Remember this good school time when you had Arts classes where you learned how to paint? Some can still easily name 3 primary colors – red, blue and yellow. Now you are in business and are looking for a great design for your product. Do you know that colors in the design influence customer choices? They really do. So let’s talk about colors and how they influence people.
Colors have a strong psychological hold on individuals. There is a definite correlation between colors and people’s feelings. That’s why colors can affect emotions and thus customer behavior. They also trigger very specific responses in our brain. It has been found that consumers base 1% of purchases on smell and/or sound, 6% on texture, and 93% on visual appearance. Moreover, 85% of shoppers place color as a primary reason for why they buy a particular product. So the work of designers becomes very important.
First of all, you need to understand that each color symbolizes something different in different countries. For example, in Europe white is a color for wedding, and in Asia (Japan, China, Korea) it is a color for funerals and vice versa. So you should be very careful in choosing right colors for your design according to your target audience – their age, gender, race, social status, etc. Also you need to keep in mind the nature of your business and product and how you want others to perceive it. However, there are common feelings that every particular color evoke in people.
Red
Red has been found to increase heart rate, exudes energy and induces urgency, passion, power, and excitement. Businesses use red for clearance sales, thus appealing to their impulse buyers. Red also induces a hurry-up and leave attitude (especially in the case of fast food chains) and leads to high customer turnover and more sales.
Yellow
Yellow brings lightness, optimism, happiness, joy, brightness, and youthfulness. Companies try to reach their younger audience by using yellow in designs. It is also used to grab the attention of window shoppers.
Blue
Blue is associated with spirituality and peace. It creates a sensation of patience, trustworthiness, loyalty and security. That’s why it is often used in bank and insurance industries. Blue is also used to create confidence with budget spenders.
Now coming to the meaning of secondary colors – orange, green and purple.
Orange
Orange is perceived as an aggressive color and exudes energy. Businesses use it on their websites to draw attention to particular actions like subscribe, buy or sell.
Green
Green symbolized life, naturalness, health, and restfulness. It is also associated with prosperity and wealth. Additionally, it is the easiest color for our eyes to process. It is used by finance websites to promise lucrative investments. And health businesses use green as a promise of vitality.
Purple
Finally, purple is usually used to calm. It symbolizes wisdom and sophistication. Therefore purple is often used for beauty and anti-aging products.
Other colors
Black is powerful and sleek color and is often used to market luxury products. White symbolizes purity, perfection, goodness, heaven, safety, and brilliance and can be used for high-tech, innovative products. Pink is a romantic, feminine color used to market products for women and girls.
Also when choosing colors for your design, look at analogous or complementary colors. Analogous colors are any three colors which are side-by-side on a 12-part color wheel. For example, yellow-green, yellow and yellow-orange. Complementary colors are any two opposite to each other colors. For example, red and green and red-purple and yellow-green.
To sum up. You should use different colors according to the nature of your business and type of your target audience. If your customers are primarily impulse shoppers or you are in fast food, outlet malls or clearance sales industry, use red orange, black or royal blue colors. Shoppers on budget would be attracted by navy blue and teal colors. These colors are the best choice for banks and larger department stores. Pink, sky blue and rose, in contrary, will be appealing for traditional buyers and are suitable for clothing stores.
So be creative to combine colors and come up with outstanding designs!
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