IELTS READING- Choosing the Right Colours for your Business¹ S35GT3

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When considering your company’s packaging and logo, picking the right colour could be essential. For example, in an experiment to test customers’ use of green and red buttons, it was expected that green would perform better as its linked with ‘go’ and movement such as with traffic lights. However, red outperformed green by 21%, probably because it’s more of an urgent, attention-seeking colour.

The way you feel about colours can be influenced by your age and gender. One study showed that, on average, men dislike the colour purple, whilst women feel the opposite, but both dislike the colour brown. Blue is the safest colour with all ages, especially those over 70, as most people are able to see the colour blue more clearly than any other colour, even those with colour-vision deficiencies.

Colour can be powerful, evoking particular emotions. This is why it’s important to choose a colour that reflects your brand. The restaurant and hospitality industry have shown that orange makes people agitated, so they won’t stay long (useful in fast food restaurants). Browns are soothing, so people will stay (useful in bars).

This is a bit of a tricky topic as colours do affect people differently, especially in different cultures, although there are some colours, such as gold, that are more universally understood. Other colours invite more subjective interpretations. In the UK, for example, white signifies peace and purity and is often used at weddings. In other cultures, white is seen to be synonymous with death.

It’s clear to see that colour can have a profound impact on bringing a brand, product, or design to life, in addition to its possible uses as a behavioural tool. It’s imperative to test colours thoroughly and not to make any assumptions about their impact. The way you interpret colours may not be the same as the way in which your customers see them.

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