|
Communicate with Your Customers
with Color
 When
you see the colors red, blue, or yellow, how do you react? Does your
heart race? Do you feel happy? Do you feel sad? Do you feel at peace?
Do you feel angry?
Subconsciously, we react to certain colors depending on
our culture, our religion, our upbringing, and/or our personality.
Color is vitally important when doing business and is the first visual
impression and most instantaneous method of communication for conveying
your marketing message and meaning. It helps distinguish your business
from your competitors and is an integral part of the identification
process. It helps you keep or lose potential customers by swaying their
thinking and changing their actions and reactions. Without color, every
business would look the same and it would be difficult to differentiate
the subtleties of different products and/or services—what sets your
products or services apart from another's.
Color functions on several levels simultaneously,
stimulating and working in synchronization with the senses. It
symbolizes abstract concepts and thoughts, expresses fantasy and
wishes, and recalls other times and places, and produces emotional or
visual responses. Color also functions as the primary structural
element of corporate identities and brands. It creates appropriate
spatial and navigational effects as a whole — following the rules of
design. As a primary aesthetic tool, color creates a sense of visual
harmony that sustains and enhances your customer's interest.
Color is a vital key element in communicating,
enticing, and attracting people to your product or service. Often
called the "silent salesperson," color attracts your customer's eye,
conveys the message of what your product/service is all about, creates
brand identity, and, most importantly, helps you make a sale.
Color works for your business by:
- emphasizing, highlighting, and leading the eye to important
points
- identifying recurring themes
- differentiating your business or elements of your business
- symbolizing and triggering emotions and associations
Conversely, color can also hurt your business by choosing the
wrong colors. When choosing your color scheme, it is vitally
important to keep in mind just who your target demographics are — men,
women, age range, geographic location, culture, etc. Although you may
love a special color scheme, your potential customers may not. If you
are planning to include a web site into your marketing strategy, then
you are dealing on a global level that may have disastrous results.
What color works in one country or industry may not work in another.
Consider the color purple. It works very well as a creative symbol for
Adobe's PageMaker packaging. However, it is a polarizing color and
people either love it or hate it. Globally, it could have potentially
hazardous repercussions to your business. In the United States, purple
symbolizes spirituality, mystery, aristocracy, and passion. In Brazil,
it symbolizes mourning, death, nausea, conceit, and pomposity.
EuroDisney made a disastrous mistake using the color purple for its
European signage. The color purple was intended to out do Coca Cola's
red. However, in Catholic Europe, purple symbolizes death and the
crucifixion of Christ. The result was visitors thought the signs were
morbid. How did this happen? The CEO liked purple. As simple as that.
What does this tell us
- Personal preferences and "avant-garde" tactics usually cause
marketing disasters. Using the wrong color especially on the Internet
extends the damage to a global audience.
- It is necessary to look at the symbolism of any color scheme that
you choose. Take purple for example: it symbolizes spirituality,
mysticism, magic, faith, the unconscious, dignity, mystery,
creativity, awareness, inspiration, passion, imagination,
sensitivity, aristocracy & royalty, conceit, pomposity, cruelty,
mourning and death. It is also the hardest color for the eye to
discriminate. Consequently, purple is not a good color choice for the
food industry but is an excellent choice for astrology, magic or
spiritual businesses.
Interpreting a color's impact on a targeted market depends on
culture, profession, and personal preferences. For example, in Western
cultures white symbolizes purity while in China white is the color of
death. Yellow is sacred to the Chinese but signifies sadness in Greece
and jealousy in France. In the US, green is the color of money, grass
and jealousy but the people in the tropical countries generally respond
to warm colors and people in the cooler climates prefer the cooler
colors.
Color is an irreplaceable, powerful form of communicating your
business. Therefore, it is important to investigate the influence it
will have on your targeted demographics. Do not make the mistake of
choosing a color scheme solely on your personal preferences. After all
is said and done, you are not buying your product/service — your
potential customers are.
Color is a universal language that crosses not only cultural
boundaries but also the boundaries of our
electronic/technical/satellite linked "Global Village." It persuades
and induces the customer to respond in a positive way to your marketing
message. Convey your message properly using color psychology in the
following areas:
- Graphic images and brand name
- Packaging as represents the qualities of the product
- Point-of-purchase where it competes with the competition's
products/services and must gain attention
- All forms of advertising: print, point-of-purchase, TV, web
sites, direct mail, billboards, etc. where color must convince and
appeal, especially in a matter of seconds
- In signage, at the company site or other suitable areas
- Company logos and IDs
- In your product itself
Remember, choose a color scheme for your business targeted for your
demographic. They are the ones purchasing your product or service, not
you.
Let Carnright Design be your graphic
design team member to help create memorable marketing and advertising
materials and strengthen your brand.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pantone Guide to Communicating With Color by Leatrice
Eiseman, Grafix Press, Ltd. Distributed by North Light Books.
Design Principles and Problems by Paul Zelanski & Mary Pat
Fisher. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. NY. University of Connecticut.
Color Voodoo #1: A guide to Color Symbolism by Jill Morton.
Electronic books by
Color Voodoo.
It's a Colorful, Colorful World by
Jacci Howard Bear, Desktop Publishing.
Psychological Impact of Color by Diane Toops, News and Trends
Editor, June 5, 2001. Food Business, Color Strategy, June 2001.
OTHER EXCELLENT BOOKS
Other books by Paul Zelanski & Mary Pat Fisher:
Other books by Leatrice Eiseman
Other electronic books by Color Voodoo
|
Color Awareness
Emotional Impact of Color 1
Emotional Impact of Color 2
Emotional Impact of Color 3
Communicate with Color
Color Schemes
Color Wheel
Other Color Wheels
Speaking Color
Color References
Who and What is a Graphic
Designer?
Color Wheel
Pro - a program that allows you to see color theory in action: you
can create harmonious color schemes and preview them on real-world
examples.
|
