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The Role of Color in Marketing
Featured Author:
Igor Asselbergs
Igor Asselbergs started out as illustrator. He co-founded Tricolore, a color design consultancy in Amsterdam. Currently he is CEO of Colorjinn, a software company specialized in applications for color visualization. Igor is guest lecturer at a design college, a consultant for the paint industry, and has his own color blog, Livelygrey. http://livelygrey.com
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Igor Asselbergs
October 12, 2009
Today I came across an absolutely great color design that makes tons of money. Really?
Yes, really.
This report: internetretailer.com
says proflower.com has the highest conversion rate of all e-commerce sites, a staggering 30%. In other words: one out of three visitors actually makes a purchase.
Looking at the site I’m not surprised. The site is very, very well designed. All the relevant information is readily available and everywhere you go on the site you’re only a few clicks away from actual purchase. Very neat.
But also the colors are a very important part of the marketing mix.
Here’s an analysis:
*First of all take a good look at the homepage to see how much junk it contains: disclaimers, links, more links, terms of use, awards, mission, etc, etc. It’s incredible. Even more incredible is that all the information doesn’t clutter the homepage. How come?
*All the relevant information is highly contrasted on a white background. All the less relevant information is much less contrasted on a green background. Real simple.
*The white background ‘frames’ the relevant information. Within that frame, you see flowers first, ‘buy now’ buttons next. All the rest hits the eye only later. Why do you see the flowers first? Because they’re not white. They are the opposite of white: an explosion of expressive bright colors. Note that this wouldn’t have worked on say a red background. It’s not about the colors, it’s about how the colors relate to one another.
Continue reading on next page.
wakeyanna
3 months ago
96 comments
Great artical. I'm off to search the web.
Account Removed
6 months ago
I am designing my website now, this is timely information
Lizzie
7 months ago
10 comments
What excellent pointers. I've often noticed certain sites are so much more pleasant to navigate than others, but i've never ever dissected them as to why.
ginny8
7 months ago
1202 comments
Great article!
dragonlie
7 months ago
12 comments
I know what you mean. Right now, I'm doing a poster design for a three day company at school, and I noticed the way people react to colors. My poster is mainly green and yellow, which quickly attracts attention to the center: a lemon with glasses.
Yeah... colors are important in marketing!
netty_me
8 months ago
56 comments
After reading, I went and visited the sight.....least to say I had to hold back from buying something. I agree with Hungaristartist in saying that the photography is excellent. Whoever does their stock photography is very accomplished. But I do think that the color scheme is very nice, very organic. Nothing is too overwhelming and the colorful flowers give it just the right pop because they aren't artificial colors, they are very obviously found in nature.
Hungristartist
8 months ago
68 comments
INteresting article but I think the photograghy sells it! The design is crowded but easy to click through and well labeled, overall not a bad e-commerce site. The colors could be worse but I think they could be less too for my taste. Wonder what the age/sex of the average buyer is, cause I bet Martha Stewart would love this site.
NEVAS
8 months ago
10 comments
thanks!!!! i agree and i also learned something...with graditude...thanks again!!!
adada
8 months ago
196 comments
what hunin said did occur to me when i read the article and visited the page.
however, it IS the most successful virtual flower shop and while it may be more successful than other sites because of the area it covers, its design recommends it as the best one in its domain.
as for the article i think it's well written and i think the analysis stands as based on solid arguments.
green is in deed a color that makes the other colors around it stand out (lighter gerrn is even better as it does not stand out fr its own. it is also a sort of arhetipal symbol of nature, and it suggests environment, youth, rejuvenation, spring, fertility, etc and inducts at the same time the idea of intelligence, sincerity, good luck, ecology.
tyhe site has indeed a thought-through color scheme, as well good layout, quality of pictures, matching fonnts and special offers that pop out just on time (eg: the suggestion that purchasing a vase is costumary; the idea of buying a teddy bear, birthday card or balloon to go with the birthday flowers etc).
i also noticed that shipping on mondays costs an extra 5$ (well,m 4,99 of course:P) whilst on saturdays 10$. sundays cannot be chosen as a shipping day and they are placed on the right side of the calendar, in fade white (white background, grey font), so as not to catch the eye, mondays are yellow (suggestion of intelligence, feeling of optimism), and saturdays brown (induces a feeling of comfort, calm, richness)
klockarsdesign
8 months ago
3152 comments
Roll the color, thickly, over the market as it deserves. "What we have here is a failure to communicate" with any real sense of people - just pressure of necessity to do something in a nearly meaningless world. They fix the price. Support "marketing" without a genuine purpose at your peril and ours.
CMYKay
8 months ago
8 comments
great article. definitely my kind of banter.
hunin
8 months ago
2 comments
Did it occur to anyone that the reason proflowers.com has such high conversions is that people going to the Web site are only going for the express purpose of buying flowers? It's not a place most people shop. I assert that most people are going because they need to send flowers. Most flower purchases are determined before anyone sets foot (or browser) in the shop. Color design may give them a market advantage over other flower retailers (and I'm not sure I believe that, either), but it almost certainly doesn't account for a flower retailer being on top of conversions.
artwizard622
8 months ago
834 comments
Thanks for your input. However I disagree with you - I found the homepage a total visual attack - it confused me immediately. At first glance, I had no idea what their site was about. Sorry - but as an ad director and designer for nearly 30 years, I consider the internetretailer.com homepage as a visual marketing flop. There are areas that flip from one thing to another and both fields have type in them that you couldn't read. I don't have time to sit around and wait to read what I missed - neither do most folks surfing for something. The small white type is hard to read, there is stuff everywhere, and yet there is no clear concise statement of what the site/business offers. Again, I don't have time to read through a bunch of articles to find out whether or not the site is for me. Sorry-
JCfromDC
8 months ago
142 comments
It almost looks like a direct mail piece. From a strictly visual, DESIGN standpoint, it wouldn't win a lot of awards. BUT, from the ease for the USER standpoint, nothing could be simpler, which is what a website should be all about
zaky2007
8 months ago
812 comments
great,thank you