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Color
Psychology in Marketing
by: Al Martinovic
On the
internet we don't deal with face to face
selling. The internet is a visual and
psychological medium. The words, or sales
copy, on your website have by far the
greatest psychological impact on your
visitors and thus becomes your most
important communication and sales tool.
But another
important psychological aspect of your
website that is often overlooked are the
colors. Yes, that's right... I said colors.
Just as you
use words to express yourself, colors can be
used as an expression as well and are a
language all on their own.
The background
color of your website, the color of your
header, the color of your text, headlines
and sub-headlines etc. can all have a
psychological impact on your visitors.
Here is a list
of some of the common colors and what type
of psychological emotion they invoke in
people:
RED is
associated with love, passion, danger,
warning, excitement, food, impulse, action,
adventure.
BLUE is
associated with trustworthiness, success,
seriousness, calmness, power,
professionalism.
GREEN is
associated with money, nature, animals,
health, healing, life, harmony.
ORANGE is
associated with comfort, creativity,
celebration, fun, youth, affordability.
PURPLE is
associated with royalty, justice, ambiguity,
uncertainty, luxury, fantasy, dreams.
WHITE is
associated with innocence, purity,
cleanliness, simplicity.
YELLOW is
associated with curiosity, playfulness,
cheerfulness, amusement.
PINK is
associated with softness, sweetness,
innocence, youthfulness, tenderness.
BROWN is
associated with earth, nature, tribal,
primitive, simplicity.
GREY is
associated with neutralality, indifference,
reserved.
BLACK is
associated with seriousness, darkness,
mystery, secrecy.
You can use
the above as a guide when choosing colors
for your website. It really boils down to
your target audience and what psychological
message you want to convey in colors.
Blues and
white backgrounds work best for business
sites. Maternity sites should consider some
pink. Golf or lawn sites sites should
consider green. Food sites should consider
red, etc.
There are also
numerous shades of the same color that you
can use too. Here a link that lists 216
colors that work in all browsers:
http://www.geocities.com/webtvbeth/hexchart.html
It also boils
down to common sense too. As far as using
colors in text, black text on white
backgrounds may be dull but it is the most
readable and pleasing to the eye.
Yellow text on
white background is not only unreadable, but
causes eye-strain which will have people
leaving your site quickly. Nothing will lose
sales faster than eye-straining text.
Here's a link
for a "color wheel" that shows which colors
compliment each other, and which ones don't:
http://www.saumag.edu/art/studio/chalkboard/c-wheel.html
In conclusion,
not only can the sales copy on your website
have a psychological impact with words but
the colors you use can as well.
Use them
wisely...
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