How many times have you heard someone explaining that hospitals or mental institutions are white because the color encourages a calm and relaxing environment?
Or that red, green and yellow colors (read: spice colors) can increase your appetite? The reason why they are used in most fast-food restaurants’ logos and banners. We also hear how colors affect our brains and trigger reactions and how marketing and advertising agencies use this power to their advantage.
But according to Gregory Ciotti and his publication named “The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding,” this is not entirely true.
The world of color according to Mr.Ciotti
Today’s conversations on colors and persuasion consist of hunches, anecdotal evidence and advertisers blowing smoke about “colors and the mind.” After analyzing several color studies, Ciotti concluded that:
“The idea that colors such as yellow or purple are able to evoke some sort of hyper-specific emotion is about as accurate as your standard Tarot card reading“.
The emotions of color
Colors as well as many other elements like sounds and music, do evoke emotions in us, but our reactions to these elements can’t be perfectly anticipated. Elements such as personal preference, experiences, upbringing, cultural differences, context, etc., often muddy the effect individual colors have on us.
Marvin Harris, a controversial anthropologist had a pretty similar theory on how culture and individual experience influence our perspectives on things. What some cultures might find sacred others might just be disgusted.
In his book “Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture.” Harris explains how food resembles so much and so different for each culture. For example, insects in Asia.
They probably don’t sound very appetizing to us, but in Asian countries, they provide a high source of nutrients and protein needed to survive. Therefore, insects are actually considered delicious. At the same time, he explains how Asians are usually lactose intolerant because of their lack of a lactose consumption.
Based on their theory, when it comes to advertising and branding, the real key to success is behind the research you have done about your targeted audience, market, and your own business instead of investing in some “ Color Secret Formula”.
Accurate Marketing and Branding
At Big Dog Wraps and Graphics we understand how volatile and impulsive customers are. Therefore, we don’t fool around with your designs and projects. We don’t blow smoke or sell some urban legend. All of our custom marketing and business designs are the result of long hard working hours. We listen and take personal care of each one of our clients, compromising with their business success. We will never suggest a specific color unless, after several, intensive research, discussions and evaluations we define it is the best option for you and your business.
If after reading this post, you got the feeling that you’ve been played? Call experts in Colorado. Big Dog Wraps is your creative, accurate, custom design wrap solutions for your business.
We can create window prints, banners and vehicle wraps that express your business products and services. Contact us today and get a free quote.