Choose Your Winning Color in Sales and Marketing

• Can color change the taste or smell of food?
• Why did Crystal Pepsi and Zima fail so miserably?

In an experiment on taste, subjects ate four different Jell-Os. They were yellow, green, red and blue. Most volunteers said the yellow one tasted sour like a lemon, the green one tasted tart like a green apple, and the red one tasted sweet like a strawberry. They said the blue Jell-O tasted odd or disgusting.

In fact, all 4 Jell-Os were identical and tasteless, except the color. The colors triggered the volunteers’ brains and fooled them into assigning taste to the different colors.

In a separate test, the volunteers were blindfolded. All said there was no difference in taste among the 4 Jell-Os. That’s not surprising, because the Jell-Os were unflavored, and the food coloring had no taste at all. When color wasn’t seen, all Jell-Os tasted the same. Color influences our taste perceptions.

• Google Discovered That Link Colors Affect User Clicks – Google makes wide use of Neuromarketing to increase its revenues. Because it has so many users, it can quickly test multiple options. It tested close to 50 different shades of blue for its link text in paid ads. What it discovered was that a specific purplish-blue color was clicked more often than the others.
  Google depends on ad clicks to make money. By switching to that color, Google increases its annual revenue by over $200 million.
  Small and midsize businesses often don’t have enough data to run large tests, but the lesson is clear: Color choices matter to profits. By understanding how color can impact your bottom line, you can make smart decisions.
• Background Colors on Marketing Materials Are Crucial – Neuroscientists in Sweden experimented with background colors in content areas of websites. They asked subjects to rate the trustworthiness of those designs.
  White or pale pastel background colors got the highest ratings, while darker red and green backgrounds got the lowest ratings.
  Since trust is a crucial element in online marketing success, the message is clear. Look at Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and other successful websites. All have very pale or white backgrounds. Clearly, paying attention to the color of design elements is crucial.
• Crystal Pepsi – An Epic Marketing Flop – In early 1990s, the trend was that clear meant pure. Pepsi wanted to capitalize on the trend. It came out with the clear, colorless Crystal Pepsi. The product lasted less than 2 years before the company pulled it off the market.
  The reason is that when the dark caramel color was removed, it changed how people tasted it.
  People didn’t think they were drinking the Pepsi cola that they were familiar with. We taste foods and drinks with our eyes first. What we see impacts how we taste unconsciously. Once the color is changed, the taste is changed as well. It was a very expensive mistake by Pepsi because it didn’t know the science of color.
• Color Choices for Design Elements Matter – From text color in content and links to the colors of action buttons and colors used in graphical charts, your choices can have a huge impact on user acceptance, trust, and conversion. Leaving those decisions to graphic artists isn’t enough. Understanding the emotional impact of colors is essential.
  The impact of color is subtle, unconscious, but highly significant.
  Choosing the right color may make or break a product. Or it can mean the difference between a marketing success or failure. Only decisions based on sound Neuromarketing principles can assure you of the outstanding results.

Insist on Science-Based Color Recommendations

The time is long past when you could rely on graphic designers for all design choices. Top-performing giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon are actively using Neuromarketing strategies to help them improve their sales. More and more of your competitors are also taking advantage of Neuroscience research. As the leading Neuromarketing company in the US, we want to help you compete successfully. Through our consulting services, we offer analysis and expert advice that will give you the edge you need. We use Neuroscience to outsmart your competition.