According to statistics, the visual sense except where impaired, is the strongest developed sense in humans – more developed than our hearing, smell, taste and touch – and a very high percentage of visual assessment is affected by colour.
Psychological interpretations of colour, suggest that they may even affect our emotions, with certain colours like blue or green having a calming effect on us. Red on the other hand is the colour of energy and while it may be great in an advertisement for an energy drink, we are counselled not to use it in the decor of a room where we would like to relax or seek solace from the hustle and bustle of life, for obvious reasons. In the same vein, some colours appeal more to males than females, with the degree of emotional reaction depending on whether the colour is present in personal clothing, home or office furniture, signage etc.
Colour is powerful, whether we are conscious of it or not, and branding and marketing experts among others, regularly employ it as a persuasion tool, in a bid to subconsciously influence how people purchase products or react to information.
In the following infographic by Kissmetrics, an Analytics company which tracks colour trends, we are shown some of the subconscious associations colour evokes.
In a different study by Dulux paints, as many as 42% (forty-two percent) of men and 30% (thirty percent) of women surveyed worldwide, indicated blue as their favourite colour. Perhaps one of the reasons why the colour blue is associated with success; because it has such a broad appeal! Businessmen and corporate executives who wear blue in some form to important meetings or presentations are likely to be perceived more favourably then – by a third to nearly half of their audience – going by the survey results!
Choose your colours to reinforce your brand message!
Ngozi Princewill Utchay
Artelier Lifestyle Consultants
