Does the color orange make you hungry?

I was watching one of the weekly training videos on the Stream Marketing Facebook page and they were talking about the colors to use on your Call-To-Action Button on your website and said that orange is good for a restaurant because orange evokes hunger.

So, I've heard about the psychology of color and decided to look into it a little more in regards to marketing and found this article by Small Business Trends. I'm going to skip the first couple of sections in the article and go directly to:

How Do Colors in Marketing Influence People?

Color meaning and the psychology of colors can powerfully impact people’s behavior and decision-making. People make subconscious judgments about a person, environment, or product within a few seconds or minutes. Color plays into this initial impression.

That fact is not lost on brands and advertisers. They know certain colors, tints, hues, and shades evoke emotion and move people to action. This effect is both subtle and powerful.

Through their choice of color in logos, packaging, signage, and advertising, brands can influence consumers to buy on impulse, or choose their product or service over a competitor’s.

Think about your favorite brands and how certain colors predominate. Do their logos sport bright red like Target or Netflix? Or are you a person who likes the colors black and white like Nike? Perhaps you prefer yellow and are drawn to Best Buy or Subway.

Color can often be the sole reason someone purchases a product. Research conducted by the secretariat of the Seoul International Color Expo found that 93 percent of buyers focus on visual appearance. And close to 85 percent claim color is a primary reason when they make a purchase!

Let’s take a look at color meaning as it applies to marketing, including the best colors to use. We will also evaluate meaning of colors and examples of branding colors.

They then go on to talk about the psychology of the different colors and some major brands that use that color in their logo. I'll skip over those sections here, but be sure to go back and take a look at them.

Here's where this relates to websites and calls to action:

How to Use Colors in Business

Now that you are an expert at color psychology and color meanings, how do you go about using colors smartly in your business for marketing and advertising? In essence, color reflects the personality of your brand. Follow the steps in this brief tutorial to get started.

Decide on colors that best represent your brand image.

In color theory, red is the color of power. Pink is ideal for reaching the female demographic but usually is not ideal if you want to be gender neutral. Green is warm, inviting, and denotes health, environmental-friendliness, and goodwill. (It’s also the color of money, so it creates thoughts of wealth.) Purple is the color of royalty and adds a touch of elegance and prestige. Orange is energy. Brown is relaxing… and so on.

See what we mean? The choice of colors and emotions they elicit should be your first and most important concern. A poor color choice could impact your brand negatively, so give it plenty of thought before making a decision on brand imagery you will have to live with for a long time.

Pick two main colors

When picking color in branding, we recommend staying with two main colors (not including black or dark gray, which you might use for type). The reason? Your customers will find it easier to remember two colors than three, four, or five.

This idea is particularly important when designing your logo. Think about the color scheme of major brands. FedEx, McDonald’s and Best Buy limit their logos to two colors and built their entire color lexicon around them.

With your color selection decided, let’s look at how you implement it in various marketing and advertising channels.

Website

Obviously, you want the colors of your website to match your logo, which typically appears in the upper left-hand corner. That doesn’t mean you have to retain a strict adherence to those colors, just that they serve as the foundation.

Of course, color choice isn’t limited to your logo, but applies to the products or services you offer as well.

If you’re selling bouncy jump houses, basic color theory suggests you want vibrant colors, such as reds, greens, and yellows. If you run a professional firm, you want more subdued tones and shades — blues and grays, perhaps.

It also depends on your target audience. Women prefer blue, purple, and green, while men opt for blue, green, and black.

Call-to-action Buttons

You likely use call-to-action buttons on your website as a way to generate conversions (i.e., leads and sales), but which colors are best?

The highest-converting are bright primary and secondary colors — red, green, orange, and yellow. Reds are attention-getting. Yellow is commonly associated with warnings (think of “wet floor” signs). Green is best for environmental and outdoor products. Blue is also sometimes used as it denotes trustworthiness. The worst colors are black (gloomy and negative), white (the absence of color), and brown (dull and ugly).

Our best advice is to experiment with different colors and see which result in the highest number of conversions.

Signage

The same color theory that applies to logos and websites also works for signage. The difference is that with signs, you are competing for attention. So it may be in your best interest to use “stand out in the crowd” colors, like red and orange, at least outside. This article, “What are the Best Colors for Signs?” goes into much greater detail and offers some helpful tips.

Vehicle Wraps

Keep the following color associations in mind when thinking about vehicle wraps. In order of priority: Bright Colors > Rich and Dark Colors > Light Colors > Grayscale and Muted Colors. Use this vehicle wrap infographic as a guide.

Social Media Profile Cover Images

Another piece of advice regarding color theory in marketing and advertising involves your social media profile cover image. And it’s quite simple. Use your brand colors, as doing so reinforces your brand image.

That doesn’t mean you have to stick with the two primary colors alone. You can use tints, shades, and tones to vary the intensity but in a complementary way.

On Premises Marketing

Last but not least, color organization can be used on your premises. Examples include different colors for different departments, different color price tags to draw attention to sales, and staff wearing colored uniforms.

Although this article never really mentioned the link between orange and food, there were a couple of other articles that talk more specifically about call-to-action buttons:

From 17 Best Practices for Crazy-Effective Call-To-Action Buttons:

2. The Colors Duke, The Colors. Your button color matters. It matter a lot. In fact, if you’re going to take only one tiny single piece of advice from this post, it should be to give careful consideration to your button colors.

Generally speaking, green and orange buttons are reported to perform best. Ultimately though it will depend on your site design, as contrasting colors work best to make striking buttons that stand out. You wouldn’t want a green CTA button on a green background.

If you’re not sure what looks best, run the super sophisticated squint test and see what comes off most appealing. However, if you really want to know what color CTA button will work best on your page, testing is the only way to go!

Check out this cool color psychology infographic from Kiss Metrics when you have the chance. It’s a pretty interesting study on how different colors inspire different emotions!

The other 16 are interesting, too.

And Call To Action Colors: How to Choose the Right Color For Your CTA Buttons talks specifically about orange in your CTA buttons:

Orange

Long known as a popular color for buttons, brands tend to shy away from this exciting color lately. But orange deserves a second look: it's an aggressive color that creates a call to action. It is associated with fun, warmth, passion and security. Hmmmm – maybe we should consider using some orange buttons…

Again, no mention of food but lots of info on various colors for your buttons.

For more help with this, and marketing and branding in general, reach out to my friend Kimmer Sue at Vision Graphix.

All in all, I think using orange for restaurant call to action doesn't seem to be supported by what I could find, but there is lots of good info on using color in your branding and marketing. Be sure to reach out to Kimmer for help with your marketing and branding!

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