Whether you are a start-up or looking to redesign your current company, understanding how colour impacts consumer behaviour will get you on the right step to success. Currently, 85% of consumers state that colour is the biggest motivator in choosing a particular product. This means colour can make all the difference in a buyer’s decision when two products are being aligned side by side. 92% of consumers say visual appearance is a persuasive marketing factor overall. With these types of statistics, it is difficult to ignore the fact that colour matters in business. Therefore, let us take a look at how to pick the right palette for your business.
What Does Each Colour Mean?
The perception of colour can be considered subjective. However, some relatable qualities can be applied generally when considering what colour may be the best fit for your business.
Red: Exciting, attention-grabbing, warm, and normally connected to feelings of love, anger, life, passion, and comfort.
Yellow: Incites feelings of adventure, happiness, and enthusiasm. youth, and travel.
Green: Commonly connected to money, it is also known for its feelings of balance, health, sustainability, and knowledge.
Blue: This colour is commonly related to honesty, quality, competence, trust, integrity, and reliability.
Pink: Romance, gentleness, and sophistication, this colour can also evoke feelings of love and compassion.
Purple: The colour of creativity, royalty, mystery, respect, and playfulness.
Brown: Commonly seen for its nature of friendliness, organic state, natural, and rugged. This is the colour of the outdoors.
Grey: Known for its relation to refinement, neutrality, practicality, and timelessness.
Black: While this colour is dark, it is commonly related to feelings of sophistication, intelligence, seriousness, and expense.
White: The antithesis of black, this colour is known for its relation to order, innocence, purity, cleanliness, neutrality, and space.
Picking the Right Colour for Your Brand
Much research has shown that the consumer’s reaction to a colour and its relationship to the brand is sometimes even more important than the actual colour itself. Customers want to see a colour that fits. For example, imagine the colour pink for a brand like HP or yellow for a company like Samsung. The company’s personality can impact the consumer’s perception of the brand. A powerful brand will start with the initial logo and extend its products, packaging, and services to consumers. The colour should convey the level of quality and guide the actions of the consumer.
The colour of signage will also affect the type of action the consumers take. Hence why 42% more signs and advertisements are read with colours such as bright red as opposed to just black or white. Comprehension of the consumer is boosted more when a sign incorporates some type of colour. Use imagery and colour on your website to increase your chances of getting your message across.
What About Combining Colour?
Many financial institutions and technology brands use the colour blue to convey their signals of trust and honesty. But what is something you also commonly see? The combining of colour theory in business. Many financial brands may choose to combine their colours with a secondary one such as red to convey excitement and make it attention-grabbing to their business.
For your business, you should plan on choosing up to three colours and consider your base, accent, and neutral tone. Choose your base personality and most dominant trait before looking to choose the remaining colours that match your business. Your accent will be your last colour that helps to bring it all together. The neutral tone can be anything from hues of grey, white, and even black. Choose your combinations carefully keeping in mind popular colour schemes such as monochromatic, analogous, triad, and complementary colours.