Can the brand colours really affect its success?

In recent years there has been a lot of research into the affect that colours have on our perception of things. In the majority of humans, sight is the strongest sense and studies have suggested that up to 90% of our opinion about a retail product or business service comes from our assessment of its colour. With this in mind, it is easy to see why colour psychology could be an extremely important marketing tool.

How can colour affect our perceptions?

The science behind colour psychology is slightly complex. When we view a colour we send a signal to a part of our brain known as the hypothalamus which then sends signals that eventually end up at our thyroid glands. The thyroid is responsible for the release of hormones, which then cause a change in our mood and subsequent behaviour.

Different colours can generate different responses in us, and whilst our personal opinion on favourite colours can vary, there are stereotypical responses that the majority of us will exhibit. For example, if we see red we often think ‘STOP’! It is a warning colour thanks to its use on traffic signs and signals. We automatically make that association and it can be very difficult to programme our minds to think differently.

Here we are going to look at some of the most commonly used website colours, what emotions they invoke in us and which industries embrace them.

Green

Experts say that green is actually the easiest colour for our eyes to process. When we think green we automatically think of the environment and nature so it is understandable that they are frequently used on medicine, science and eco-business websites. It also works well on tourism websites, particularly those that promote outdoor adventure.

Red

Red is most often seen highlighting sales and offers on products, but it does also work as a call to action colour as it is so bright. However your audience may struggle trusting websites with a lot of red on them as it creates a feeling of panic or danger.

Blue

Blue is a very popular web page colour because it appears credible and invokes feelings of trust and security. Have you noticed how Paypal, which we trust to act as a conduit for billions of our hard-earned dollars, has a blue and white logo? Blue also reflects professionalism and we unconsciously associate it with blue-collar industries. Blue is the primary colour commonly seen in the websites for banks and financial institutions, medical and science-based business, and the I.T and legal industries.

Why are hyperlinks always blue? When they were first created, web pages had a grey background with black text and blue was the next darkest colour available. It allowed them to separate the main text from the links, whilst still being readable. We now know that blue makes us think of trust and credibility, which is useful as by keeping them blue we are more likely to consider clicking a link to a potentially unknown website.

Black

Black is always viewed as a high-end, no frills no fuss type colour. It is commonly associated with luxury products, almost screaming ‘our products are so awesome we don’t need fancy colours to sell them’. Research shows that black creates images of powerful, strongly-designed and professionally managed brands and therefore it is of no surprise that it is a popular choice for fashion, cosmetics, marketing and finance web pages.

Pink

It is a common misconception that all women must love pink. In actual fact, recent surveys show that blue, green and purple are the top three favourite colours of women. That said pink is used very effectively in some web pages that are targeting women, for example Victoria’s Secret which sells lingerie. However pink is best suited to products and services that are going for an overtly pretty and girlie vibe.

As a general rule of thumb, women prefer the colours purple, green and blue on web pages and dislike brown, orange and grey. In comparison, men respond better to blue, green and black toned websites, and are turned off by brown, purple and orange. From this we can pretty much surmise that if you want your website to appeal to anyone then don’t use orange or brown based colour schemes!

Will changing colours on my web pages give me higher conversion rates?

The answer to this question is simple – yes, it could, but you may need to spend some time playing around with the colours to find what works best for your business.

An experiment conducted by Hubspot saw two identical pages of content being given one call to action button, but on one page it was red and on the other it was green. They expected, as you would if you are into your colour psychology, that the green button would yield better results. However, they were surprised to find that the red button actually had 21% more action!

This is an example of why you need to carefully consider the four ‘rights’ of colour psychology before you implement it on your website. They are:

• Right way
• Right time
• Right audience
• Right purpose

If you use the wrong colour at the wrong time, in the wrong place or for the wrong audience then it can actually work against you. For example, if you are looking at maximising sales in the approach to Christmas, then you may want to use red to create a sense of urgency in customers who may already be panic-buying. Would you buy a bouncy castle from a website that uses simply black and white? No, you would want to get one from a website that is packed full of primary colours that we associate with fun.

For your retail scene, you might be using iPad as your POS register in the shop. Time to time, you may take the iPad on floor to show product inventory to your customers right from your iPad. Since your customers are accessing it, you may want to consider getting the colours fixed on your iPad POS too. If you use Hike, we have your back with an ability to easily change and update product pictures on your iPad POS.

In short, the answer to the title of this article is yes, the colours on your website really could affect its success, but before you start changing them over ensure that you have a strategy in place and are prepared to tweak it as you discover what works best for your business.