Psychology of Colors

A beautiful lady casually strolls down the street with a soft smile hovering over her pretty face. Her attire matches and coordinates impeccably from her stylish knee high leather boots to the pencil thin lamb leather black skirt which brushes the top of her boots, to the tone on tone black and white pattern silk turtleneck sweater. Is she marketing?




She absolutely presents a stunning eye catching image. What does the image represent to you? Do you want to know more about her? Are you willing to spend some of your precious time gazing at the pleasurable image? Absolutely. The first task of all marketing involves attracting the attention of the reader.



Until you make an impression on the reader with your presentation, your sales material has about as much viability as a snowball's chance in a Florida summer day. You have about three seconds to catch the favorable glance of the compulsive clicker on the internet or the page flipper in a magazine. Either grab their attention and hold it for a few seconds or your sales copy might as well have been written with invisible ink. The prospective buyer will be gone faster than a shopaholic hearing about a blowout at Nordstrom.



Headlines must sizzle and entice the reader to say "Tell me more." Colors, type face, well chosen attention words and pictures all contribute to that eye stopping reaction. Marketing colors significantly alter the impression of the reader. Perform an intense marketing analysis of your sales material. Would you stop and look at the ad if you were Billy Bob just browsing through the pages?



Colors convey various images to the reader.



Red - Emotional intensity, energy, danger, power, determination, strength, passion and desire. Stop signs, high voltage danger signs and red light districts reflect the image of danger and intense emotion. Deeper shades of red evoke more rage and wrath while graduating to the softer reds and pinks conveys the softer emotions of femininity and love. Red represents a dramatic marketing color.



Orange - Since orange represents a secondary color rather than a primary color, it combines the energy of red with the happiness of yellow. Ever see the logo of the sunny smiley face as anything other than shades of yellow with black eyes? Yellow and soft golden shades are associated with happiness. Orange inspires healthy thoughts and thus healthy appetites; use the marketing color orange to convey health. Because of its high viability, orange is also reputed to increase the oxygen supply to the brain.



Yellow - Yellow arouses joy, happiness and intellect with its warming effects. Yellow's transmutation from happiness to cowardice is as strange as its impression as a childish color to men. Yellow is sometimes regarded as unstable and spontaneous, thus not recommended as the marketing color for selling high ticket merchandise. Yellow and green are given as colors for baby shower gifts when the gender of the unborn baby is unknown; however, babies are reputed to cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow presents itself best as a pure color rather than shades; shades look washed out or dingy.

Green - Environmentalists love green; to them it represents nature and purity. Ever notice how a new green leaf on a plant seems lighter than the mature leaves. Green represents freshness, growth and fertility. Darker shades of green evoke thoughts of money. Use dark green as a money image marketing color. Green gathers in other colors such as yellow, blue and olive to create shades. Greenhorn means novice which may be encouraging since green in a traffic light also means go forward.

Blue - Sky blue and the deep blue sea convey depth, stability and loyalty. Blue shades represent trust, intelligence and tranquility. Since blue suppresses the appetite it would be better served as the marketing color in a diet ad than in a restaurant. Deeper shades of blue appeal to men and to more expensive products as well as high-tech products.

Purple - Royalty, nobility, luxury and wisdom combine in purple. Children respond favorably to purple. Since purple is rarely seen in nature other than fields of wildflowers, many people regard it as an artificial color. Personally I see purple as a combination of the characteristics of blue and red; it holds the wealth, mystery and magic of blue with the independence and fire of red. Purple marketing colors represent expensive toys: cars, boats, and airplanes; items you expect to see in the Robb Report.

White - Purity and light seem to be the predominant thoughts associated with white. White wedding gown for a virgin bride; white christening gowns for innocent newborn babies and the robes of angels are all pure white. White conveys simplicity and the sterile purity of a hospital. White as a marketing color displays well on a dark background such as white text on a black power point slide.

Black - Note the lady in the opening paragraph presented a picture of elegance, power and mystery. Just as white is the absence of all color, black is known to be the combination of all colors. Black can be sinister, evil or even the symbol of grief. Combining black with red or orange presents a very aggressive color theme. In the early days of web pages, it was considered disastrous to market a black page, now it is more of a statement.

Choose colors carefully to convey the mood most desirable for your product and image. Observe the packaging of products, the headlines which attract your eye and the colors which appeal to your personality. What color will be most appealing to your target audience? Are your colors sending the message you desire to present?