Color Use in Merchandising & Advertising

It’s quite well known that the color red inspires impulsive buying. Our eyes are drawn to the color like ducks to water. Just walk into any supermarket and look at the color most often used on products. It’s red. The next one is yellow. Both colors tend to raise your blood pressure just a tad and dilate your pupils. They cause excitement, which goes to prove one thing: color affects us.

The Science of Color
For a long time, color has been used by both advertiser and merchandiser to encourage us (the consumer) to take action (purchase the product or service). In fact, the use of color in advertising and merchandising has become somewhat of a science unto itself.

Sometimes a color is selected for the sole purpose of drawing attention to the product or ad. This is when red or yellow may be used. But you can also attract attention by using a combination of colors. For instance, Stagg® Chili uses a black background with gold letters. The cereal product, Total®, creates eye-catching appeal with a blue package and a red logo.

Color can also be used to relate to a particular product or service. Consider the Green Giant® products. Their packages are set in a white background with the famous green logo. Healthy Choice® is another example of using green. Both products are trying to emulate freshness or healthfulness. Green does the job. Root beer is sold, using packages created in brown shades. A&W® is a perfect example, which uses brown and orange.

Designers & Color
Designers often select colors to bring life to an otherwise dull advertisement. Sometimes those colors selected by a designer aren’t necessary based on any real scientific choice, just as a judgment call. But when push comes to shove, the designer can usually give you a reason why he or she selected one color over another.

What Colors Say
Of course, as with everything else these days, there have been plenty of studies done on color. Here’s a short review of some of the basics used today in ads or product development and what they mean:

Blue
Here is the all-time color favorite for most folks, especially men. It’s a cool color that is extremely versatile going from the darker side of midnight blue to the lighter of baby blue—all of which inspire us in so many different directions

Yellow
Along with red, this color raises our blood pressure a bit and catches our eye. Yellow embodies life, joy and offers a high-impact visual. It adds brightness to our lives.

Red
This color is the attention grabber. It is considered the hottest color with the highest impact for attention and action. It has a strong masculine appeal.

Green
This color leads the pack for symbolizing a healthy lifestyle. Green is often used with health food products, recycling, vegetables and even mentholated tobacco products (to emphasize freshness??).

Brown
Although considered a masculine color, it does have a strong appeal to women as well. Symbolizes home and hearth.

Black
Black is the embodiment of sophistication, gives an expensive message. It also lends itself wonderfully as a background color to accentuate other colors, such as: yellow, red and orange.

Orange
This is the color of harvest, the "feast" color, and it evokes strong emotions regarding holidays, home, eating.

So what should you do with color in your product or ad development?
While most of us in the small business industry cannot afford to have color studies done for our products, services and/or customers, we can use color to provide an accent or an ambiance to our visual presentations.

But whatever the color you choose, keep it simple (not more than three colors per item) and be consistent. In other words, if you have a product that is packaged in red, a logo in blue and an advertisement to promote both in green, you’re not helping the consumer to identify your product, logo and ads from all the other stuff that’s out there.

Remember to always stay with the same color palette. It helps your identity and is certainly more pleasing to the eye.

Some Thoughts on Color