According to a recent survey carried out on behalf of Duluxe
Paint across 30 different countries, the most popular color on the
planet for both men and women is BLUE followed by RED and GREEN.
Hardly surprising really since our planet has blue skies and water which reflects the sky color a lot of the time.
Green is probably the most abundant color what with all the fauna - trees, their leaves, grasses, plants and vegetables although according to the survey 23% of people aged over fifty prefer green to only 14% of those under 50. Maybe they have more time to take up gardening.
Scientifically though green is also the easiest color for our eyes to process - it's associated with relaxation and wealth. (I suppose you can pretty much relax if you're wealthy).
It is also a great "CALL TO ACTION" color. Used very successfully on many sites as the SUBMIT button and you can bet this has been tested to the extreme.
The actual results for the survey place the following colors in order of most popular to least.
This is almost invisible against a white background - the most common color background for writing on. You can understand why it's not a good idea to use it as a text color - it's just too hard to read unless of course it is the background color itself. More on this later.
Interestingly personal color preference is very similar across the globe but varies slightly between cultures. For instance in the USA and Canada various shades of Beige and Grey are most popular for painting their houses while in India and China Yellow, Pink and Light Blue are most common. Considering the latters' taste for gold and bright colors this is not surprising really.
So how does a color theme help or hinder your website or offline business? Well it all depends who your market is. You notice I didn't say "what" your market is. This is because we all sell to people and if colour is as important as we now know it is then we have to consider how we present our business to these people using colours in the best way we can.
Indeed according to research shoppers place color above sound, smell and texture when it comes to buying a product.
The best example of this is Facebook whose color theme is blue (the most popular color remember?) Apparently the color blue is used to cultivate trust and also represents peace ( feelings of calmness), order and loyalty. Is it any wonder FB is the most popular social site in the world!
However if you run a diet business on the internet you must never use blue. It is common for dieters to use blue plates which apparently stops them from eating large meals. Evolutionary theory suggests that blue = poison in the food world! Thinking about it there aren't many blue foods out there - blueberries and maybe plums are perhaps the exceptions.
There are Sloe berries but they are extremely bitter unless steeped in gin for a few weeks - I made some sloe gin 40 years ago and although I think gin is probably the most disgusting spirit out there sloe gin is something else!
RED indicates strength, wealth, dependability and leadership. So if you sell courses on personal development including leadership, assertiveness and perhaps wealth generation then red may be a good color to incorporate into your site.
If your main market is aimed at MEN then the colors preferred by them are BLUE, GREEN and BLACK. (More on Black in a minute - it's important).
Men apparently don't like the colors PURPLE, ORANGE or BROWN.
If your market is aimed at WOMEN then the preferred colors are BLUE, PURPLE and GREEN. They do not like ORANGE, GREY or BROWN.
BLACK - this portrays luxury - think Lambourghini. Their website is almost all black with white lettering. The car is black as are other cars in adverts for Jaguar, Audi and Ferrari. Admittedly the latter is famous for it's red cars but there are many black Ferraris available and if they do advertize a red car it's often on a black background.In a recent online advert for Mazda the car is red and takes up a fairly small portion of the photo - the rest apart from the limited wording and a few, very fine white/electric blue design lines - is black.
If your market is at the luxury end then Black has to be used in a major way.
ORANGE surprisingly is successfully used as an "ADD TO CART " button - think Amazon! but use it sparingly.
YELLOW can effectively be used as a background colour in small doses. I know one site that uses it when giving a biography of the author of a post. It makes the author stand out especially if accompanied by a photo of them.
Finally we come to WHITE. This is the color used most of all as it is the easiest colour on which to read text. Unless you use yellow text of course. Too many colours will cause confusion - a white background creates a sense of space and freedom so use it.
During my research for this post I came across a wonderful site called Kissmetrics. If you want to get serious about choosing color on your website then this is the place to find out more about the psychology of color.
Hardly surprising really since our planet has blue skies and water which reflects the sky color a lot of the time.
Green is probably the most abundant color what with all the fauna - trees, their leaves, grasses, plants and vegetables although according to the survey 23% of people aged over fifty prefer green to only 14% of those under 50. Maybe they have more time to take up gardening.
Scientifically though green is also the easiest color for our eyes to process - it's associated with relaxation and wealth. (I suppose you can pretty much relax if you're wealthy).
It is also a great "CALL TO ACTION" color. Used very successfully on many sites as the SUBMIT button and you can bet this has been tested to the extreme.
The actual results for the survey place the following colors in order of most popular to least.
- BLUE
- RED
- GREEN
- ORANGE
- BROWN
- PURPLE
- YELLOW
This is almost invisible against a white background - the most common color background for writing on. You can understand why it's not a good idea to use it as a text color - it's just too hard to read unless of course it is the background color itself. More on this later.
Interestingly personal color preference is very similar across the globe but varies slightly between cultures. For instance in the USA and Canada various shades of Beige and Grey are most popular for painting their houses while in India and China Yellow, Pink and Light Blue are most common. Considering the latters' taste for gold and bright colors this is not surprising really.
So how does a color theme help or hinder your website or offline business? Well it all depends who your market is. You notice I didn't say "what" your market is. This is because we all sell to people and if colour is as important as we now know it is then we have to consider how we present our business to these people using colours in the best way we can.
Indeed according to research shoppers place color above sound, smell and texture when it comes to buying a product.
The best example of this is Facebook whose color theme is blue (the most popular color remember?) Apparently the color blue is used to cultivate trust and also represents peace ( feelings of calmness), order and loyalty. Is it any wonder FB is the most popular social site in the world!
However if you run a diet business on the internet you must never use blue. It is common for dieters to use blue plates which apparently stops them from eating large meals. Evolutionary theory suggests that blue = poison in the food world! Thinking about it there aren't many blue foods out there - blueberries and maybe plums are perhaps the exceptions.
There are Sloe berries but they are extremely bitter unless steeped in gin for a few weeks - I made some sloe gin 40 years ago and although I think gin is probably the most disgusting spirit out there sloe gin is something else!
RED indicates strength, wealth, dependability and leadership. So if you sell courses on personal development including leadership, assertiveness and perhaps wealth generation then red may be a good color to incorporate into your site.
If your main market is aimed at MEN then the colors preferred by them are BLUE, GREEN and BLACK. (More on Black in a minute - it's important).
Men apparently don't like the colors PURPLE, ORANGE or BROWN.
If your market is aimed at WOMEN then the preferred colors are BLUE, PURPLE and GREEN. They do not like ORANGE, GREY or BROWN.
BLACK - this portrays luxury - think Lambourghini. Their website is almost all black with white lettering. The car is black as are other cars in adverts for Jaguar, Audi and Ferrari. Admittedly the latter is famous for it's red cars but there are many black Ferraris available and if they do advertize a red car it's often on a black background.In a recent online advert for Mazda the car is red and takes up a fairly small portion of the photo - the rest apart from the limited wording and a few, very fine white/electric blue design lines - is black.
If your market is at the luxury end then Black has to be used in a major way.
ORANGE surprisingly is successfully used as an "ADD TO CART " button - think Amazon! but use it sparingly.
YELLOW can effectively be used as a background colour in small doses. I know one site that uses it when giving a biography of the author of a post. It makes the author stand out especially if accompanied by a photo of them.
Finally we come to WHITE. This is the color used most of all as it is the easiest colour on which to read text. Unless you use yellow text of course. Too many colours will cause confusion - a white background creates a sense of space and freedom so use it.
During my research for this post I came across a wonderful site called Kissmetrics. If you want to get serious about choosing color on your website then this is the place to find out more about the psychology of color.
Your website is critical to your success and hopefully this
article has made you think a bit about the more scientific side of it
regarding the colour theme.
If you haven't got an internet business yet but would like one and want more information about how to go about it visit http://www.digitalwealth4you.com where you'll find an abundance of ideas and resources.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jim_Crossman/2027827
If you haven't got an internet business yet but would like one and want more information about how to go about it visit http://www.digitalwealth4you.com where you'll find an abundance of ideas and resources.
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