Colors play an important role in web design because colors trigger feelings, touch the senses, and stay in memory. Therefore, the color combination has always been important for famous brands as brand colors are cited as the main reason behind buying impulse. Experts also believe that many popular companies owe their success to the color scheme. Accordingly, new theories on color emphasize that buying decision of a customer is not only based on the budget, but also on the color. In order to understand why your business color scheme should match your web content and products, it makes sense to understand the psychology of colors.
Psychology of Colors
Basically, every color fulfills a specific function. It can also be said that different colors have a different effect on mood. Perhaps, the simplest example is the variation between white and black color. Mostly, if you were to select the background of a webpage, it would be white instead of the black color. This is mainly because it is easier to integrate web elements and colorful fonts on a white background compared to a black backdrop. It means that using a black background on a website can impact the buying decision of the shopper resulting in a drastic impact on the sales of products.
However, expert web designers also understand that color perception is subjective, therefore not every individual relates to a specific color in the same way. Getting back to the example of white and black colors, many companies prefer black color to distinguish themselves from the crowd. For instance, Nike, Montblanc, and Puma are instantly recognized due to their black business logo and black color scheme used in their product. A more simple illustration of the differences in perception is the black color associated with luxurious cars. Most luxury cars and limousines are instinctively painted black because the black background suits this niche. As a result, it will not be an oversimplification to suggest that the use of color depends on the place and product where it is used. In our example, white color is often best to use as a background when designing a website because it seems better than the black color. On the other hand, the black background looks much better on big and luxurious cars compared to white color. For your color scheme, you should pick colors that must look good on both the web page and your products.
Which color scheme should you select for the website and products?
A consistent color theme makes it easier for customers to recognize a brand. As such, different well-known companies have utilized a specific color enabling their customers to relate to the brand. For instance, detergents are said to purify, therefore detergent companies often use white colors extensively in their web content and products because white is associated with purity. Similarly, insurance companies use blue color because it gives confidence. Besides, using specific colors for your brand, colors are also used for promoting products at the right time. For instance, red color is associated with love; therefore almost every company resorts to red color when advertising offers on Valentine’s Day.
While it is important to use a consistent color scheme for your brand, sometimes it is necessary to deviate slightly from the overall pattern depending on the audience and the time. Little changes in color schemes are important because the perfect color combination depends on many factors that include the right time, the right audience, and the right purpose. For example, it will be a gross negligence if black color is used for a children website when we all know that children love colorful patterns. Accordingly, creators of children products can use a variety of color schemes for their products. The same is true for painting contractors websites as a variety of colors can be used on their websites and products.
Likewise, L’Oreal is a well-known brand, which has created its website based on the black and purple color scheme. The overall theme of L’Oreal products is black, but the purple color was introduced because it attracts women. Lately, you can also see the purple over black theme on L’Oreal products. In fact, it would be a bad idea to use purple over black for any product related to men because men do not like purple, orange and brown colors. In designing their color scheme, L’Oreal realized that ladies prefer purple, blue, and green colors.
Depending on the time, variations in the color schemes are often necessary. For instance, L’Oreal may not prefer advertising their products with black theme on a Valentine’s Day. Instead, it is more likely that the company may select a variation of red and black color because red is for Valentine’s Day and black is the main color theme of L’Oreal. In fact, L’Oreal has extensively used red over black color theme for its Valentine’s Day offer.
So, why your color scheme should match the web content and products? It is because you want your customers to relate to your products and content in a uniform and consistent manner. Since color plays an important role in how consumers view your brand, it is a bad idea to use a variety of colors for promoting your products. As described, colors invoke different feelings; therefore you don’t want the customer to think differently when they are visiting your website, and when they are shopping for the product in a store. Brand recognition and persistent feelings are perhaps the most significant reasons why brands such as Coca-Cola, Apple, and Google do not deviate from their color schemes.
Color Branding
According to Harvard Business Review, the convergence of brand and design are important for companies because it helps their customer recognize them, everywhere. Recent studies suggest that 93% of purchasing judgments are made on visual perception. For you, it means that you can’t afford to misuse color schemes or experiment with your colors because your loyal customer will likely prefer to find the same color scheme on all of your products.
Matching color scheme makes sense to keep your loyal customers interested in your website content and your product. On the other hand, mismatching colors are likely to confuse loyal customers who visit your website on a regular basis. It also means that you do not have to waste your time attracting a customer that is not attracted to the website due to the negative perception of a color. Instead, you should focus on your loyal customers, who have a positive perception of the color scheme so that they can remember and relate to the color scheme of your brand.
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