You may not know this, but the human brain receives signals faster through your eyes rather than your ears. Visual appearance is supposed to be more appealing when compared to any other senses, no matter what the medium of presentation is. So, there are methods by which one can increase the visual appeal. Other senses facilitate visual appeal, and are also important to concentrate on.
A typical example of how important color is when it is accompanied with audio, and writing. According to a study, big budget companies spend billions in the color market research, which helps in product and packaging development. Color, along with content, helps to hold and keep the interest of the visitor and makes him surf the website longer. A colorful article will make the reader read it till the end. Color makes things look more amiable.
Colors are also known to influence the behavior of a person. Like the color blue; it is said to have a relaxing effect. Red represents passion and love. A dating website can have red as the background color. Fast food restaurants have bright pictures of food beautifully decorated pasted on the walls. This tempts the taste buds of the customer and the customer pounces on the food, eats and leaves quickly. And this is exactly the reaction expected and desired by these corporations.
Another example of this kind of advertising technique are lighting effects, which can also be used to play with the mind of the on-looker. Advertisements, especially for food products, have strategically placed lights. The light-effects trigger the hormones in the brain, which increases the hunger. If the same advertisement is placed in a slightly dim light, it won’t be equally tempting.
Countries all around the world have different cultures that relate a color to an occasion or emotion. Climatic conditions also attribute to this. Like in America, people relate black to death and where as in Asia, white is related to death. People living near the equator like warm colors and people living nearer to the poles like cold colors.
It’s a must for an advertiser to have the knowledge about the colors and what they refer too. Following are some commonly used examples: Black stands for elegance, sophistication, seduction and mystery. White stands for peace, pure, clean, mild and youthful. Gold stands for prestige, luxury and elite. Silver stands for prestige, scientific and cold. Yellow stands for warmth, happiness and cheer. Orange stands for warmth, playfulness, and vibrant. Red stands for love, excitement, strength, passion, and danger. Pink stands for nurture, sweet, soft, and security. Green stands for nature, fresh, fertility and abundance. Blue stands for cool, trust, belonging and reliability. And lastly Purple stands for spiritual, royalty, and dignity.
From the advertiser’s point of view, we can conclude that colors can determine the shopping habits of customers. Black, blue, red and orange attract impulsive buyers. Smart shoppers are attracted to pink, light blue and navy blue colors. Companies use colors in logo, advertisement, etc., to pass the right message to the customer. Wal-Mart advertisements have a navy blue background and its catch line is “We Sell for Less”, which means smart customers are their goal. Mercedes has a silver logo, true to its class.
Before designing an advertisement, the targeted customers should be recognized and the advertisers should only use the colors that will work best for the ad campaign. Advertisement for children should have bright and vibrant colors. Yellow, red, blue and green, which are the primary colors, are the colors, which attract the children, which is why parents buy those colors for their kids. These colors represent warmth, sweetness, trust, reliability, playfulness and security.