Red is exciting, blue is competent

Topics: Brand & Strategy
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B 
Research date: Jan 2011 
Universities: Northern Illinois University, University of Massachusetts Amherst

📝 Intro

A small change in the colors you use for your brand can change how people perceive you - and as a consequence, how likely they are to become your customer.

For example, you might want to be perceived as:

• Elegant and sophisticated

• Competent and reliable

• Fun and exciting

• Adventurous and rugged

Each of these has its appropriate color.

Here’s what researchers found.

P.S.: This study is older than what I would usually cover (I self-imposed a cutoff of 10 years). So why am I covering it?

Research in colors has not advanced much in recent years, likely because scientists felt that they already published the most impactful discoveries (for now).

But color psychology is extremely useful, and I believe it would be a disservice not to give you insights on how to use it.

📈 Recommendation

Choose the colors for your brand, including your logo, packaging, and branding, based on how you want to be perceived:

• Blue makes you seem competent

• Red makes your brand seem more exciting

• Black, purple, and pink help your brand come across as sophisticated or luxurious.

• Brown makes you seem strong and durable

The shade of color also matters. The more saturated your colors (how much pigment is in the shade you use), the more you come across as strong and durable.

🎓 Findings

• Specific colors in packaging and in brand logos play a strong role in building an image of your brand’s personality in people’s minds.

• As part of 4 experiments, researchers found that:

  • Compared to a grayscale (black and white) logo, when a color logo is used, people feel a 53% stronger brand personality

  • Colors trigger unconscious associations in people's minds of how they perceive a brand:

    • Red is considered exciting

    • Blue is considered competent

    • Black, pink, and purple are associated with sophistication

    • Orange is considered unsophisticated

    • Brown is considered strong, durable, and outdoorsy

  • High saturated colors (vivid, with a lot of pigment) are perceived as more strong and reliable

  • Low-saturated colors (washed out) or high-value colors (which include more white) are perceived as more delicate and refined. Low-value colors (containing more black) don’t make a difference

  • People looking for a durable, strong, or well-built product were 3.32 times more likely to want to buy a condom when it was advertised in high-saturation red

  • In contrast, people looking for classy, attractive, or refined products were 2.63 times more likely to want to buy an item with low saturation, purple shades, and a high-value (pastel) design

🧠 Why it works

• Looking at colors triggers different emotions in our minds:

  • Red grabs attention and triggers excitement.

  • We associate the color brown with soil and it triggers perceptions of earthiness, nature, and seriousness.

  • We associate blue with intelligence, trust, and efficiency.

  • Black triggers associations with glamor and status (e.g. black tie events).

  • Because pink is considered a softer, more feminine color, it triggers associations with sophistication, while purple is perceived as more dignified and stately, due to past associations with royalty. 

• We feel more excitement when viewing colors that are more saturated, while pastel colors have the opposite effect.

✋ Limitations

• The research looked at colors in experimental settings. Real-life packaging and logos use colors alongside various fonts, shapes, and other design elements which would likely also influence various perceptions of the logo.

• The study doesn’t account for the interaction between various colors when placed alongside one another, like the association of red, white, and blue with the United States, often used by brands to come across as patriotic.

• The research did not look at the role a product category might have on color perceptions - while red may evoke excitement or energy for categories like food and drinks, for categories like safety equipment it may trigger a stronger association with danger or caution.

• Its likely emotional triggers for various colors are heavily dependent on cultural settings - while purple’s historic links to royalty may lead to it being perceived as stately or dignified in some cultures, in others, such as the Netherlands where the national color of royalty is orange, it may trigger different perceptions.

🏢 Companies using this

• Coca-Cola’s bright red color triggers associations with excitement, high energy, and happiness. 

• Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Sanofi Aventis, and Merck all predominantly use blue, likely hoping to trigger perceptions of competence and intelligence. 

• Couture and premium brands from Chanel to Dolce & Gabbana use black logos to evoke glamor and prestige.

• Victoria’s Secret uses a pastel shade of pink to appear sophisticated and feminine.

Financial services giant Citi Group uses shades of blue for its branding, evoking perceptions of intelligence and competence.

⚡ Steps to implement

• Think about the personality you want your brand to portray to potential customers, and adopt your color scheme accordingly:

  • Use red to appear exciting

  • Use blue to seem more intelligent and competent

  • Use brown to feel more durable or outdoorsy

  • Use black to seem more glamorous

  • Use pink to seem sophisticated or purple to seem more dignified and elegant

• Within each color, increase the saturation of your shading to seem more exciting and rugged, or use pastel shades to appear more delicate.

• Other research indicates that warmer colors generally work better for B2C businesses, while cooler colors work better for B2B.

• Follow this color scheme in your logo, on your packaging, and in your branding and marketing materials.

• Apart from your brand’s color scheme, the typeface and design elements you use also play a key role in positioning your brand.

• Test your logo in different colors with focus groups to make sure your potential customers are seeing the personality you are trying to portray. 

🔍 Study type

Lab and online experiments

📖 Research

Exciting red and competent blue: the importance of color in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Jan 2011)

🏫 Researchers

• Lauren I. Labrecque, University of Rhode Island

• George Milne, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Remember: This is a scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.