The Role of Color in Customer Purchase Decisions

The Role of Color in Customer Purchase Decisions

Thu Sep 3, 2015

 

When designing new packaging, your package should be enticing to the intended audience. One of the first things a customer will notice about your product is the color of your package. Colors can evoke a powerful psychological reaction, influencing which products customers choose to purchase. Using the wrong colors can make a product less attractive to the intended audience due to cultural, gender, and age differences. Packaging designers need to make sure that the colors they choose are sending the right message to their customers.

Color can promote brand recognition, help to communicate a brand’s goals and make a customer more likely to pick your product off the shelf. Impulse buyers are attracted to red, royal blue, orange and black, which create a sense of urgency. That is why fast food companies tend to use these colors in their logos. Customers also associate certain colors with certain product qualities. Green is associated with natural products, blue with cleanliness and calm, and black with luxury.

The influence of color varies based on the buying situation. The color red can create aggression in the buyer, so in a situation where the commodity is “scarce”, such as auction settings, the color red can influence a customer to be willing to pay more money for an item. In a negotiation situation where the commodity is less scarce (such as buying a car), the color blue can influence the customer to spend more.

However, using color to influence customer’s decision is not one size fits all. Age, gender, and cultural background will change how people react to certain colors. Among American adults, the color white signifies cleanliness and purity, while among Asian adults white signifies mourning. Children tend to be attracted to the color yellow more than adults, and adult men are the least attracted to yellow. Packaging designers must be very careful that they are correctly communicating with their intended audience.

With this in mind, take full advantage of color to make your product stand out from your competition!