Communicating with Color  
by Cheryl Carnright

When you see the colors red, blue, or yellow, how do you react? Does your heart race? Do you feel happy? Do you feel sad? Do you feel at peace? Do you feel angry? Subconsciously, we react to certain colors depending on our culture, our religion, our upbringing, and/or our personality.

Color is vitally important when doing business and is the first visual impression and most instantaneous method of communication for conveying your marketing message and meaning. It helps distinguish your business from your competitors and is an integral part of the identification process. It helps you keep or lose potential customers by swaying their thinking and changing their actions and reactions. Without color, every business would look the same and it would be difficult to differentiate the subtleties of different products and/or services — what sets your products or services apart from another's

Color functions on several levels simultaneously, stimulating and working in synchronization with the senses. It symbolizes abstract concepts and thoughts, expresses fantasy and wishes, recalls other times and places, and produces emotional or visual responses. Color also functions as the primary structural element of corporate identities and brands. It creates appropriate spatial and navigational effects as a whole — following the rules of design. As a primary aesthetic tool, color creates a sense of visual harmony that sustains and enhances your customer's interest

Color is a vital key element in communicating, enticing, and attracting people to your product or service. Often called the "silent salesperson," color attracts your customer's eye, conveys the message of what your product/service is all about, creates brand identity, and, most importantly, helps you make a sale. Color works for your business by:

- emphasizing, highlighting, and leading the eye to important points

- identifying recurring themes

- differentiating your business or elements of your business

- symbolizing and triggering emotions and associations

Conversely, color can also hurt your business by choosing the wrong colors. When choosing your color scheme, it is vitally important to keep in mind just who your target demographics are — men, women, age range, geographic location, culture, etc. Although you may love a special color scheme, your potential customers may not. If you are planning to include a web site into your marketing strategy, then you are dealing on a global level that may have disastrous results. What color works in one country or industry may not work in another. Consider the color purple. It works very well as a creative symbol for Adobe's PageMaker packaging. However, it is a polarizing color and people either love it or hate it. Globally, it could have potentially hazardous repercussions to your business. In the United States, purple symbolizes spirituality, mystery, aristocracy, and passion. In Brazil, it symbolizes mourning, death, nausea, conceit, and pomposity. EuroDisney made a disastrous mistake using the color purple for its European signage. The color purple was intended to out do Coca Cola's red. However, in Catholic Europe, purple symbolizes death and the crucifixion of Christ. The result was visitors thought the signs were morbid. How did this happen? The CEO liked purple. As simple as that. What does this tell us

- Personal preferences and "avant-garde" tactics usually cause marketing disasters. Using the wrong color especially on the Internet extends the damage to a global audience

- It is necessary to look at the symbolism of any color scheme that you choose. Take purple for example: it symbolizes spirituality, mysticism, magic, faith, the unconscious, dignity, mystery, creativity, awareness, inspiration, passion, imagination, sensitivity, aristocracy & royalty, conceit, pomposity, cruelty, mourning and death. It is also the hardest color for the eye to discriminate. Consequently, purple is not a good color choice for the food industry but is an excellent choice for astrology, magic or spiritual businesses in the US.

Interpreting a color's impact on a targeted market depends on culture, profession, and personal preferences. For example, in Western cultures white symbolizes purity while in China white is the color of death. Yellow is sacred to the Chinese but signifies sadness in Greece and jealousy in France. In the US, green is the color of money, grass and jealousy but the people in the tropical countries generally respond to warm colors and people in the cooler climates prefer the cooler colors

Color is an irreplaceable, powerful form of communicating your business. Therefore, it is important to investigate the influence it will have on your targeted demographics. Do not make the mistake of choosing a color scheme solely on your personal preferences. After all is said and done, you are not buying your product/service — your potential customers are.

Color is a universal language that crosses not only cultural boundaries but also the boundaries of our electronic/technical/satellite linked "Global Village." It persuades and induces the customer to respond in a positive way to your marketing message. Convey your message properly using color psychology in the following areas:

- Graphic images and brand name

- Packaging as represents the qualities of the product

- Point-of-purchase where it competes with the competition's products/services and must gain attention

- All forms of advertising: print, point-of-purchase, TV, web sites, direct mail, billboards,etc. where color must convince and appeal, especially in a matter of seconds

- In signage, at the company site or other suitable areas

- Company logos and Ids

- In your product itself

Remember; choose a color scheme for your business targeted for your demographic. They are the ones purchasing your product or service, not you

Cheryl Carnright is a principal in two web sites with a third coming in August 2002. She has helped businesses succeed both on-line and off-line. Visit her web sites to get a free web site analysis at http://www.carnrightdesign.com  or http://www.b2bstrategicmarketing.com  or mailto:info@b2bstrategicmarketing.com

About the Author
Cheryl Carnright, principal in Carnright Design & B2B Strategic Marketing, has over 20 years experience in fine and graphic art. She has received awards, honors, and recognition in the fine art field. Her strengths include logo design, brand development, color psychology, implementation of ideas, brain storming, and designing from a marketing point of view for printed, and on-line initiatives