When does Colour Psychology become Marketing BS?

Spent some time recently looking at Colour Psychology after talking to some marketing professionals.

For those who haven’t come across it the principle is that certain colours prompt certain reactions. You’ll have come across many in everyday life. For instance

• Yellow –warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness
• Red –excitement, strength, sex, passion, speed, danger.
• Blue –(listed as the most popular color) trust, reliability, belonging, coolness.
• Orange — playfulness, warmth, vibrant
• Green — nature, fresh, cool, growth, abundance
• Pink — soft, sweet, nurture, security
• Purple –royal, spirituality, dignity
• White –pure, virginal, clean, youthful, mild.
• Black –sophistication, elegant, seductive, mystery
• Gold — prestige, expensive
• Silver — prestige, cold, scientific

I don’t know whether it’s cause or effect but lots of bridal wear is White. Most of the cards for Valentine’s day have Red in them. Many companies use Blue hoping that they will be seen as dependable, confident etc.

If you want to read more go here….http://www.precisionintermedia.com/use-color.html

However some try to extend into shades of particular colours : going so far as to try and suggest that light brown means something different from dark brown..

Whilst I’m prepared to agree that a good deal of the basic stuff is reasonable and can be seen in every day life – its difficult to avoid the conclusion that some of this is nearer to a crude marketing attempt to create a spurious expertise and differentiation based on pseudo science..Good psychologists will avoid describing anything as as fact that can’t be proven!

People just ain’t that stupid… you can create a visual effect and hope to suggest something – but most people will look for supporting evidence…especially before spending money.