How color affects the way we buy

“Perhaps no choice is as vital to marketing as color. Whether you are selecting the color for a product packaging or for your email marketing campaign, color has tremendous impact on all of us. Subconsciously, we associate different colors with different things”, says WebpageFX. Their infographic examines the psychology of color and looks at some common associations of different colors. It shows the overall importance of color to consumers and characteristics of many individual colors.

For example, according to the infographic nearly 85 % of consumers name color as the primary reason that they purchase a particular product. And 80 % think color increases brand recognition. 93% look at visual appearance when they buy a product and think color improves comprehension, learning and readability. On the other side, only 6 % look at texture and 1 % decide on sound or smell.

Knowing the psychological connections to certain colors can increase the effectiveness of a company’s branding methods. For example, orange lettering in calls to action can be a good strategy because orange psychologically represents a friendly and confident brand. It will most likely tell potential customers that they should purchase a company’s products and services. On the other hand, choosing green for advertisements or packaging signals a link to nature, wealth and tranquility.

A lot of brands already associated with different colors. For example Whole Foods, Animal Planet and Starbucks use green to show connection to nature, which is obviously something consumers want from organic grocery stores, animal shows and quality coffee products. Many social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Skype create their branded images using the color blue because it relaxes people while creating a sense of security and trust in a brand.