Colors affect us in every way, mentally, physically and consciously. It impacts our visual perception. Psychologists have suggested that color impressions can account for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of a product or service. Color has been known to have a powerful psychological impact on people’s behavior and decisions. It can often be the sole reason someone purchases a product.
93% of buyers focus on visual appearance and almost 85% claim color to be their primary reason for purchase. Colors can help your brand stand out.
Color is an essential tool because it has an impact on how we think and behave. Color directs our eye where to look, what to do, and how to interpret things Colors help you in what you want your audience to see, feel and do. This is what makes understanding color psychology so important.
The Color Circle
The color circle can be divided into two, warm colors and cool colors. Excessive use of any category is not recommended.
Warm Colors reflect passion, happiness, energy and enthusiasm.
Cool Colors These reflect calmness and professionalism.
How well are you incorporating colors to your brand’s benefit?
Color has always been appealing to our visual senses and the right choice of color has to be made according to your industry and target audience.
Some facts about how much do colors influence buyer behavior:
When buying a product, 93% of buyers focus on the visual appearance, 6% look at the texture of the product and 1% decide based on sound or smell.
Also, 84.7% of customers cite color as the primary reason to buy a particular product.
As much as 80% of consumers think color increases brand recognition and 90% of product assessment is based on color.
Ads that have color are read 42% more than black & white ones.
Choosing the right color can increase the readership by 40%.
Not everyone reacts the same way to all the colors but there are a few generalities about how people respond to colors and what different colors represent.
RED – Red is a very powerful color that creates a sense of urgency which is why it is used for clearance sales. It also encourages appetite thus is used by fast-food chains quite frequently. It reflects our physical needs whether to show affection and love or to portray fear. The color red is associated with movement, excitement, and passion. Red is also a very energizing color and grabs attention and focus.
BLUE –Blue is known for its trust and sense of security. It is the preferred color of men. It’s associated with peace, water, tranquility, responsibility and reliability. It is a well-liked color that can bring a sense of calmness and trust when building relationships, especially in marketing. It is the most common color used by conservative brands looking to promote trust in their products. Color blue curbs appetite and stimulates productivity.
GREEN – Color green is associated with health, tranquility, power, nature and also money. Green is a color of balance and harmony. It is used in stores to relax customers and for promoting environmental issues. Green stimulates harmony in your brain and encourages a balance leading to decisiveness.
PURPLE – Purple is most commonly associated with royalty and wisdom. It is also for imagination and spirituality. It makes a perfect balance between the physical and spiritual. It’s a very intriguing color as it soothes, but it also presents mystery and new ideas. This is the reason why creativity is often associated with the color purple. It is used to promote beauty and anti-aging products.
YELLOW – Yellow reflects joy, cheerfulness and optimism. This color is associated with positivity. Anything which is happy is mostly yellow. It is a color that can lift up someone’s spirits, give inspiration and boosts confidence.
ORANGE – Orange leads to cheerfulness and optimism. It combines red’s energy with yellow’s friendliness. Orange can also stimulate one’s appetite. Orange also motivates and brings a positive attitude. This color is used for kids such as in board games and also at sporting events.
BLACK – Black is associated with authority, sophistication, power, seriousness, and strength. It is often a symbol of intelligence, but can also be used to show evil and depression. Unfortunately, since it’s a very powerful color, too much black can cause sadness and overall negativity so its use should be done more in the text as compared to visuals.
GREY – Color grey symbolizes practicality and timelessness. It reflects feelings of old age and solidarity in life. But a lot of greys can lead to feelings of nothingness and depression.
WHITE – Color white shows purity, cleanliness and innocence. It can also represent new beginnings and gives refreshment for new ideas. White is also a color of simplicity but too much white can cause emptiness and isolation.
This part of the blog emphasized what colors reflect and symbolize. We hope it was helpful. To know the impact of colors and how brands use them, stay tuned.