by consumers, whereas a blue-yellow combination was the most preferred.

A drastic difference was the purple-orange combination, which was reasonably complementary at a 6 but was the least preferred overall by consumers.

Imagine if your marketing efforts had picked something like purple-orange. Sure it might look half-decent… But…

If the consumer has no preference for it – it would be a turn-off…

That one choice potentially damaging your potential revenue or conversions.

And dependent on how scaled your marketing efforts are, losing thousands if not millions in revenue.

All this with a simple choice of color.

If you're still doubting if color psychology is legitimate, be reassured by the fact that companies spend billions on multi-color marketing efforts.

I'll reemphasize - not millions but billions…

That's at least a truck full of cash.

References:

Ali, H., Khattak, S. R., Khan, Y., & Shah, M. (2018). Color Psychology in Marketing. Journal of Business and Tourism, 183-190.

Singh , N., & Srivastava , S. K. (2011). Impact of Colors on The Psychology of Marketing –A Comprehensive Over View. MANAGEMENT AND LABOUR STUDIES, 199-209.

Singh, S. (2006). Impact of color on marketing. Management Decision, 783-789.

Whiteman, D. E. (2008). Consumer Color Preferences. In D. E. Whiteman, CA$HVERTISING (pp. 175-177). Weiser.