Google color (or colour) psychology and you will find a number of websites explaining how people associate meanings to different colours. For example, most say that people associate purple with royalty.
A word of caution: the meanings people associate with different colours vary across cultures. For example in Hindu India orange is a sacred colour; but in Zambia they do not even acknowledge orange.
This blog focuses on the physiological and psychological effects of colour, and how these can be harnessed to improve business.
Most scientific research has focused on warm colours, typified by reds, oranges and yellows, and cool colours such as blue and green.
Researchers have found that red excites the brain. Red and warm colours and physically and emotionally arousing - they increase blood pressure and respiratory rate, and result in judgments about size and length being inaccurate.
Physiologically warm colours have been found to cause elated mood, higher levels of anxiety and greater levels of distraction. However cool colours such as blue have been associated with peaceful, calm and restful states.
Retailers like consumers to get excited by sales (and hopefully spend lots of money!). It is therefore not surprising that sale signs are nearly always red. The red sale sign draws consumers attention and simply by being red in get consumers excited..
But you can have too much of a good thing. Researchers have found that consumers generally find red coloured stores to be unpleasant, negative and less attractive than cool coloured (blue and green) stores.
My local fish and chip shop recently underwent refurbishment and went from blue and white interior colours to red and white - with bright red walls. Despite being a more attractive shop now, the red walls are overbearing and make the shop feel closed in and tense.
Perhaps the shop owners have read the articles claiming that red is a great colour for fast food restaurants because it stimulates appetite. These articles also recommend using yellow to attract consumers attention. A few well known fast food restaurants use yellow and red in their logos and branding - the theory being that yellow gains consumers attention with the red simultaneously increasing their appetite; the net result being more food sales. While red and yellow have undoubtedly worked well for some well known fast food restaurants, I am unable to find an credible research which supports the theory.
Researchers in the US have studied the effects of retails store colour on purchase intentions and the price consumers are willing to pay for a television. They found that:
- 39% of consumers in the red store postponed making a selection, compared to only 18% in the blue store. (This means that retail assistants working in red stores would require more expert sales skills)
- consumers in the blue store spent on average 45% more than consumers in the red store.
- half the consumers in the blue store selected the most expensive TV, compared to only 19% of consumers in the red store
What colour should your store be?
Clearly consumers prefer blue environments and respond better (ie. spend more money) in blue environments.
However, the research has been conducted in artificial settings with a neutral product (a television).
In some store in may be preferable to create a warm environment. Having a deep red feature wall or warm oranges in a coffee shop may work well, particular in cool climates. Similarly, red walls in a shop sells sports cars may work well as they will get the customer excited and maybe emulate the exhilaration of driving the car (no research on that, just my guess).
Think about your product. Think about your location. And above all else, listen to your customers.
Sources: Bellizzi, JA & Hite, RE (1992) Environmental color, consumer feelings and purchase likelihood. Psychology & Marketing, vol 9 (5), pg347.
Singh, S, (206). Impact of color on marketing. Management Decision, 44(6), pp 783-789.
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