Color Of Success
Filed Under Business Card Tips, Business Cards, Tips, graphic design
Could color be the secret ingredient to helping your business survive in a down economy? Yes, according to a study on color and its impact on small businesses conducted by Xerox and International Communications. It found that color has a strong ability to attract new customers, make companies appear larger, increase customers’ memory retention and make marketing collateral and presentations more effective.
Leslie Harrington, Ph.D., director of the Color Association of the United States, has teamed up with color experts from Staples, Inc. to offer these tips to help companies make smart color decisions:
1. Know Your Audience: Research which colors are associated with specific emotional responses or meanings. For example, purple is often used to convey prestige, while green is seen more as a neutral color. Red is symbolic of leadership and strength; yellow is seen as intellectual and innovative. The color orange is vibrant, which is why it’s often used to represent cleaning products.
2. Present in Color: Color is the fastest and strongest touch point with people. According to the study, 90 percent of small businesses surveyed believe customers remember presentations and documents better when color is used. Other research shows that 60 percent of customers base their purchasing decision on color.
Research also reveals that readers decide whether to read or reject pamphlets and direct-mail pieces in just 2.5 seconds, and that 55 percent of people are more likely to pick up a full-color piece of direct mail first. Color can help keep your materials out of the junk mail pile.
Color also increases readers’ attention spans and recall by 82 percent and makes an impression that is 39 percent more memorable than black and white.
3. Get Creative: Some companies select nontraditional colors for their products to get customers’ attention. Think about how you can differentiate a specific product or service with bold, out-of-the-ordinary uses of color to make them memorable.
4. Less Is Often More: Color is a powerful way to communicate, so be careful not to overdo it. Use one key color and a few accents. Simple, strong color messages can keep your brand memorable. Work with no more than three colors to keep things clean and concise.
To give businesses innovative ways to bring projects to life through color, Staples offers a wide range of color printing services for everything from business cards to proposals as well as Xerox-trained color experts and Xerox equipment at 1,500 Copy & Print Centers in stores nationwide.
For more information, visit www.office.xerox.com and www.staples.com/copyandprint.
Compliments of NAPS
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