When properly used, color can dramatically add information and meaning to a message, or convey that message more quickly and precisely. Color adds punch, pizzazz, elegance, and IMPACT!
Why Use Color? According to a study by the University of Minnesota, the University of British Columbia, and the 3M Corporation, color used in advertising
· Improves realism
· Improves comprehension
· Gets attention and holds it longer
· Delivers your message more quickly
· Makes your ad and your company appear more prestigious
· Immediately identifies a brand or company
· Establishes relationships in a series or product line
· Adds symbolic connotations and/or feelings to your message
· Makes your ad more persuasive
· Enhances retention
· Enhances the image of the company, product, or presenter
· Improves readability
· Makes your ad and your company appear more professional
· Color advertisements have proven to
· Increase chances of the ad being seen by 38%
· Increase retention of the ad by 40%
· Enhance prospective buyers' tendency to act by 26%
· Cause product to be perceived as being greater in value, not in cost
· Increase positive feeling toward product by 22%
In the world of business, color adds another dimension to information. Just as a three-dimensional image makes it easier to understand the relationships between the surfaces of an object, color can be used in charts and graphs to help us quickly grasp how numbers correlate.
Important words and phrases seem to leap off the page when highlighted in color. Color adds prestige and helps communicate the message, "This information and your attention to it is important."
What Is Color? Color is technically just a perception of different lengths of light waves by the eye. But this definition hardly conveys the importance of color to human life. For most people, color forms an essential part of our visual and symbolic language. Color can stir emotions, sooth nerves, or invoke a desired response.
People and age groups have color preferences. Infants prefer luminous colors like yellow, white, pink, and red. As they grow older, children drop their liking for yellow and shift to blue and red as the preferred colors. During the move into adulthood, people begin strongly favoring the blue-green colors. Throughout the world the dominant order of color preference is:
#1. Blue
#2. Red
#3. Green
#4. Violet
#5. Orange
#6. Yellow
Symbolism of Individual Colors:
· Blue: relaxed, cool, refreshing
· Red: strong, vivacious, virile, masculine, passionate
· Green: quiet, calm, tranquil, youthful, vigorous, healthful, fresh
· Orange: happy, sunny, outdoorsy
· Yellow: cheerful, young, extroverted, lively
· Black: serious, strong, somber
· Brown: realistic, masculine, honest, subtly rich
· Pink: sweet, romantically soft, feminine
Use this information to maximize your use of color in advertising, thereby maximizing your advertising dollars.
Duane Sprague is an automotive marketing and advertising expert, consultant, and author of "35 Tips For Successful Direct Mail Marketing." If you have specific questions or require more information about this subject, please check the appropriate box on the reader response form on page 3.