Chocolate bars and other supermarket products might sell better from green-coloured point-of-sale stands, Cathrine Jansson will tell delegates at a meeting of the SCI (Society of Chemical Industry) on 3 March. She will be previewing results of new research on the effect of colour on consumers’ behaviour which suggests that we spot green items faster than any other colour tested.
New research
Research into effective design and packaging usually focuses on brand awareness. Jansson’s work is unique in that it looks consumers’ subconscious responses to colour in a busy retail environment like a supermarket or shopping mall. In her study, volunteers were asked to find a coloured target hidden in a range of ‘distractors’. Targets were in ‘basic’ colours blue, red or green, and ‘non-basic’ colours turquoise, beige and peach. The colours significantly affected the speed and accuracy with which the volunteers identified each target.
Key Results
Familiar colours
Consumers make between half and two-thirds of all their purchase decisions when they are about to pay at the checkout. In another part of the study, volunteers looked at two Point of Purchase stands similar to those usually found near supermarket tills. Researchers recorded their reaction to Twixes and KitKats in turquoise, green, or red stands. In the Twix experiment, Twixes in the green stands got attention fastest, but in the KitKat experiment the familiarity of red KitKats meant the red stand got the best response.
Familiarity with a brand is still the most important factor in getting a customer to notice a particular product, admits Jansson. “These results suggest that if you have invested in your brand, don’t change it, but if you are designing an entirely new product, the colour green could give you an important advantage”. She also points out that so far, only six colours have been tested: “Future studies may pinpoint colours that are even more effective as a marketing tool”.
Rosamund Snow | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.soci.org
More articles from Social Sciences:
New leadership tool promotes health in organisations
08.03.2010 | Schwedischer Forschungsrat - The Swedish Research Council
Making the case for the social sciences
10.02.2010 | Economic & Social Research Council
TU Delft improves production of chemicals from wood waste
11.03.2010 | Life Sciences
Plant hormone increases cotton yields in drought conditions
11.03.2010 | Agricultural and Forestry Science
More Power, Longer Life, Increased Safety
11.03.2010 | Life Sciences
Facing the Multicore-Challenge
10.03.2010 | Event News
Cracks in the Concrete Jungle: New Perspectives on Urban Ecology
09.03.2010 | Event News
Berlin Conference 2010: Call for Paper
01.03.2010 | Event News