OUGD601 - COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY 

Misconceptions around the psychology of colour:
- Personal preference, experience, upbringing, cultural differences and context all effect how we as individuals perceive colour. Therefore the theory that yellow or purple are able to evoke a hyper-specific emotion is extremely inaccurate.

The importance of colours in branding:
- There have been numerous attempts to classify consumer responses to different individual colours. 
- Colour is too dependent on personal experiences to be universally translated to specific feelings.
- Colour plays a substantial role in purchases and branding. 
- Researchers have found that up to 90% of snap judgements made about products can be based on colour alone. 
- The relationship between brands and colour hinges on the perceived appropriateness of the colour being used for the particular brand. (Does the colours fit what is being sold?)
- Purchasing intent is greatly affected by the colours due to the impact they have on how a brand is perceived. 
- Our brains prefer recognisable brands, which makes colour incredibly important when creating a brand identity. Ensuring new brands have differentiation to the existing brand has been highly recommended. E.g. If the competition all uses blue, you'll stand out if you use purple. 
- Additional research has shown that there is a real connection between the use of colours and customers' perceptions of a brands personality. 
- It is very important to use colours to support the personality you want to portray for your brand, instead of trying to align with stereotypical colour associations. 
- The feeling, mood and image that your brand creates that play a role in persuasion. Be sure to recognise that colours only come into play when they can be used to match a brands desired personality (the use of white to communicate Apple's love of clean, simple design).

Gender colour preferences:
- Blue is the supremacy across both genders and purple was listed as a top-tier colour by women, but not by men. 
- Men seem to refer bold colours, while women prefer softer colours. 
- Men were more likely to select shades of colours as their favourites (colours with black added), whilst women were more receptive to tints of colours (colours with white added). 

Colour co-ordination and conversions:
- An item that 'stands out like a sore thumb' is more likely to be remembered.
- While a large number of consumers prefer colour patterns with similar hues, they favour palettes with a highly contrasting accent colour. 
- Creating a visual structure consisting of base analogues colours and contrasting them with accent complimentary colours. 
- Utilize background, base and accent colours to create a hierarchy.
- The names of colours are important too - Fancy names are generally preferred to generic names, e.g. 'Mocha' was found to be significantly more likeable than 'Brown', despite them being the same colour. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/habits-not-hacks/201408/color-psychology-how-colors-influence-the-mind