Have you ever wondered why certain ads catch your eye or why some brands stick in your mind? The answer lies in the psychology of colour. Discover how colours influence our emotions and behaviors and help marketers create ads that really resonate with the audience.
Cosmic latte. According to a team of astronomers from Johns Hopkins University, this is the average colour of the galaxies of the universe as perceived from the Earth. In case you’re wondering, the hex code for Cosmic Latte is #FFF8E7. Is it a coincidence that the most common interior paint colours are beiges, whites, and earth tones? Is this just so that we have a clean palette to design around or some deeper subconscious connection to the universe?
While people have believed in the power of colour for thousands of years, the formal study of colour psychology is relatively new. Psychologists began examining the effects of colour on human behavior and emotions in the twentieth century. In advertising and design, colour plays a crucial role as it significantly impacts consumer perception, emotion, and behavior. It does so in the following ways.
Starting off simply, colours attract attention and can make advertisements stand out. Bright and contrasting colours can draw the eye more effectively than neutral tones.
Consistent use of specific colours helps in building brand identity and recognition. For instance, Coca-Cola’s red and Facebook’s blue are instantly recognizable. Other than simply enabling your brand to be recognized at a glance, colour can help you get your information across quicker and easier, potentially resulting in a bigger ROI.
Using primary brand colours for key elements and secondary colours for less critical information creates a clear visual hierarchy and helps get your key points across to your target audiences faster. Testing brand colours for accessibility ensures you are reaching a larger audience.
Colours evoke emotions and can influence the viewer’s mood. For example, red can evoke excitement or urgency, while blue can create a sense of trust and calmness. Fast-food restaurants often use red and yellow to encourage quick decisions and stimulate appetite. Interesting that many of the big chains use those exact colours in their branding (McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s, Popeye’s, etc) while branding for financial and IT institutions often includes blues.
In US and Canada, the following colours have come to be associated with these specific emotions:
Other than emotions, colours can communicate different messages quickly. For example, green is often associated with eco-friendliness but also wealth, black with luxury and elegance, and yellow affordability. These associations differ greatly based on culture and geography, it is therefore imperative that you research the significance of your brand colour choices based on the location and culture of your target audience.
There is an ongoing debate about whether reactions to colour and their symbolism, as outlined above in points 3 and 4, are a result of instinct or cultural conditioning. Several studies suggest that colour is part of the social learning process due to its significant cultural symbolism. For example, in the US, Canada, Japan, and Korea, blue symbolizes high quality, trustworthiness, and dependability, while in China, these qualities are conveyed by green and yellow, as well as purple in China, South Korea, and Japan.
Because of these differences, critical cues vary across cultures. Warning signs are colour-coded differently: green symbolizes danger in Malaysia, while red does so in the US and Mexico. Similarly, green denotes envy in Belgium and the US, whereas yellow represents envy in Germany and Russia, and purple in Mexico. White is associated with purity in many Western cultures, while it is often linked to mourning in some Eastern cultures.
Even colours associated with powerful emotions often vary: love is symbolized by green in Japan and by red and purple in China, Korea, Japan, Canada,and the US. Red is seen as unlucky in Chad, Nigeria, and Germany but is considered lucky in China, Denmark, and Argentina. Traditional bridal colours also differ, with red being common in China and white in the US, Canada, and other parts of the world.
As the world becomes more and more connected through a general sense of globalization, it will be interesting to see how, if at all, these cultural colour associations change over the next generations.
Colour can influence consumer behavior, including their decision-making and purchasing patterns. Certain colours can create a sense of urgency, encouraging quick purchases, like the reds and yellows of the fast food industry, while others can promote longer, more thoughtful engagement (many department stores tend to lean to white or neutral tones).
Effective use of colour in advertising can enhance brand image, elicit desired emotional responses, and drive consumer action. Brand colour choices could be driven by any of these factors. They could also be a deliberate decision to stand out against the norms in a specific industry. Either way, they should never be an afterthought but a calculated decision as different colours can have very different associations globally.
Balancing colour choices with other design elements and brand guidelines involves understanding the brand’s identity, harmonizing colours with typography and imagery, maintaining visual hierarchy, considering colour psychology, ensuring accessibility, maintaining consistency across channels, and allowing for flexibility. By carefully considering these factors, you can create cohesive and effective designs that resonate with the target audience and uphold the brand’s integrity.
Connect with us to leverage the skills and knowledge Maggie and the rest of the WS team offer for the marketing success of your project.
Maggie joined WS in early 2022 with hands-on experience in graphic design, art direction and brand management, mainly in the entertainment industry.
