Psychology of Color and Marketing

Color surrounds us everyday of our lives.  Each color conveys a feeling.  The psychology of color evaluates what each color portrays.  It's suggested that the color red creates the feeling of excitement, strength, sex, passion, speed, and danger. While green gives more of a relaxing feeling.  Green is also suggestive of nature and freshness.  Freshness dealing with foods most likely.  Then there's blue which suggests trust, reliability, belonging, and coolness.  Another color is violet.  Violet is the color of dignity, spirituality, royalty, and magic. Black on the other hand can suggest hate in some cases, but on the other hand it can suggest sophistication, elegance, seductiveness, and mystery.  The opposite of black is white which is considered pure, virginal, clean, and youthful.  The feeling can also coincide with light and hope.  Then there's yellow, a color that obviously suggests the sunshine and the warmth the sun provides.  It's also a very happy color that conveys hope.  Another bright color is orange which is a very playful, warm and vibrant color.   All these colors and more are used in marketing because of all the different feelings they are able to convey.  For example restaurants, car dealerships, clothing stores, commercials, television programs, etc. use color to convey a feeling to address to their audience.

Restaurants

Fast food restaurants are famous for using their bright colors to bring in the customers and get rid of them fast.  That's why it's called fast food. Then there's also restaurants that use colors that are more welcoming that make you want to sit down and relax with friends and family.  These are generally the more expensive restaurants. Below are examples of these restaurants:

Wendy's

Wendy's is a classic example of the use of bright colors.  Both red and yellow are generally used with the  Wendy's fast food chains.  The red is vibrant and draws the eye to the restaurant.  Then they also use yellow which is bright and happy.  The two colors are fun and attract to all customers.  No specific group is necessarily targeted; everyone is targeted.  When it comes to marketing Wendy's has left it's mark.  I don't know about everyone else, but when I think of Wendy's their main colors yellow and red pop in my head.  This deals with the fact that all their marketing is in-sync. Their commercials show their red and yellow palette when their showing off their food.  Then they decorate the restaurant to fit with those colors.  This further more creates the restaurants image.

  

 Most people have heard of Olive Garden. Known for   its delicious Italian food.  Also its warm and cozy environment.  In terms of marketing though what type of image has Olive Garden developed?  It's developed this color palette of Tuscany.  With it's use of green, purple and tuscany yellow-brown color.  These are the colors of their logo.  The green is for freshness of their food.  The purple is used in the grapes.  They could just be using it to further the picture of Italy, but they could also use it to mean that they take dignity in their food and restaurant.  Then the rustic yellow brown makes you feel warm. Then there is their commercials.

Their commercials involve their color palette, but they also throw in other colors in their food.  When they use red for their sauces it's very vivid.  All their colors in the food are perfection and that's the whole point.  Make the food look too good to be true that you just have to go to their restaurant and see for yourself.  Then there's also the fact that the food they show looks comforting, like a home cooked meal. The whole point is to use warm colors to keep people there and keep them relaxed, so they're more willing to spend money. 

Marketing Inside Department Stores

Another way that color theory affects marketing is inside department stores.  A person will decide on the store they want to shop in due to their personality or what they are shopping for.  If you are an impulse shopper you will be attracted more so to stores that are red-orange, black and or royal blue.  If you're more so on a budget you will be attracted to  pink, teal, light blue and or navy.  Then traditionalists are more attracted to pastels: pink, rose, light blue and or navy.  Stores know this and they use it in order to attract to these customers.  Bottom line is department stores want you to buy their products.

Charlotte Russe

When you look at this department store picture it's very inviting.  This is partially because of the lighting, it gives off a warm glow.  On the other hand there is a simple elegance about it.  No flashy colors, just calm and relaxing.  This may not attract everyone, but it's certainly simple and non-offensive.  The store created this look by using a lighter color on the walls, so the clothing itself would stand out against the store.  This in turn drawing people to the clothing, which then makes profit for the store.

TARGET

An example of a budget store would be Target.  Now their store colors aren't necessarily applying to what budget shoppers look for, but they used a different method.  By using red is draws your attention.  If your just driving along, it's definately going to catch your eye.  It also says they want a lot of business because they used such a bold color.  Then there's the inside of the store.

The inside of the store carries the red inside.  It doesn't really keep people calm or relaxed.  That's how they increase the customers, because they bring them in and get them out fast.  Same process fast food uses. Target accomplishes this by the use of color and the lighting.  The lighting highlights their products and discounts.  So they get the customer to buy fast so that more people can come in. It's all about their marketing schemes. 

Walmarts' color scheme is red, white and blue.

Obviously we all know these colors all ready.  They are the colors of the U.S flag.  The U.S flag symbolizes numerous things, one in particular is trust.  So by using these colors Walmart is trying instill to you that they are a trustworthy company. They may be known for their low prices, but the color scheme they chose definitely helped put them on the map.

Color Theory Charts

 

     This chart helps break down 

the emotions behind color. In marketing people use certain colors that will get across the feelings their trying to supply you with.

         

The above picture helps demonstrate

what we associate with colors.  This can also help in the marketing field when trying to get a certain point across.

Cars and Marketing

In the car world the color red seems to symbolize speed.  This is due to the fact that most sports cars are advertised red.  Since red is more of an aggressive color, mostly aggressive people are likely to buy it.  People who want the speed and adventure of a sports car.

 Black is used commonly to advertise luxury cars.  This has to deal with the fact that black symbolizes authority, sophistication and power.  So someone who wants to feel in control of their car and important would probably lean towards a black car.

 Luxury cars are also advertised in silver quite often.  This is due the fact that silver symbolizes prestige.  So a silver car will symbolize success for someone.  Silver also stands for strong character.  So someone who is moving up in the world and wants their car to symbolize it would most likely pick silver.

Marketing to Other Cultures

Although color is crucial when it comes to marketing.  There are still things you must look out for.  One in particular is your audience.  Colors have different meanings in other cultures.  

For example, in the U.S white is a color of purity.  This is why brides usually wear white, because it's a virginal symbol.  Now on the other hand white is the color of death in China.  

Now in the U.S black is known for symbolizing death.  This is why almost everyone wears black to a funeral.  

 The color purple symbolizes death in Brazil.  Where as in the U.S it's more a color of dignity, royalty and spirituality.

Yellow symbolizes warmth and sunshine in the U.S.  Yet, in France it symbolizes jealousy and in Greece it symbolizes sadness.

In the U.S we associate green with the color of jealousy because it's the color of money.  

Since there are all of these variations of meanings behind colors you must use the right method to target your audience.  Also you can't always generalize what colors mean to people. This is because sometimes people look at color differently.  It can symbolize different things because of someone's experience with it.

All in all color is crucial when it comes to marketing. You must target your specific audience and decide what color means to them.  

Work Cited

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