August 2, 2013,
Guru in a Bottle 
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A few years’ ago I had the privilege to work with one of my heroes, Dr Edward de Bono, the grandfather of lateral thinking, in helping to launch his book, Think! Before It’s too Late.
The book launch was unlike others in that we decided that Edward de Bono should host a lunch for a cross-section of some remarkable people from all walks of life at the River Terrace at the House of Lords.
Edward de Bono conceived of a way in which we can solve problems by ‘wearing’ different coloured hats that had the power to break the habit of linear thinking or critical analysis that we tend to default to as a result of our narrowly constructed education experience in the West.
‘Six Thinking Hats’ is a lateral thinking process that frees us to think much more creatively about how a solution could look like.
As Edward told me, he wanted to teach people to ‘think about thinking’ – something that as a society we tended to undervalue as we cram young minds full of curriculum subjects in the hope that the pupil will attain a high exam grade rather than provide them with the tools to problem solve for themselves.
And it was the power of colour as a way to help move our thinking and ultimately influence behaviour that’s an interesting aspect of Edward de Bono’s work and referenced in my latest book, High Impact Marketing That Gets Results.
In the fast-paced and ever changing market place and as a result of social media that increasingly engages with customer segments in a visual way, marketers need to start to think about the power of colour.
Last year, Cadbury secured the trade mark right to the purple colour (Pantone 2685C) for milk chocolate in bar and tablet form, milk chocolate for eating and drinking chocolate in the face of opposition from Nestle. The case was heard in the UK High Court as the chocolate manufacturer had invested millions in building an extensive reputation in the purple colour and this had become deep rooted in the minds of consumers and was an intrinsic part of the appeal of its chocolate products.
Research shows that our brains are wired to associate specific feelings with certain colours. Most of us are aware that colours can evoke certain emotions, but it may surprise you to learn that colour accounts for 60% of a person’s acceptance or rejection of another person or object and over 92% of people are more heavily influenced by the visual dimension than say taste, smell, touch and sound and that full-colour advertising has a 26% higher recall than ads in black and white.
A challenge for marketers is that different colours convey different meaning. This meaning can be of two major types: natural associations and psychological or cultural associations.
Natural association stands for colours that bring to mind certain ideas generally registered by everyone and are universal in nature.
Like associating green with nature and trees, yellow with sun and blue with the sky.
Psychological or cultural associations are different for different part of the world and reflect varied culture.
For example, black is associated with death in the West and yet white is often associated with death in other parts of the world, including India.
Then add to this various hues and other associated text and verbal cues and all of these variables combine to determine how a brand is received and perceived. From a medical perspective, marketers may want to gravitate towards the colour red. There are three groups of colour receptors in the back of our eyeball: for red, green and for blue.
We have on average greater amount of red colour receptors and as a result red is the colour most easily seen also under unfavourable light conditions. It’s one reason why warning signs and the ‘stop’ light are red.
Most fast food restaurants are often decorated with vibrant colours like reds and oranges as research shows that such colours encourages diners to eat quickly and leave, allowing the restaurant to increase its footfall and customer churn that increases its turnover and profitability.
At the other end of the scale, up-market restaurants often favour blue as this creates a calming and relaxing effect on its diners, prolonging the length of the meal and increasing the amount of food and drink ordered.
Blue remains the number one colour used by businesses in Europe, Asia and North America; although to stand out from the crowd marketers may decide that a more radical colour other than blue is required.
Toys, books and children’s web sites tend to use basic primary colours because research shows that children prefer these colours and respond to these positively than any other pastel shades.
In India, red is symbolic of strength and purity and is associated with best-selling Lifebuoy and Eveready brands.
The science of the power of colour is still in its infancy compared with other marketing disciplines and is an area where more research is required. But major brand owners are in the vanguard in understanding how colour can increase brand recognition.
For example, Heinz introduced a tomato ketchup variant – Heinz EZ Squirt Blastin’ Green ketchup that achieved 10m sales generating more than $23m in seven months of its launch, making it the highest increase in sales in the brand’s history. And in happier times, Apple famously launched a new range of iMacs into an otherwise homogenous market under the tag “It doesn’t have to be beige” which helped to rejuvenate a brand that had been haemorrhaging $1.8bn in cash just two years earlier.
Ultimately, marketers need to be aware that colours evoke certain feelings towards the brand so it’s vital to choose colours that represent your identity effectively. By choosing a colour or a combination of colours is important in getting your message across. The art of influencing and selling increasingly depends on visual cues – the strongest and most persuasive being colour.
[…] Linear thinking. I was fortunate in my career to have worked with Dr Edward de Bono who demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that lateral thinking can be so much more powerful in […]