Influence of Color Perception on Consumer

Behavior

Long Ren and Yun Chen(&)

Huazhong University of Science and Technology,

Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
longren@[Link], yunchen92@[Link]

Abstract. With the intensified competition, attracting and retaining the cus-
tomers has become a top concern for businesses. Color has been identified as
one of most significant factors influencing consumers’ purchasing behavior. The
purpose of the research is to explore the ways color perceptions influence
consumer behavior. A better understanding of influence of color perceptions
enables them to direct marketing strategies design and implementation. In the
research, the researcher makes an attempt to review relevant research papers and
account for why color is important in capturing the interest of consumers. In the
paper, consumer behaviors, influential factors and influence of colors on con-
sumer behavior, color meanings and roles are reviewed and critically discussed.
It is expected that the study can help better understand consumers’ color per-
ceptions and their potential influence on consumer behavior. The color psy-
chology has become growingly significant in producing and packaging
products. Colors, thus, accomplished prominence in marketing activities. The
findings in the established literature can offer some great implications for
businesses in terms of how to leverage color for creating distinct customer
experience. The established literature also highlights colors have different
meanings in different culture. That indicates the importance of considering
cultural difference when exploring influence of color perceptions on consumer
behaviors. The paper simply reviews the established literature, and these
established findings remain to be empirically tested.

Keywords: Color
Color perceptions
Consumer behavior

1 Introduction

In the modern society, consumers dominate. The intensified globalization and com-
petition prompts businesses to seek for alternative approaches to influencing con-
sumers. Immaterial and intangible features of products influence consumers’
purchasing decisions. Sensory marketing, under such circumstance, has become an
innovative solution to generate emotional features of brand/product and capture strong
relationship with consumers (Hultén 2011). The sensory marketing offers an excellent
opportunity for using color as an approach to differentiate one product from another.
Color may generate emotional link leading to product differentiation, competitiveness,
strengthened customer loyalty, increased sales, reduced perception time for the brand,
enhanced positive emotions and customer relationship (Aghdaie and Honari 2014).
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
F. F.-H. Nah and B. S. Xiao (Eds.): HCIBGO 2018, LNCS 10923, pp. 413–421, 2018.
[Link]
414 L. Ren and Y. Chen

The researchers such as Cian and Cervai (2011); Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala
(2010) argued that color is a cost-saving and effective approach to generate consumers’
positive opinions. Color psychology is found to significantly influence human beings’
lives in a variety of approaches. Many organizations worldwide have recruited color
consultants to help figure out the best color for products so as to best capture con-
sumers. It was found that 62–90% of purchasing decision was based on product color
(Singh 2006). However, the established researches into color and its influence (Kar-
eklas et al. 2014; Labrecque et al. 2013) are few. Little has been understood about the
influence of color perception on consumer behavior. There is death of generalized
material, in which information about color use in marketing would be explained in a
systematic way. That allows the formulation of the research problem, “how does color
perception influence consumer behavior?”

2 Consumer Behavior

According to Blackwell et al. (2006), consumer behavior refers to activities including

obtaining products or service, consumption and product disposal. In marketing field,
consumer behavior has captured interest of market-oriented marketers as it investigates
into the ways consumers purchase and why they purchase. With insights into con-
sumption behavior, marketers are capable of developing strategies for influencing
consumers’ purchasing behavior. Marketing activities no more flow from marketers to
consumers. Instead, it is important for marketers to truly learn the ways consumers
react to marketing efforts. Evans et al. (2006) develop model known as hierarchy of
communication effects model, including seven stages, “exposure, attention, perception,
learning, attitude, action, and post-purchase”. Nevertheless, as other business model, it
is unnecessary consumers observe sequence in the process of purchasing. However, the
model offers marketers logical model for integrating psychological concepts into
interpretation of why and how consumers react to marketing activities (Evans et al.
2006) (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Sequential effects of response to marketing (Evans et al. 2006)

3 Color

Color is differentiated in hue, brightness and saturation (Ogden et al. 2010). In terms of
hue, colors can be categorized into cool color (e.g. orange and red) and warm color
(e.g. violet, blue). Brightness and saturation are significant in color perception.
Brightness plays an important role in determining lightness or darkness of color; sat-
uration suggests purity of color. It was found that color is much more pleasant with
enhanced attributes (Camgöz et al. 2002). According to Hemphill (1996), bright colors
are linked with positive emotions like happiness, joy and hope. Likewise, Elliot and
 Influence of Color Perception on Consumer Behavior 415

Maier (2007) considers brighter colors as friendly, cultured, pleasant and beautiful.
Conversely, dark color is associated with negative emotions like boredom and sadness
(Camgöz et al. 2002). According to Elliot and Maier (2007), color may generate
associations and responses, and they take meaning of color as bipartite. Meanings of
colors are triggered by learned associations or shaped by the nature. Likewise, Tofle
et al. (2004) also claimed emotional responses evoked by color as an outcome of
learned associations on basis of culture and individual-related features. Cherry (2015)
explores link between color and mood. Cool colors are linked with the moods as calm,
serene and comfort. Conversely, arm colors are relevant to stressful and exciting
moods. Furthermore, Valdez and Mehrabian (1994) confirms long-wave length color as
much more arousing the short-wave length ones. Colors are capable of attracting
attention. That indicates retailers are capable of leveraging color to elicit appropriate
behaviors. Bellizzi and Hite (1992) identified people had higher willingness to stay and
purchase products in environment with blue than environment with red.
In some case, “meaning” may represent a kind of mental stimulation (Osgood et al.
1957). Seahwa (2014) definitions colour meaning in her research: “Colour meaning is
not about combinations that create pleasing responses (colour harmony), not about the
processes with which people understand and react to colour (colour perception), and
not about liking a particular colour among alternatives (colour preference). Instead, it is
concerned with the meanings that are associated with certain colours.”
The meanings linked with colors are different in different cultures. No absolute
universal meanings are given to specific color. The most widely known studies on the
feelings that different colors represent are mainly located in the context of North
America. With expansion of North American culture, interpreting color meanings
worldwide have been alternated and shown tendency of convergence. The color
meanings identified in North America are presented in Table 1.
In addition to influence of culture, colors are different because of dependence on
lighting conditions, observation position and surrounding especially the adjacent color.
All these factors can shape the ways of perceiving a specific color. Moreover, even
when people are exposed to the same color, the ways they perceive color, meanings and
emotions incurred by the same color are different among people due to gender, age,
educational and culture, childhood association and others (Scott-Kemmis 2013). A re-
search by Choungourian (1969) into people from four countries identified variance in
color preferences represents individual variation. It was found that the US consumers
prefer red and blue, but least like blue-green. However, respondents from Iran and
Kuwait preferred blue and green. As for gender, women tended to have different color
preferences from men. Besides, many men in the western countries are red/green color
blind, but marketers can use unisex colors like blue, red, black and white. There is a
trend of shifting from bright and primary colors toward sophisticated color in form of
patterns. Adults were found to be less open to experiment of new colors, but they
adhered to the favorite color for lowing the risks. Regarding education, well-educated
people are found to be much more complicated in color choice.
416 L. Ren and Y. Chen

Table 1. Different colors and meanings (adapted from Scott-Kemmis 2013)

Color Represent Effects

Red Energy, action, desire, low, passion Stimulating, exciting, motivating,
attention-capturing, assertive, ag-
gressive
Orange Adventure and risk taking; Enthusiasm, rejuvenation,
Social communication, interaction, Simulation, courage, vitality , fun,
friendship playful
Yellow Mind, intellectual; happiness and fun, Creative, quick decisions; anxiety;
communication of new ideas Producing; critical; non-emotional ;
Light, warmth motivation
Green Harmony, balance, growth, hope, Rejuvenation, nurturing; dependa-
wealth, health, prestige ble
Serenity Agreeable diplomatic, possessive-
ness; envy
Blue Communication, peace and calm; hon- Conservative;
esty, authority, religion, wisdom Predictable;
Trustworthy, trustworthy, secure,
responsible
Purple Inspiration; imagination, royalty, mys- dignity
tery, nostalgia, individuality Empathy ; controlled emotions
Impractical
Respectable
Pink Unconditional love; compassion; nur- Calming; non-threatening;
turing; hope, girlish Affectionate
Gray Neutrality; compromise, control Indecision, detached, depression,
unemotional
White Innocent, pure, new beginning, equal, Impartial; rescuers, futuristic, clean,
unity, fairness efficient, soft noble
Black Black mystery; power and control; Formal, dignified and sophisticated
prestige; value; timelessness; sophisti- Depressing
cated Pessimistic
Formal, dignified and sophisticated
 Influence of Color Perception on Consumer Behavior 417

4 Roles of Color in Consumer Behavior

The established literature has been dedicated to exploring the relationship between
colors and purchasing behaviors. It is found that packaging and color significantly and
directly influence consumers’ psyche (Raheem et al. 2014). Thus, it is significant to
carry out the studies on relationship between colors and consumer behavior so as to
distinguish color that mostly influence positively or negatively influence consumers’
choice and thereby purchasing behavior. Brody et al. (1981), television advertising
significantly influenced children consumerism. Thus, children without knowledge of
substantial components may be fascinated by colors. That indicates advertising with
good color was likely to attract children and purchasers. Color is taken as an important
non-verbal sign in understanding consumer behavior (Kotler and Keller 2006). Con-
sumers generally link specific color with specific product categories by understanding
dependencies among different colors. Especially, colors play important in marketing
and packing. Harmony, proper arrangement of colors can help to capture consumers’
interest. A major factor influencing consumer perception is the type of color adopted in
packaging. It is the color that captures consumers’ attention (Hagtvedt 2016). Con-
sumers get color of specific products on basis of relations they build up. on some
occasions, having pleasant experience may result in favor of a specific color, and on
other occasions consumers may acquire color on basis of relations (Luscher and Scott
2003).
Color is expected to be helpful for capturing consumers’ attention as human beings
are capable of quickly identifying colorful items. That is because the pre-attentive
system of brain is designed and developed to easily spot color in the external envi-
ronment, and what is more important sis that the system can immediately help select
the items for following attentional processing. Nevertheless, color is not alone. In other
words, it is hardly possible to perceive a specific color on its own, but a specific color is
used with other adjacent colors. Therefore, adopting color for capturing consumers’
interest may be inhibited by the surroundings where items with target colors are placed,
and different colors have different values for capturing attention (Jansson-Boyd 2010).
In addition, a recent research (Huang and Lu 2013) suggests that blue and red mediated
the perception of healthiness perception of the food product.
Furthermore, relying on setting, a single color or combined color communicates
symbolic meanings that can generate affective reactions and are adopted in marketing
practices to figure out brands, categorize products, make assumptions and direct con-
sumers’ choices (Hanss et al. 2012). Ones’ perception of color is based upon link
between color and associated meanings. Consumer researches claim successful adop-
tion of color significantly relies upon congruency between symbolic meanings of color
and product attributes. Bottomley and Doyle (2006) conduct a research into brand logo
and they found that cool colors such as blue and green are proper for utilitarian
products, and warm colors such as red and orange are proper for products or services
generating hedonic experience.
418 L. Ren and Y. Chen

5 Practical Implications

The established literature has highlighted two important themes. First, it is highlighted
that human beings have continued to be influenced by color psychically or mentally.
How human beings are influenced by colors has remarkably psychological essence that
indirectly affects norms, responses and individual consumer’s behavior (Elm 2012).
Second, it is highlighted that in different countries or cultures, colors are possessed with
different meanings. That offers implications that mistakes in selecting color may dis-
courage people from purchasing specific products. Colors, thus, accomplished
prominence in marketing activities. The findings in the established literature can offer
some great implications for businesses in terms of how to leverage color for creating
distinct customer experience.
First, the established literature implies that marketers need to learn emotions and
needs generated by each color for leveraging color in marketing activities. A good
understanding of meanings of different colors is the prerequisite to successful use of
color. For instance, cool colors such as blue and green are associated with attribute
“pacifying”, and warm colors such as red and orange can stimulate interest. Thus, if a
business intends to stimulate consumers’ interest, it is desirable to use warm colors.
Second, it is implied that businesses should capitalize on color for creating the
customer experience that they intend to deliver to the customers. For attracting con-
sumers, color has been taken as critical element. Learning well psychological influence
of colors and its variance combination can help marketers a lot. However, color
selection should be congruent with the business. For instance, brown, a color with the
impression of being dull, can generate great effect in coffee shops or bakeries to
enhance customer experience. Likewise, UPS, the leading shipping company world-
wide, is renowned for its brown trucks. That indicates there is no formula for how to
use different colors in creating customer experience.

6 Conclusion

Overall, the established literature has identified the great impact of color perceptions on
consumer behaviors. The color psychology has become growingly significant in pro-
ducing and packaging products. Colors, thus, accomplished prominence in marketing
activities. Color can stimulate interest and enhance desire for purchasing a specific
product or service. With the intensified competition, attracting and retaining the cus-
tomers has become a top concern for businesses. Color has been identified as one of
most significant factors influencing consumers’ purchasing behavior. Color in mar-
keting directly influences consumer behavior, which has been confirmed by lots of
researches. Considers link color with different products, which increases difficulties of
learning the ways people respond to colors. Each color must be deployed for suitable
product in line with psychological features. The color psychology has become grow-
ingly significant in producing and packaging products. The established literature also
highlights colors have different meanings in different culture. That indicates the
 Influence of Color Perception on Consumer Behavior 419

importance of considering cultural difference when exploring influence of color per-

ceptions on consumer behaviors. The paper simply reviews the established literature,
and these established findings remain to be empirically tested.

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