Countless hours of research indicate that color does matter. Notice how fast food restaurants, schools, and professional sports teams choose certain colors to “represent” them. You already know that colors can suggest a state of mind or an attitude, but did you also know that color represents 60 percent of the acceptance or rejection of an object or a person? These impressions do not change overnight. We all have automatic color triggers and hidden associations over various colors. Color impacts our thinking, our actions, and our reactions. Armed with this knowledge, we must consider color association in our persuasion and marketing efforts.

Color is a great persuasion resource. Since we do not perceive what is happening, we do not develop a resistance to persuasive color techniques. This process occurs on a completely subconscious level. Color is essential in marketing, advertising and product packaging. Colors aren’t just for looks, they have meaning. Favorite food colors are red, yellow, orange, and brown. These colors trigger automatic responses in our nervous system and stimulate our appetite. Fast food restaurants are decorated in shades of red, yellow and orange. These shades are known as “excitement colors” because they stimulate your appetite and encourage you to eat faster. Compare these bright colors to the calming colors found in fancy restaurants. These restaurants tend to use greens and blues in their design schemes, colors that encourage you to stay and stay.

Colors can also be used to get our attention. The shades that catch our attention are reds and oranges. The challenge is that each color has multiple meanings; one person can draw a meaning while another person can come to the conclusion of a completely different meaning. Red can be exciting for one group and mean “unprofitable” for another. For others, it could be a “stop” or “danger” sign. Red can denote fearlessness, aggressiveness, and outgoing, but it also represents anger, danger, sin, and blood. Yellow is known as a fast color and is the first color to register in the brain. Yellow makes you alert and attentive. The results of this investigation explain why the new fire trucks and hydrants are being painted yellow.

An interesting study on the use of color was carried out at the US Naval Correctional Center in Seattle, Washington. The entire holding cell was painted pink, except for the floor. Many inmates at this stage of confinement were hostile and violent. The cell was painted pink to see if the color would have a calming effect on the prisoners. Each person was held for only ten to fifteen minutes a day in these pink cells. After 156 days of constant use, there were no incidents of erratic behavior in the inmates.

What about the color of the pills you take? Research has shown that the color of the medicine can change the perception or association of the pill. When scientists studied the drugs people took and the associations that formed between them based on their colors, they found that most people felt that the white pills were weak while the black ones were strong. In another study, researchers administered blue and pink placebos to medical students, who were told that the pills were either stimulants or sedatives. The students who took the pink pills felt more energy while the students who took the blue pills felt drowsy.

The color even enhances the perceived taste and convenience of the foods we eat. For example, orange juice with an enhanced orange hue was preferred to natural-colored orange juice and was thought to be sweeter. This also applies to strawberries, raspberries, and tomatoes. The redder they looked, the more preferred they were.

In one experiment, the taste of coffee was manipulated by the color of the serving container. Two hundred people were asked to judge the coffee served in four different containers: red, blue, brown, and yellow. All packages contained the same brand of coffee, but the coffee in the yellow package turned out to be “too weak.” The blue container coffee was rated “too mild”. Seventy-five percent of respondents found the coffee in the brown container to be “too strong,” while 85 percent found the coffee in the red container to be “rich and full-bodied.” A similar experiment was also done with women and face creams. Subjects received pink and white face creams, which were identical except for their color. One hundred percent of the women surveyed said that pink cream was more effective and gentler on sensitive skin.

In another experiment, researchers gave subjects laundry detergent to test quality. Of course, all the boxes contained the exact same detergent, but the outside of the boxes were different colors. The test colors were yellow, blue, and a combination of both. After a two week trial period, the test groups reported that the soap in the yellow boxes was “too strong” and the detergent in the blue boxes was “too weak”. The detergent in the combination of yellow and blue boxes was “perfect”. The findings indicated that yellow represented strength while blue represented antiseptic power.

Common color associations:

Red: strength, power, anger, danger, aggression, emotion.

Blue: freshness, truth, loyalty, harmony, devotion, serenity, relaxation.

Yellow: brightness, intelligence, hostility, wisdom, joy, loudness,

Green: peace, tranquility, youth, prosperity, money, endurance, growth, hope.

Orange: brightness, discomfort, sun, heat, courage, vigor, radiation, communication.

Purple – royalty, passion, authority, majesty, integrity, mystique, dignity.

White: simplicity, purity, coldness, cleanliness, innocence, hygiene.

Black: despair, evil, futility, mystery, death, evil

Gray: neutrality, nothing, indecision, depression, dullness, technology, impersonality

Application questions

What colors do you need to use in your presentation, product, or packaging that will invoke the desired response?

What color combinations are you using that keep your prospect from feeling comfortable?

What research have you done with our color combinations? Why do you think color matters?

Everybody persuades for a living. There’s no way to avoid it. Whether you are a sales professional, an entrepreneur, or even a stay-at-home parent, if you can’t convince others of your way of thinking, you will constantly be left behind. Get your free reports at Success Advantage to make sure you don’t watch others go through your path to success. Donald Trump said it best: “Study the art of persuasion. Practice it. Develop an understanding of its deep value in all aspects of life.”

Conclution

Persuasion is the missing piece of the puzzle that will crack the code to dramatically increase your income, improve your relationships, and help you get what you want, when you want it, and win friends for life. Ask yourself how much money and income you have lost due to your inability to persuade and influence. Think about it. Sure you’ve seen some success, but think about the times you couldn’t. Has there ever been a time when you didn’t understand their point of view? Couldn’t you convince someone to do something? Have you reached your full potential? Are you able to motivate yourself and others to achieve more and achieve your goals? And your relationships? Imagine being able to overcome objections before they happen, knowing what your potential customer thinks and feels, feeling more confident in your ability to persuade.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; Instead of convincing others, it teaches that you must attract them, just as a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical in the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2-3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available!