Color Influencing What We Buy

I've mentioned before that I like to browse through about.com and see what fun and educational things they have on design. So today was my browsing day and I came across this little quiz about how color influences what we buy. I knew most of them already, but it was still really great to study up on things again and I enjoyed reading the answers. Here's the quiz and answers below.

• Question #1: In food-package design, what is the most popular color for manufacturers to use?

  Answer: Red
  Experts say that the color red makes the adrenaline increase and the heart beat faster. The color is used to grab the consumer's attention. Coca-Cola has long been associated with red.

• Question #2: When manufacturers wish to make an item appear bigger, which color is most often used?

  Answer: Yellow
  Yellow is known as being one of the most visible packaging colors, which quickly grabs the customer's attention. It also has the ability to make products appear larger on the shelf.

• Question #3: What color is most widely used for bathroom products?

  Answer: White
  White is known for purity and freshness and is often used to create a "clean" feeling, thus often being used on bathroom and kitchen packaging and dairy products.

• Question #4: What color is most widely used to project luxury and premium quality?

  Answer: Black
  Consumers often relate items packaged in black as top-quality, sophisticated, and luxurious.

• Question #5: What color is most widely used for low-fat, low-calorie packaging?

  Answer: Green
  Although in the past, green was never used because it was felt that it would make consumers think of moldy food, it is now back on the scene. It is seen often in low-cal packaging and as a highlighter on product banners to bring attention to the no-fat, low-fat labeling.

• Question #6: What color is a favorite for seafood packaging?

  Answer: Blue
  Shoppers associate blue with water and sky. It is a soothing color when in the pale hues, somewhat mysterious, as is the ocean, to most of us.

• Question #7: What color do designers mostly use to project that a product is inexpensive?

  Answer: Gold
  Packaging experts decided that the color gold was associated with "cheap" in the shopper's mind. It is often used on inexpensive or imitation generic packaging. A soft gold, however, is used often on children's products because it is considered a happy, sunny color.

• Question #8: If you were a packaging expert and you were deciding the color for the low-fat version of your product, what color would you most likely chose for your package?

  Answer: White
  Green is the most likely answer, right? Well, white is the correct answer because this color is considered to be a successful "sister" color to another product. It also is associated with freshness and purity and is considered to be a "light" "free" color. Just don't be surprised if you see a green banner advertising the fat content.