The psychology of colors in marketing
By: Mr. Anonymous
Tags: Products And Services, Marketing, Advertising And Marketing, Psychology, Colors

The psychology of colors in marketing

Different colors can have strong psychological impacts on our mood, thought processes, and even elicit various physical responses. For instance, strong blue colors can have calm and relaxing effects on the mind while red attracts us to food and stimulates sexual arousal.

Photo from Wallpaper Safari

Weird right? But what does that have to do with marketing you ask?

Couple it with the fact that 92.6% buyers tend to focus on visual appearance when deciding whether or not to purchase a product and you’re on to something.

Thirsty yet? You get the idea. Various colors and color schemes have been used in marketing practices for a long time to make products and services more appealing to consumers. You can find countless examples of this practice on your own but we’ll go over some of them here.

Warm colors

Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow. They can invoke an array of emotions from comfort all the way up to hostility. As I mentioned before, the color red induces appetite and sexual arousal but it has other properties as well. Red is frequently used for clearance sales because the color quickly pulls focus. Red also causes changes in the physical body such as increased blood pressure and heart rate.

Orange and yellow stimulate the logic center in the brain while promoting enthusiasm. Yellow also indicates caution which in some cases creates feelings of anxiety. Speaking of enthusiasm, remember how I said that the color red induces appetite? If you are a restaurant, and you want your customers to feel enthusiastic about eating at your establishment, you might build a marketing scheme around these two colors.

Photo from Wallpaper Cave

Maybe you can throw some blue in there too.

Photo from Wallpaper Cave

Cool colors

Cool colors include colors like, blue, purple, and green. We’ve already talked about blue a little bit but aside from promoting calmness it also creates trust in a brand and stimulates productivity. I don’t see the point in adding their logos here but just think about Facebook and Twitter.

Moving on, did you know that purple represents royalty?

Photo from Wallpaper Cave

Yeah. When you start to think about it, it really is that obvious. Purple has been shown to stimulate the problem solving area of the brain while too much of it can promote depression in some individuals. Purple is also a romantic color.

Quick thought experiment, I want you to look at that picture of Crown Royal again and ask yourself if alcohol should be the answer to someone’s problems. I guess that depends on whether or not you work in marketing.

Now, my personal favorite, the color green. Green is representative of the natural world and the natural way of things. Health, tranquility, and nature all come to mind with the color green. The color green also causes a ‘wake up’ effect and can stimulate the release of cortisol in the brain. No wonder it’s used in health advertising!

Photo from Global Healing Center

One more just for fun,

Photo from iSpot.tv

Other colors

Lets not forget about black or grey.

Black can be used to represent strength, stability, luxury, elegance and intelligence. If it wasn’t already obvious, it’s also used to trim down the appearance of things. As for how it affects our brains, the color black is capable of inducing aggression and feelings of power.

Photo from Wallpaper Cave

As for grey, old age, depression, and death can be some of the first things that come to mind, either consciously or subliminally, but it can also be used to represent practicality and content. It really depends on the usage but if used too much, it can cause depression or feelings of detachment.

There are many more examples but these are the basics. Colors are a powerful marketing tool that can be used to sway people in a number of ways.