Robert Brecht’s Blog

Today I would like to address the issue of color in Internet marketing. I have discussed in a previous blog the fact that “buying” decisions are primarily made at the emotional gratification level. Once made, the decision is supported at the rational level based on the attributes and benefits of the product or service. We know that colors elicit certain emotions and associations. Based on this, it is logical to conclude that our choice of color can either enhance or detract from our online marketing efforts.

We have also previously discussed about how important insight about our probable customers is to our Internet marketing efforts. The more  we know about the demographic and psychographic factors of our target markets, the more focused are efforts at reaching them with a message that will resonate with them. Color is part of our overall message.

I do not intend for this blog to be a treatise on the psychology of color.  There are many websites and books that can provide more information on this subject. One I like is:

http://websitetips.com/color/tutorials/#meaning

The colors we use in our online marketing efforts should reflect:

• Our Company, products and services
• Our target customer

Colors Should Reflect Who We Are: The colors we use in our efforts to get our message across to our target market should be reflective of who we are.  For example, if our business is building playgrounds or selling toys, the colors we use are going to reflect “fun and excitement.”  Use of primary, saturated colors, including yellow and green, are appropriate to reflect these emotional associations. If, on the other hand, our business is buying houses from those who are entering the foreclosure process we probably don’t want to reflect “fun and excitement.”  A better emotional connections would be “trust and credibility” and our color scheme should reflect it. Likely blue would be the predominant color, highlighted with blacks, etc.

Colors should reflect our customers: Our online marketing color choices should reflect the customer insight we have gained by researching our target and flanker markets. Depending on who are probable customers are and where they are located, the choice of color can be a fairly complex process. The more focused our marketing efforts at the most probable customer, the easier it is to decide on a color palette for our online marketing efforts.

Colors Elicit Emotional Associations: Our Internet marketing strategy should be to associate our organization’s products our services with positive emotional associations in the mind of our target probable customer. Color selection is part of that strategy. Specific colors have been shown to be associated with specific emotional feelings and can have an impact on the actions they take. Blue, for example, is associated with trust and reliability. Careful though…it is also associated with sadness and coolness. Red is associated with excitement, danger, passion, speed, strength and sex.  Black is associated with sophistication, seductive and mysterious emotional triggers. Any wonder why adult websites utilize red and black as their dominant color scheme? Remember though that the emotional associations of colors are culturally based. Another reason why you must know your customer.

Customers Have Color Preferences: Another factor in the selection of color for e-commerce is the preferences of our target market, i.e., our most probable customers. We can be more effective utilizing colors that reflect what our customers like than using colors that our customers do not like. There are gender, age and cultural differences that must go into the selection process. I believe that many online marketing designers default to “blue” as a dominant color because it is that it is the most favorite color as a whole. I am reminded of a former client that had a product specifically targeted to women in the 21 to 59 age group. They chose orange and brown as the color scheme for their marketing and  product packaging. What they failed to take into consideration is that orange and brown are the least favorite colors of their target market. That fact worked against the remainder of their message.  A little research could of saved them a lot of wasted effort.

What do you think?

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Tags: Brand + Technology, Internet Marketing, Non Linear Internet Marketing, Online Marketing, Website Design

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.