The Power of Color on Product Sales

     I was just in Texas for the last few days and when I was waiting on my flight, I was watching a Ted Talk on colors and the way people see them.  I wanted to share my experience with them and an important aspect of advertising with you, the power of color. I used color psychology when I would sell my products in my retail locations and wanted to share some tricks that really helped me. I didn’t stumble onto the answers overnight. It took careful observation and serious trial and error. In my experience, I found that when using signage, red draws the persons eyes the quickest. Kids and adults alike are drawn to a red display rack or a red sign or object hanging at eye level. I would have my red displays turning from mounting a small actuating motor and hanging it by fishing line. This worked great with the kids and they would stand under it and look up at it. The mother would retrieve them and then take notice of my sale or my product that I would be selling under it or right there on the top of a display and always pick it up. This worked time and time again. I found out many years later while on a trip to Disney that this was one of their tricks as well. I didn’t know it at the time, but felt a little relieved when I saw it working at that high of a level. The ceilings in grocery stores are generally too tall for this type of display to be installed.

      Always avoid the color blue when associating it with food. They say if you want to lose weight, eat off of a blue plate. The only natural food that is blue is a blue berry. Most everything else is void of blue. When you put your food around the color blue it just doesn’t look natural and your instincts will say to stay away. Remember this as it can become quite costly if you try to package your product in blue. Lets talk about my favorite colors black and yellow.
     These colors are extremely interesting. Black and yellow are colors of caution and require you to yield. Think of animals that are black and yellow. Every type of stinging bee you can think of, from honeybees to yellow jackets, bumblebees, and many types of poisonous snakes. Your body is programed to use caution around these colors and if you set up a display that has these colors you will experience your customers moving past it at a slower pace. This is ingrained in us as human beings so try not to think it’s your brilliant packaging doing this. Now that you know this trick, you can use it to your advantage. I would use this color combination close to my exits so that I could slow down my customers from leaving the stores and maybe pick something out on the display as a last second impulse buy. Black and yellow is still the most powerful colors as an attention grabber that is used on products today. Think about how many companies use this color combination today.

      Lets talk briefly about lighting. The color of the lights that you use can greatly effect how your product sells. Most stores use a yellow type bulb and some stores use a more bluish tone. Both work well and the yellow is a warmer home type feeling and the blue is a much brighter cleaner feeling. These different types of lights can have a great impact on how you sell your product. Most companies never think much about this but it has a very important role. I would like to talk about elevation and lighting in a completely different blog post so that I can better explain this phenomenon. I found that if you play with lighting and elevation, you can seriously increase your sales.
     How can we tie all of this together? That is a great question. Are you thinking about selling your products in Whole Foods Markets or Kroger, because these stores use a warm yellow type lighting while Wal-Mart’s and Stop n Shops use a much bluer type light for efficiency. This will come in handy when also deciding where to try and place your product on the shelves. In Most stores the bottom and top of the shelves are open while the middle of the shelf is taken. This part is reserved for the much better selling products that can afford to move tons of product through that store and pay the high rates to be at eye level. If you have not thought about where to place your item on the shelf, you are at a serious disadvantage. Remember, if you have any questions be sure to add them in the comments or send them directly to me.
     If you would like me to fly out to your business to assist you with your product, just get in touch with me either by LinkedIn or just send me a message from one of the links down below. I look forward to speaking with you soon. Take care.