The psychology of color in marketing fosters unique and exciting new opportunities for marketers to engage and empower their target audience. But like any powerful tool, it is best to understand the rules behind the art and science associated with color.
There are two different ways color can contribute to how attractive your visual collateral will be for your audience:
- Using contrasting colors to improve and ease readability (especially in print ads)
- Using specific colors to trigger certain emotions, thoughts, and moods in your audience.
These two approaches of using colors in your marketing strategy, be it your Instagram marketing strategy or print collateral marketing strategy, can have different yet somehow similar effects on your audience. While the first approach highlights the message you want to transmit to your readers, the second approach gives them the right mood and emotion that will influence how they perceive that message. However, both of them are, ultimately, strategies that attract your audience.
The first approach to color management must perfectly blend the first approach with the text you add to your print collateral to be effective. Using contrasting colors aims to highlight the message. Yet, if the message fails to attract and engage the audience, your marketing efforts won’t deliver the anticipated results.
The psychological effects of colors
In marketing, colors can be a powerful tool used to influence reactions and responses in your audience. The psychology of colors explains that specific colors can trigger certain emotions and moods in people. For example, while some colors can trigger urgency and alertness, others can make the audience feel calm or nostalgic.
This research on the effects of color isn’t new. The psychology of color dates back thousands of years to ancient Egyptians, who first studied their influence on mood and used them to achieve health and holistic benefits. Sir Isaac Newton was the first to document the organization and composition of the color spectrum. The effects of color and behavior were first seriously researched by Doctor Ponza back in 1875. He used colored glass, walls, and furniture in various rooms and put different types of people there, and monitored their reactions
The use of color can affect our brain to react in one way or another. For example, when placing someone who refuses to eat into a room painted red, their resistance will break down, and they will start to desire food. When placed in a blue room, an aggressive or emotional patient will show signs of calming down in one hour.
Let’s explore what psychological traits and effects specific colors have on customers when used in marketing:
- Black – Strong and Resistant. While black can invoke negative feelings and loss, in marketing, it is truly a wild card. Black is associated with the symbol of significance and conventionalism. Like white, black is a perfect contrast with other colors for a more substantial impact.
- Blue – Dependable, Trustworthy, and Secure. The color of the sky is most often associated with calmness and reliance and can help brands look more trustworthy in consumers’ judgment—brands who want to pose as respectable use various shades of blue. Look at major corporations, financial institutions, health care providers to find many examples of this.
- Green – Growing and Healthy. Green is the symbol of health, calmness, and cheerfulness. Green also evokes thoughts of nature and organics. As a result, brands who use green want to be associated with environmentally-friendly practices.
- Purple – Regal, Mysterious, and Tech. Purple represents mysticism and magic, conjuring up the unknown. For marketing, it is the color of royalty, wisdom, and sophistication. Purple is also a favorite of technology companies to show innovation and creativity.
- Red – You can’t miss it. Whether it’s a sale sign or a webpage banner, customers notice the enormous red sales messages. Red is a powerful color that triggers urgency in consumers. It can make consumers feel that what they want will be gone if they fail to act quickly.
- White – Like the driven snow. White is associated with purity, cleanness, and innocence. Companies mainly use it from the healthcare industry who want to be associated with safety and sterility. White is used in combination with other colors to provide highlights for various essential elements.
- Yellow – Sunny and upbeat. Yellow is such a bright color that triggers positivity in people. Yellow can use it for companies that want to come across as lively, progressive, and new.
Depending on your company culture and the message you want to transmit to your audience, you can use one or more of these colors to trigger the psychological and emotional responses you want.
The synergy of color, copy, and content.
Color, copy, and content must go hand-in-hand to create an attractive design for your print collateral. The color strategy also needs to fit the message you want people to perceive for your brand. Consumers, especially your target audience, can instantly spot if something doesn’t sync with their knowledge and expectations.
As a marketing strategy, your use of color can help your brand stand out from your competitors by influencing how your audience sees and perceives your message. Your audience will find these irresistible if you create print collateral that perfectly blends your copy, color, and content strategy into the design. In addition, colors provoke emotional responses to influence consumers on a comprehensive level. When done so in combination with your message, these can activate the expected reactions from your audience.
How does color affect your ad campaigns?
Color selection is an essential part of any marketing program. It delivers the overall tone to your message while allowing your prospects to associate those emotions with your message. The proper color combination leads customers towards the right feelings. Color is an essential element in any promotional marketing campaign. The union of color, copy, and content plays a significant role in generating sales. Consumers first draw on the power from the color they see more than on the copy and content in your message.