Research: Colour - Journals, papers and studies

Color sells: How the psychology of color influences consumers
Sarah Tornetta, Tess Fox, Jordan Blackbird
http://udel.edu/~rworley/e412/Psyc_of_color_final_paper.pdf

Color sells products. It is a powerful marketing tool that significantly influences consumer purchases, so much so that it accounts for 85% of the reason why someone decides to purchase a product
(Hemphill 275). Marketers must understand the psychology of color in order to use it effectively.



It is necessary to define the three basic principles of color, hue, saturation, and value, to understand associative learning (see fig.1).
Hue is the wavelength of a color and determines its label, such as orange or green. Saturation is the intensity of a color, or, how pigmented a color is. Value is how bright a color is. Together, these three factors determine how people perceive color and thus the associations they form with it.

Implementing color associations in package designs
Marketers use color associations to increase product sales by sending a message to the consumer (see fig. 2). Crest 3D Whitestrips, for example, consists primarily of blue. Blue is associated with cleanliness, emphasizing the product’s promise of clean, white teeth. White’s association with purity makes it the ideal accent color.
Nature Valley Granola Bars are packaged in a green and yellow box. Green is associated with nature and the outdoors, which is appropriate for this product’s sales pitch of wholesome, all-natural, and healthy ingredients. Furthermore, it is the easiest color for the eyes to process. Yellow is associated with sunshine and optimism, promoting the product in a warm and positive manner.
Apple’s black iPhone box demonstrates the effective use of black in packaging. Although black is linked to death and evil in specific contexts, in this context it is associated with power and luxury. Apple’s products are expensive and the color black aids in selling the product as an exclusive, high-­‐quality item. Black is often the color of choice for electronics and other luxury items.

Establishing brand recognition with color
Brand recognition is the consumer’s ability to identify or associate a product with a brand. Marketers establish brand recognition by using a specific formula of colors and shapes to form a brand mark. The key is consistency; the same colors must be present across all facets of a company. For example, acompany’s website should be visually relatable to its store and consumer products. Researchers at the University of Loyola found that color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. (Morton “Why Color Matters”). In another study, when a group of people were shown ‐second advertisements, over 62% developed an association to a brand based purely on the colors they saw (Chang and Lin 3345). Brand recognition has a large impacton consumer purchasing behavior. Aside from impulse shoppers, many shoppers seek out products of brands they recognize. Successful color manipulation enables shoppers to quickly and easily identify the brand they are looking for amongst a sea of similar products. Once a company succeeds at establishing brand recognition, it can temporarily manipulate trademark colors to add interest to a product. Heinz, which successfully established brand recognition by using the color red, introduced EZ Squirt Blastin’ Green ketchup in October 2000. This dramatic alteration from the familiar deep red ketchup bottles boosted product sales by $23 million. Consumers had developed such strong associations between Heinz and red ketchup bottles that the green bottles attracted attention and drew interest. This illustrates just how powerful colour can be.

Colour Preferences

http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/preferences.html

COLOUR ASSOCIATIONS study

http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/associations.html



Global Color Survey
http://www.colorcom.com/global-color-survey

Thanks for taking the Global Color Survey.
Over 200,00 people from all points on the globe have taken the survey. Here are the results:
Happy - Yellow
Pure - White
Good Luck - Green
Good-tasting - Red (tomato)
Dignity - Dark Blue
High Technology - Silver
Sexiness - Red (tomato)
Mourning - Black
Expensive - Gold
Inexpensive - Brown
Powerful - Red (tomato)
Dependable - Blue
High Quality - Gold
Nausea - Muted Yellow
Deity - White
Bad Luck - Black
Favorite Color - Blue
Least Favorite Color - Dark Yellow



The Button Test
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/20566/The-Button-Color-A-B-Test-Red-Beats-Green.aspx

Impact of Color on Marketing
Satyendra Singh (Department of Administrative Studies, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada)
(2006), Management Decision, Vol. 44 Iss: 6 pp. 783 - 789
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/00251740610673332

researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone (depending on the product).



Exciting Red and Competent Blue
Lauren I. Labrecque, George R. Milne
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, September 2012, Volume 40, Issue 5, pp 711-727
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11747-010-0245-y

Purchasing intent is greatly affected by colors due to the impact they have on how a brand is perceived. This means that colors influence how consumers view the "personality" of the brand in question.



Color Research and Application
Edited By: Ellen C. Carter

ISI Journal Citation Reports © Ranking: 2014: 85/135 (Engineering Chemical)

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6378

Additional studies have revealed that our brains prefer recognizable brands, which makes color incredibly important when creating a brand identity. It has even been suggested in Color Research & Application that it is of paramount importance for new brands to specifically target logo colors that ensure differentiation from entrenched competitors (if the competition all uses blue, you'll stand out by using purple).

Visual and instrumental evaluation of orange juice color: A consumers's preference study
ROCÍO FERNÁNDEZ-VÁZQUEZ et al. Journal of Sensory Studies

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-459X.2011.00360.x/abstract

When it comes to picking the “right” color, research has found that predicting consumer reaction to color appropriateness in relation to the product is far more important than the individual color itself.
 So, if Harley owners buy the product in order to feel rugged, you could assume that the pink + glitter edition wouldn't sell all that well.

The Isolation Effect in Free Recall and Recognition
Gerrit van Dam, Joan Peeck, Michèle Brinkerink and Usmar Gorter
The American Journal of Psychology

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1421391

The psychological principle known as the Isolation Effect states that an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" is more likely to be remembered. Research clearly shows that participants are able to recognize and recall an item far better (be it text or an image) when it blatantly sticks out from its surroundings.

Colours and Emotions: Preferences and Combinations
Mark Meerum Terwogt and Jan B. Hoeksma, The Journal of General psychology, 122(1), 5-17
http://irtel.uni-mannheim.de/lehre/expra/artikel/Terwogt_Hoeksma_1995.pdf

According to our hypothesis, highly preferred colours should be tied to highly preferred emotions, whereas non-preferred colours should be tired to non-preferred emotions. At the same time, a preferred colour is not likely to be tied to a non-preferred emotion or vice versa.