This post completes my response to Q2, "Most of us can talk about what colors are our favorite, which colors attract our attention, but we really don’t know why? Is this what marketers have to strain their brains to figure out?" from AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund. Ms. Bjorklund interviewed me on NextStage's five year study of the best uses of colors, color imagery and color iconography in marketing. This study contained NextStage original research and research from others.
The posts in this arc provide content that didn't make it into the podcast, just as the podcast has content that isn't provided in this arc. You can hear the entire podcast at The Best Way to Use Color and Imagery to Improve Your Marketing. I'll be including a bibliography in the last post in this arc.
The first part of my response to this question offered that the answers are obvious when you know where to look (duh!). For that matter, the answers become obvious if you're willing to go look for them (not so much a "duh!" as a "yeah, Joseph would suggest that"). The real key is being willing to look for the answers in places you've never looked before ("Oh yeah, that's a Joseph-NextStage answer"). We continue from there.
These six colors -- black, white, red, yellow, green and blue – are “attention” colors. Now remember that “Attention” isn’t the same as “Attraction”. I probably have your attention if you’re attracted to me but I can also have your attention for lots of other reasons; I’m giving you a warning, you’re watching where I’m putting your birthday present, I’m driving like a lunatic and you want to get out of my way. Recognition and response to colors and color iconography deals with something called “signal detection theory” and the size of a recognized and responded to “attention” signal can much, much smaller than the signal size of a recognized and responded to “attraction” signal.As I wrote in wrote in Usability Studies 101: Follow the Eye,
- These six easily recognized and understood colors are around or at least leading to your decision points
- Important information is highlighted by these colors
- These colors lead the eye where you want it to go
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- The AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund Interviews Joseph Carrabis on Color Use in Marketing arc
- The Best Way to Use Color and Imagery to Improve Your Marketing
- NextStage Presentations, Trainings and Seminars
- Usability Studies 101: Follow the Eye
- IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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