The Color of Money

                         The Money Generating Power of Color

 

 

Color can sway thinking, change actions and cause reactions, and can definitely affect the response rate of your direct mail response rate. Marketing psychologists have tested and proven that color impressions are both quick and long lasting. Furthermore, they state that a lasting impression of color is made within 90 seconds and that color accounts for 60% of acceptance or rejection.

 

The right color combinations are critically important when it comes to your direct mail response. The human brain requires a sense of order when it looks at anything or it will reject whatever is seen. When too many colors are used, the viewer becomes confused and automatically rejects the image. If not enough color is used, attention is totally lost.

 

Many corporate professionals seek information on the impact of color usage. When big corporations want to know about color, they turn to the Pantone Color Institute when it comes to the impact of color in decorating, textiles, and publishing. Pantone Color Institute has, over the years, compiled various studies and other data that shed light on how color impacts a viewer. Here is what they discovered about legibility, comprehension and memory retention in relationship to printed materials, self-made business documents, flyers and presentations.

 

Their research showed that one’s choices of colors are not always conducive for effective legibility. Surprisingly, they discovered that the best color combination for printed material is a yellow background with black type. Why? Yellow and black have opposite chromatic value. This combination is proven to score the highest for memory retention. Yellow is the most visible color of all the colors. It is the first color that the human eye notices. It is useful for getting attention!

 

The color yellow is used for school buses, caution lights, road signs, and McDonald’s golden arches, newer fire engines, road signs, double lines on the highway, fire hydrants, the Yellow Pages in your phone book, legal pads and #2 pencils. Color experts’ research proves: yellow makes a difference!

 

Pantone’s research shows that the best color combination is black ink on yellow paper because:

 

Yellow paper with black ink scores the highest for legibility.

 

Yellow paper with black ink scores the highest for memory retention.

 

There is a 85% rate of light contrast between black and yellow.

 

Yellow paper with black ink increases your response rate significantly (up to 42%!).

 

Black ink on white paper is the second best combination.

 

By the way, I found it interesting that the Pantone Color Institute features goldenrod as the background color at their own Web Site!

 

Pantone Color Institute states that when printing on white paper, it is best to stay away from a light colored ink. If you want your text or images to be in the same color family, always go lighter or darker to create enough contrast. The poorest color combinations are black on dark blue, yellow on white and orange on white because the eye will struggle to differentiate the background from the foreground.

 

The perception of colors is influenced by the other colors that surround them. For example when red and green are printed side by side, they appear to fight with one another visually - seeming to vibrate! This is the worst color combination of all. The colors red and yellow sell more things in the grocery store. The eye rests on the products on the shelves for only a split second, yet the colors red and yellow tend to stop the eye. Both of these colors increase appetite and muscle response. Restaurants use red because people tend to order and eat more food, and leave quickly because time seems to pass more slowly.

 

Yellow is the most cheerful color of the spectrum - it is both stimulating and attractive to the eye. Do you remember how a yellow ribbon during the Gulf War became the symbol of hope and optimism?

 

Did you know that the human eye can actually see seven million colors!? Some colors and combinations of colors can cause eye irritation, headaches and wreak havoc with vision. Other colors and combinations are soothing, can maximize productivity and minimize visual fatigue.

 

Color affects the clothes we wear, our emotions and our reactions, and it definitely affects the response rate to direct mailings. Some studies indicate that the use of yellow paper can increase your direct mail response rate as much as 42%! The use of pink paper is said to increase your response rate by 24%, while blue paper only increases your response rate by 12%.

 

If you want to get the highest response to your flyers and direct mail pieces, follow the advice of the experts and stick to a yellow or goldenrod background with black ink!