RODA marketing

The Psychology of Colors in Marketing

Color can affect our thoughts and behaviors; it directs us to where to look and what to do, but also how to interpret something – as it puts content into context, and helps us distinguish between what is important.

That’s exactly why, in marketing, and pretty much any other business, we need to understand what colors can invoke in people.

While the psychological impact of color tends to be subjective and not all people will have the same reaction to colors, generally speaking, there are a few things we can say about how people commonly respond to color.

Is it important to utilize colors properly in your marketing? To put it in one sentence – in the vastness of marketing field, color can help your stand out.

Color and the marketing of your business truly go together, whether it’s about your advertising, branding, services or product, or promotions, it has been shown that color can send either a positive or negative subconscious message, creating a positive or negative perception of your business.

Marketing research indicates that over 80% of visual information is related to color. 

That colors play a pretty considerable role in buying a service or a product and in branding was shown in an fittingly titled study – Impact of Color in Marketing, where researchers found that 90% of impulsive judgments made about products can be based on color alone, 92% of consumers prioritize visual factors when purchasing products, and 85% of consumers believe color is the biggest visual motivator when choosing a particular product.

The study Exciting Red and Competent Blue also corroborates that buying intent is highly affected by colors due to the fact that colors influence how consumers view the “personality” of the brand in question.  

Color has the power to direct your audience to see what you want them to see, feel what you want them to feel, and take action you want them to take, so choosing the right color scheme for your brand should be carefully considered.

Color can transform your message – choose unsuitable color choices, and your perfect content and your wonderful call to action (CTA) can totally get unnoticed. Color and how people behave when they see it affects your conversions – how many will click the CTA button, read your pop-up graphic, notice your email subscription box?

According to the Institute for Color Research, people make a judgment about your content in 90 seconds or less, and almost 90% of that decision is influenced by the colors they see.

People like simplicity, and since color has meaning and adds to your message, it pays to keep in mind that too many colors can make for a confusing message. Your content will be easier to understand if your audience doesn’t have to interpret it through too many colors, but instead relying on 2 to 3 favorite colors.

Did you know that even NASA pays close attention to colors, leading to their online tools to help people pick optimal color combinations?

Now, some questions to ask are: is your audience mostly men or women, and what age group are they? If your audience is mostly women, you will want to choose colors that are not too loud. Also: what service or product are you selling? If, for instance, you are selling a luxury product, you certainly don’t want to use colors that are perceived as cheap.

There are a few widespread understandings of what specific colors often mean. According to both the Kissmetrics blog and Hallock, some general findings about colors include:

 

  • Blue is one of the most liked colors, with the most positive connotations by both men and women, though it is overall more favored by men
  • The most disliked color by men is brown, and orange by women
  • Colors that are disliked are also seen as “cheap”
  • A majority of men (56%) and women (76%) prefer cool colors in general
  • Men respond to achromatic colors (i.e. shades of gray) better than women
  • Women prefer tints while men prefer pure or shaded colors
  • Orange and yellow grow increasingly disliked as both genders grow older

 

Now, while brown, for instance, is associated with ruggedness, purple with sophistication, and red with excitement and celebration – almost every academic study on colors and branding tells us that it’s much more important for your brand’s colors to support the personality of your business than to try and align with stereotypical color associations. So, when placed in different contexts, color brown can be used to create a warm, inviting feeling (think Thanksgiving) or to stimulate your appetite (think chocolate ads).

Ultimately, It’s about the feeling, mood, and image that your brand creates. This is what plays a big role in persuasion, so colors come into play when they can be utilized to match your brand’s desired personality.

Color helps people recognize your brand by up to 80%, so, again, choose your colors wisely!

Another important aspect of selecting colors is that the best color for conversions is the one you’ve tested yourself. Whenever possible, it’s recommended that A/B tests are created to determine which color combinations and layout generate the most leads and traffic in your content.

Also, your use of color can affect the usability of your online content.

How you utilize colors in your marketing will depend on what your goals are, such as are you looking to invoke a particular emotion, get people to take action, excite or put people at ease, etc.

The reason we chose blue for our RODA marketing logo is because some of the prominent characteristics of this color are trust and dependability – and we dedicated and passionate about being dependable and trustworthy for all of our clients!

At RODA marketing we understand the importance of brand personality and brand recognition and focus our efforts on brand consistency from web design all the way across all media.

When you choose RODA marketing Lancaster PA web design and other marketing services we provide, you choose our proficiency, experience, conduct of ethics and passion for success.

Contact us today to discuss website design in Lancaster PA and nationwide and learn how we can deliver value and results to your business.

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