Consumer response to color cues

March 23, 2004 3:06 PM

Can anyone point me to information about color in the marketplace? I.e. (e.g. ?), which colors produce which responses in consumers?

I've googled with little success.

posted by o2b to media & arts (10 comments total)

try this-very basic and google: color psychology marketing
posted by amberglow at 4:34 PM on March 23, 2004

Color is just one portion of the equation though. Have you read any Paco Underhill?
posted by machaus at 5:04 PM on March 23, 2004

it also varies cross-culturally as well. for lots of eye candy, but light on theory, try The Designer's Guide to Global Color Combinations: 750 Color Formulas in CMYK and RGB from Around the World If you go to amazon and start poking around color books, it will suggest LOTS of others as well.
posted by th3ph17 at 5:17 PM on March 23, 2004

I realize this wasn't your main question, but "i.e." means "that is", while "e.g." means "for example".
posted by m-bandy at 5:22 PM on March 23, 2004

p. 141-142 in Consumer Behavior by Leon G. Schiffman and Leslie Lazar Kanuk have what you want, it even has a Cross-National Study of Color Ratings.

In the U.S. blue is the favorite, then green, black, white, red, gold, purple, brown, orange and yellow (In that order).
posted by banished at 5:23 PM on March 23, 2004

My own memory technique, far divorced from the original latin, is thus:

i.e. = 'in english,'

e.g. = 'example given:'

posted by kaibutsu at 7:32 PM on March 23, 2004

Just been thinking about this lately - in the Northeast at least, the color of choice to indicate food (or at least fast food) is definitely red, a particular McDonald's shade of red, followed by yellow and/or white. Signs are everywhere it seems (to my newly-moved-here eyes).
posted by kokogiak at 8:39 PM on March 23, 2004

Tangential to kokogiak's point, damn near 75% of brokerage and individual money-management firms use navy blue.
posted by trharlan at 9:38 PM on March 23, 2004

Many (I don't have numbers but far north of 50%) of industry leaders have red logos or dominant color schemes. McD's, Coke, Cisco, Kellogs, Texaco, Target, Oracle, etc. It's true that different industries use different colors (the blue for banks connection above is certainly true), but consumer-oriented companies often use red.
posted by zpousman at 2:08 PM on March 24, 2004

interesting relevant metropolis article (talks about people who's job it is to talk about this)

There was an interesting chart about brands and colors in Wired a few months ago, but I can't find it online.
posted by jeb at 3:21 PM on March 24, 2004