Visual presentation in your marketing materials can turn on, or turn off, your potential customers. It does not matter if it's on paper (flyer or newsletter) or on the Internet (website or eBay Store).

It is a fact that major corporations spend billions of dollars on doing color market research, usually in product or packaging development. Research has revealed that people make a subconscious judgment about an environment or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

The colors you use will affect whether a potential buyer will continue clicking through your site. Color also helps to keep these folks involved on your web site (it's not always just about the content) and how long they stay.

Colors also influence how people will respond and behave. For example, as a general rule, a black background on your web site now represents a sex-type web site. It is important that if that isn't your focus, that you don't use a black background.

Let's take a few minutes and play with this concept. The next time you go into a fast-food restaurant, look closely at the colors. Do they decorate with vivid reds and oranges because they encourage diners to eat and leave quickly like many of the fast food establishments. Yes? Well, that is exactly the response they want.

Visit large corporate web sites that have spent funds on this type of research. Look at eBay, their search pages are in a pale yellow, looking for warmth and happiness, which actually matches their current marketing strategies and General Motors uses blue for trust and reliability.

Color References

And don't forget that different cultures, classes and genders have different attitudes and preferences thus; they will have another color reaction.

Cultural Differences - Colors obtain symbolism through cultural references in the culture you grew up in. Depending upon the culture, colors can have very different meanings and actually cause problems for your site. For example, in the East, white is the color of funerals while in the West white is the color of Weddings. In China, white symbolizes death and in Brazil, it's purple.

Class Differences - Marketing research in the United States has shown that working class people tend to prefer colors that you can name: like blue, red, green, etc. While more highly educated classes tend to prefer colors that are more obscure: like taupe, azure, mauve, etc. This is why Walmart does their store logo in bright red.

Gender Differences - In many cultures, men tend to prefer cooler colors (blues and greens) while women tend to prefer warmer colors (reds and oranges).

Location - People from warm countries generally respond favorably to warm colors; people from colder climates prefer the cooler colors.

In the US and Canada, green is associated with jealousy or money.

Here are a few other color references:

Red - (most noticeable) excitement, strength, passion, speed, danger.
Blue - (most popular) trust, reliability, belonging, coolness.
Yellow - warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness.
Orange - playfulness, warmth, vibrant.
Green - nature, fresh, cool, growth, abundance.
Purple - royal, spirituality, dignity.
Pink - soft, sweet, nurture, security.
White - pure, virginal, clean, youthful, mild.
Black - sophistication, elegant, seductive, mystery, and yes of a sexual nature.
Gold - prestige, expensive, elite.
Silver - prestige, cold, scientific.

Shopping Habits

This also means that color affect shopping habits.

Did you know that red, orange, black and royal blue attract impulse buyers.

Pink, teal, light blue and navy attract smart budget Shopper.

And pink, rose and sky blue attract conformists.

Pick your colors for your market

First, make sure you have the right target market.

Young children materials contain large amounts of bright primary colors. These colors will attract the child yet the parents or grandparents will open the wallet.

This means that for the children you would use the primary colors and for the marketing material being read by the grand/parents you would use reds, blues, pinks and yellows for trust, reliability, security, and playful.

If you have a web site or online store and you choose the colors because they are your favorite, then you may have chosen it for the wrong target market.

We've all been subjected to sites with unpleasant color combinations. I have seen a few that although the colors used may be the owners favorite colors, they are either very hard on the eyes (almost blinding) or make the text very difficult to read. You want people to view your website with ease. Remember, it's easy for your visitors to press the back button.

Using too many colors, or the wrong combination of colors could alienate or turn off your potential buyers completely. On average, you should only choose three colors (or shades of those colors) at the most.

On a Funny Note.....

I post on a few of the eBay Discussion Boards and someone who had seen our eBay Store and website for the first time commented how lovely it was that we used red in our store colors and thought this was so patriotic that as a Canadian business we used red.

I thanked her, but admitted that our official business colours since 1983 were actually black and "no-name" yellow and that since we went into ecommerce and online sales, I switched to red..... which promotes impulse buying * blush *

Shhhh, don't tell anyone, ok? LOL

I hope you found this guide interesting and helpful, and if so, please feel free to rate it below.

Kathy