FREE ESSAY ON PERCEPTION IN ADVERTISING

PERCEPTION IN ADVERTISING

The Effects of Color in Advertising
Perception
Summer 2000
? After working in the sales market for three years you begin to recognize certain things
about your customers. You realize that your mood can affect their buying habits and how
the attitudes can affect how you approach a prospective sale. If a person comes in
showing that they have no idea about your market, you have to take the time to basically
introduce them to your product. You tell them the advantages and disadvantages that your
product offers. If they come in having knowledge of your product, you ask them to tell
you what they already know and then correct them if there is anything they have been
misinformed about. You have to make sure that what you offer for information is something
they need and then move on with the sale.
Over the past few months somthing new has presented itself that at first seemed rather
surprising. When our company got bought out we were given new red shirts as part of our
uniform. Our old company had provided white shirts. No big deal? Our company has told us
that we can wear whatever we want to work as long as it is presentable. What I have
noticed is the days I wear my red shirt to work, sales seem easier to make! As I have not
had the time to run a personal experiment to see if shirt color (which would be my
independent variable), affects the number of sales in a given day (the dependent
variable), I decided that I would look to see if color in fact can affect a persons
motive to buy.
Eric Johnson, who is the "head of Research Studies for the Chicago-based Institute of
Color Research" says that their research "explains that when eyes see red, the pituitary
gland sends out signals that make the heart beat faster, the blood pressure increase, and
the muscles tense--all physiologic changes that can lead to the consummation of a
purchase (Tufts). Davis Masten of Cheskin + Masten/Image Net sat that packaging of
products is done to reflect what consumers want to be, not what they really are. That is
why you see elegant looking people on the front of coffee jars and not "frumpy looking
Americans in bathrobes on the label (Smithsonian)
Color has shown to be a very useful tool when it comes to advertising products.
Meyers-Levy + Peracchio (1995) used two experiments to determine the impact of presenting
full-color, black and white, and color highlighted ad photos. They hypothesized that
"when available resources better approximate those required for extensive ad scrutiny,
full color ads or ads that color highlight ad photo ad photos are more persuasive than
either black and white ads or ads that color highlight aspects of lower relevance to ad
claims (Meyers-Levy + Peracchio 1). They showed that in certain situations that specific
layouts of the advertisement would be more helpful. For example in an advertisement that
has a lot of information to be processed, that the best type of advertisement would be in
black and white. The reason for this is so the colors don't interfere with the
information that needs to be processed. "Color ads are likely to undermine even highly
motivated consumers' product attitudes by limiting ad claim processing and substantiation
(Bohle +Garcia1986; Brandt 1925; Dooley + Harkins 1970).
Some studies have shown that the impact that color plays in an advertisement depends on
two key factors. These factors include the total number of colors used in the
advertisement and the extent to which the ad is mentally demanding (Durrett and Stimmell
1982)
Meyers-Levy and Peracchio (1995) used two experiments to determine the effect of color on
ad processing and attitudes towards products. In their first experiment they focused on
how differing demands affected processing of full color and black and white ads. They
used an ad for a bicycle that was laid out in four different formats. The first was black
and white with all pertinent information grouped together and placed in a bulleted list.
In the second format the ad was in color and had all information placed in a bulleted
list. In the first and second format the bulleted lists had arrows pointing towards the
respective parts that they mention. These were considered the "more resource demanding ad
versions" In the third layout the important information was laid out over the whole page.
This time the bullets were by themselves with an arrow pointing to the area of the bike
that they were relevant to. This format was presented either in full color or black and
white. These were considered less resource demanding that the first two. They
hypothesized that ads with the one bulleted list would be more easily processed in the
black and white format. They felt that this would result in better attitude about the
product as well. Their other hypothesis was that when ads were presented in an easy to
read format that opinions on products would be better in full color. 
Forty-six students took part in this experiment and on a scale of 1-7 rated their
motivation to be in the experiment. ([Bar X] = 5.09). The students were asked to look at
the ads and later asked to recall the information in the bullets. On the tests where less
cognitive energy was spent the average number of items recalled was 5.48 items out of 8.
On ads where cognitive processing was more difficult, recall dropped to 4.26 items. "A
main effect showed (F (1,42) = 4.75, p*. 04)." Thus showing significant results in their
claim that black and white ads are more easily processed when cognitive tasks are more
difficult. Looking at the "attitude towards the advertised bicycle revealed an
interaction of ad color and resource demand (F (1,42)=12.67,p*. 001)"(Meyers-Levy and
Peracchio).
This interaction showed that when information was in black and white and grouped together
that the attitude towards the product was more favorable (F (1,42)=4.8, p*. 03). This
also showed that when the advertisement was in color, it was better to have the bulleted
information broken up, instead of in one list (F (1,42)=8.06,p*. 01)(Meyers-Levy +
Peracchio). All in all this experiment showed varying affects of color in advertising.
When the ad used a large amount of resources the ads were more favorable in black and
white, but when they were not as taxing on resources, color advertisements were better.
In Meyers-Levy +Peracchios (1995) second experiment, a few things were altered to further
in depth look at how color can influence a consumer. In this experiment a type of ad was
used to help determine what role color plays. The third type of ad was color highlighted
and was a clothing ad instead of the bicycle. Only specific parts, which the bullets
made, reference to were given color while the remainder of the image stayed in black and
white. A second change was also implemented. This time the bulleted information was
changed. It was either left the way it was on the first list, as is stating factual
things about the bicycle that could be detected by looking at it, or it was changed so
that the bulleted information was more image oriented, stating things like what people
would think about you when they saw you on it. Meyers-Levy + Peracchio (1995) felt that
when someone pays close attention to the ad and its claims, ads in black and white or ads
that are color highlighted with factual information would be favored, and in ads where
looks was the major concern of a consumer that ads with full color or ads highlighted
with image related information would be more favored. In those that preferred the color
advertisements consumers perceived only surface cues how well did the picture itself
look, how nice did the product look and how nice looking were the people in the
advertisement.
Forty-two subjects participated in this experiment. The clothing ads were "assessed by
having subjects rate on a seven-point scales the extent to which the ad claims stimulated
their imagination, brought memories to mind, related to the things they knew about or
could imagine, or made them think about other products or their own
experience"(Meyers-Levy + Peracchio 13). What they found was that ads based on image
consumed more resources (X=5.42) than ads based on function (X=3.24). From the results a
three-way interaction of processing motivation by type of ad claim by ad color for the
bicycle and the clothing ads. In the ad for the bicycle and the ad for the clothing, when
it was highly resource demanding, ads in black and white or color highlighted were still
favored. In ads where there wasn't as many resources used ads in full color were favored.
They also showed that when the amount of resources that were used was low, the subjects
had more positive thoughts about the product than when the resource level was high. This
showed that motivation was influenced not only by ad claim but also ad color.
Other people have also looked ad the affect of color in advertising. In the above
mentioned experiments the primary focus was on the motivation of the consumer. By this,
the overall wants and this looked at desires of the consumer. Other researchers have
looked to see if there are color preferences specific to males and females. They have
also looked to see if the are color preferences based on ethnic background. Barnes and
Lee (1990) used a variety of magazines to look at the color preferences of males and
females as well as white people and black people. "Sandage, Fryburger, and, Rotzoll
(1979) suggest that color may serve such functions as attracting attention, assisting in
interpretation of product attitudes, giving life to otherwise bleak looking
advertisement, and emphasizing or highlighting a distinctive trademark or symbol." Color
advertisements have been shown to attract 50% more readers than a black and white ad.
(Auchincloss, 1978). What Barnes and Lee used for resources were Jet magazine (for the
black magazine), People magazine (for the white people), Woman's Day
(for the female population), and Playboy (for the men's selection). Four issues of each
magazine were chosen for the study. All ads from the magazine were used for processing of
color information. The two dominant colors in each ad were recorded to weigh out color
preferences. This study shows that differences in "colors are significant and at most,
the result could be obtained from sampling error 4 times out of a 100"(Barnes and Lee
1990). 
They have also shown that People magazine is three times as likely to use green black and
purple than is Jet. This is contradictory to earlier research (Pettersson 1982) that show
that purple should be more widely used in Jet. Barnes and Lee have also shown that the
color of the ad doesn't influence male and female consumers as much as the color of the
product itself. They also found that the product line advertised in these magazines is
quite varied. With specific colors affecting males and females differently, and also
affecting white people and black people differently, Barnes and Lee suggest that
advertisers aren't paying enough attention to color cues and could ultimately benefit
from working specific color schemes into specific magazine types. They feel that more
research needs to be done regarding color preferences according to culture and sex. "It
has been claimed that color and emotion are systematically related (Levy 1984) and color
has a certain psychological effect upon human beings (Bustanoby, 1947)"(Barnes and Lee).
People are different and so are their color preferences, and if companies want to get
their message to differing groups, than one ad run in many periodicals won't cut it. They
need to be specified to preferences if they hope to expand their marketing potential.
As I stated earlier, the influence of color on customers seems very apparent, if the
color they see does not evoke certain feelings, then the sale of the product lies
directly on the salespersons shoulders. A good sales person will be able to still sell
the item, but a little help from other things will always be welcome. As has been shown,
the motivation of the consumer to either base their decision on product quality or
overall look of the product is apparent. Also gender differences and ethnic differences
in color preference also play a large role in determining who buys what!
Bibliography
References
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Industry 50, 11 46-48.
Barnes, JR, J.H. and Lee, S. (1990), "Using Color Preferences In Magazine Advertising,"
Journal of Advertising Research, 29(January), 25-30.
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meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Conference
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Brandt, E.R. (1925), "The Memory Value of Advertisements," Archives of Psychology 8,
No.79
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