Sales gold, Colour + Effect
Colour is just one of many powerful psychological triggers that can have a significant effect on our behaviour, influencing the way we think, feel and react.
These can have both subtle and far reaching consequences, creating statistically significant outcomes in consumer consideration, purchasing decisions and productivity. Colour has even been shown to alter your perception of time! (Have you ever wonder why casinos bathe you in red light? Apparently time appears to go more slowly.)
We should be careful however, as the subjective nature of colour means how we understand it can be greatly affected by context. Thus, factors including personal experience, preference, physical (roughly 4.5% of the population is colour blind), culture, environment, situation, gender, age and many more all play a part in colouring our view.
A great example of cultural change is the “blue for boys, pink for girls” colour stereotype. It was only a hundred years ago that the 1918 Ladies’ Home Journal article pronounced the opposite “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."
So if our goal is to influence productivity, behaviour, performance and ultimately sales, what are a few colourful things we could consider?
Well, for Sales Teams, why not follow the insight sports teams have provided? Wearing red, has been proved to increase both the perception, and the reality of winning more often.
When it comes to online sales we should be careful. Research shows that retailers avoid yellow colour schemes, as they evoke a sense of distrust irrespective of cultural backgrounds. Try using a different colour to enhance the “isolation effect” make your purchase button stand out and generate a significant increase in click rate.
Want to be a challenger brand? With the preeminence of the blue colour palette in the corporate world, why not follow the example Lemonade in the insurance space and own a standout colour that reinforces your difference?
If we understand how warmer colours can promote instant purchase, and cooler colours the more considered purchase, we can adapt the instore retail environment around our products and displays to leverage this insight.
Colour has such deep rooted psychological effects. Phrases used in our everyday language, such as “colourful characters”, “seeing red” and “green with envy” convey powerful emotive thoughts that can be harnessed in our marketing efforts. Even the name of a colour has been shown to make a huge difference to purchase, rather than choosing from a swatch of grey’s, how much more exciting and intriguing to select “Elephant’s Breath” from the Farrow and Ball paint range?
If you would like to add a little more colour, thought and return to your Brand + Marketing activity, get in touch with eighty6billion today.