Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S1E18 - Colour Schemes: How Colours Make You Buy

Episode Date: May 5, 2012

In the world of marketing, the use of colour is a studied science. As a result, colours play a bigger role in your purchasing decisions than you may think. A colour can make you feel a certain way about a company, or it can trigger you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from, no, no. You're not you when you're hungry. You're in good hands with us. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. The cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band

is arguably the most famous of all time. The concept of the album had the Fab Four pretending to be another band. As McCartney put it, at that point, the four lads were simply tired of being the Beatles. They hired pop artist Peter Blake to create the cover. Lennon and McCartney told him to imagine the Sgt. Pepper band had just finished a concert in a park. Blake asked them to make a list of all the people

they would like to have at this imaginary concert. So the Beatles gave him a detailed list of personalities, ranging from Bob Dylan and W.C. Fields to Marlon Brando, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, and boxer Sonny Liston. It took Peter Blake and his wife Jan Hayworth two weeks to create the cover in the studio. It was an intricate collage of over 70 celebrities,

and it is said to have cost 100 times more than any regular cover did at that time. The Beatles themselves appear twice on the front cover. Wax figures of them, circa 1964, are seen looking at themselves as the Sgt. Pepper Band, circa 1967. It was maybe the most elaborate album cover ever done up until that time. Beyond the 70-plus images of famous people, the cover also included various statues, dolls,

a 9-inch Sony TV set, a trophy, a drum skin, a hookah pipe, a snake, plants, a mound of earth, flowers, a tree, and a gnome. The design won a Grammy for Best Album Cover. It is possibly the most widely recognized and most replicated cover of all time. Next came Magical Mystery Tour with a detailed cover and booklet. Then, the Beatles put out a double album. As usual, there were high expectations, not just for the music, but for the cover art. So the Beatles did what they always did. They broke new ground.

They simply put out an album that was all white, front and back. The monochromatic album cover was the polar opposite of Peter Blake's design. Even the album's title, The Beatles, wasn't printed on the cover. It was blind embossed. There was, however, a unique seven-digit serial number printed near the bottom, at a slight angle, which told each buyer how close they were to copy number one, which, by the way, was owned by John Lennon, because he yelled the loudest, says Paul McCartney. While it was officially called The Beatles,

the LP has been universally rechristened as The White Album. The record, the first to be issued on the Apple label, hit the top of the charts, yet issued no singles. And it may surprise you to know that The White Album is the top-selling record of the 1960s even though the cover has a lack of color no photography and an absence of any traditional design elements it is still instantly recognizable around the world its whiteness is its calling card many cite this album as the beginning of the

end for the Beatles. The fact they weren't photographed as a group was telling. Their manager had just died, there was disharmony in the studio, and many felt the 30 tracks were really a collection of solo songs. As a result, the color white was analyzed repeatedly as people looked for clues. Many historians have interpreted it as wiping the board clean. The Fab Four, as we knew them, would be no more from that point on. Interpreting colors is an interesting science. In the world of marketing, colors play a bigger role in your purchasing decisions than you may think.

Colors can make you feel a certain way about a company, or they can trigger a specific desire. A simple change in colors can affect the sales of a product immediately, or a certain color can make us seem more desirable to the opposite sex. Colors can even encourage us more desirable to the opposite sex. Colors can even encourage us to spend money and even gamble. If there's one thing the marketing industry has learned, it's that happiness is a warm color. Yes, it is. You're under the influence.

Color is a valuable messaging tool. It can provoke physical reactions faster than shapes or forms. It can elicit emotions. You may be surprised to learn how much color affects the daily decisions you make, including your first decision of the day, what to wear. The use of color in marketing and advertising is a very specific science. Research reveals that people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing.

And between 60 and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone. Hi Terry. Hey Steve. New shirt? Yep. Interesting. Colors have also been a battleground in marketing. For the first 100 years of modern branding,

you could not trademark a color. But all that changed once and for all, thanks to insulation. Owens Corning began making fiberglass insulation in 1938. When insulation is manufactured, it is white. So, after many years of all insulation looking alike, Owens Corning made the decision to dye their product red in 1956. But the red dye made the fiberglass wool look pink. The pink insulation was shipped out, but the company wasn't happy with the color.

After all, it was a male-dominated industry. So, when Owens Corning sent the next shipment out, reverting back to the original color, they got the most unexpected response. Installers began asking for the pink insulation. So, the company stuck with pink, and it was a marketing masterstroke. Then, in 1987, Owens Corning made legal history

when it became the first company to trademark a single color. They had proved to the courts that their insulation was clearly identified as pink, that they had spent over $50 million marketing it as such, and they had even licensed the Pink Panther as a mascot. Hence, the courts agreed it was a protectable trademark. According to reports, pink insulation commands

over 50% of the home insulation market. When I worked on the advertising for Fiberglass Canada in the 80s, it claimed over 70% of the Canadian market, due in large part to funny commercials like this.

More than 2 million Canadians have insulated their homes with fiberglass pink. Here's what one particular couple did with the money they saved. We saved enough to buy 252 beautiful pink flamingos. 262, won't you? I stand corrected. Notice that all of their beaks are a beautiful hue of yellow. What you do with the money you save is your business. Our business is making sure you do save money.

Fiberglass paint comb insulation. Do it for the money you save. That product was one of the biggest lessons in color I ever had. Insulation is a hidden purchase. People buy it once or twice in their lives, stick it between their walls, and never see it again. I'll never forget the challenge

our fiberglass client, Grant McDermott, put to us. He said, I sell the most boring product in the world. Make me famous. And, by leveraging nothing other than that counterintuitive color, we did. The color pink gave us a marketing edge, and the resulting campaign became one of the most

famous in the 1980s. We created pink print ads, pink-themed radio ads, and a series of award-winning TV commercials, which you can watch on our website. In order for the courts to grant a color trademark, a company must prove their color has acquired a secondary meaning. The Robin's Egg Blue Tiffany boxes are a great case in point. First seen on the cover of their catalog in 1878, that blue now immediately signals Tiffany as a brand to a large percentage of the population. The brand and the color have become inseparable in the minds of consumers.

But the trademarking of colors has hit a speed bump due to a court case going on right now between two famous fashion designers. Christian Louboutin is famous for his glamorous shoe designs that cost anywhere from $400 to $4,000. His shoes all have one distinguishing feature, a bright red sole. If you've ever seen celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker at the Oscars flashing red on the undersides of her high heels, those would be Louboutins.

Back in 1992, Louboutin saw an assistant painting her nails a bright red, and he decided to try lacquering the soles of his shoes the same shade. The bright red sole became a sensation, and a symbol of the Louboutin brand. In 2008, he obtained a U.S. patent and trademark for his signature red soles. But, three years later, Yves Saint Laurent came out with red-soled shoes as well. Louboutin immediately sued. It's an interesting case. The question became,

should anyone in the fashion industry be given a monopoly on a single color? Can one designer own the color red? The courts ended up siding with the Yves Saint Laurent company, allowing them to continue selling red-soled shoes. The judge also implied that Louboutin's 2008 trademark should be cancelled. Louboutin's lawyer insisted they are not claiming basic red, but are trying to protect a particular Chinese red color in a particular place on a particular item.

Tiffany's rushed to Louboutin's defense, as this ruling would have implications for their famous blue boxes. As of this writing, Louboutin has appealed the decision. And we'll be right back. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives, available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. Because the eye can detect over 7 million color variations,

there had to be a benchmark for shades and hues to settle disputes. The Pantone Company became that standard. In 1963, founder Lawrence Herbert developed a system of identifying and matching colors. He cataloged over 1,100 solid colors and the thousands of shades and hues that fall out of those colors and gave each a code number. For example, the red in the Canadian flag is Pantone number 032C. The famous blue Tiffany's uses is Pantone color 1837, named for the year it was founded.

Louboutin's souls are Pantone No. 18-1663. When it comes to the subject of persuasion, each color carries very specific meanings. Take the color red. It's one of the most passionate colors. It connotes action, adventure, fire, lust, anger, courage, and rebellion. Therefore, it's a color best used for action-oriented products and brands. Red, for example, is the predominant color in the Virgin logo, which is perfect for that brand,

as founder Richard Branson is definitely adventurous and rebellious. Blue is an interesting color. As a rule, it stands for security, trust, productivity, and calmness of mind. As a result, blue is the color of choice for the UN flag. It's also the most popular logo color in the corporate world. Think of the Allstate logo, who wants you to feel you are in good hands. Or IBM, often called Big Blue. Blue is often cited as the most popular color in the world. Six of the top ten colors of Crayola crayons are shades of blue, as a matter of fact.

Yet, surprisingly, there was no term for blue in the classical Greek texts. As writer Jim Bernard points out, the Greek poet Homer never once described the sky as blue. He calls it starry, broad, great, iron or copper, but never once blue. Blue was also absent from ancient Indian, Hebrew and Parthian texts. A perplexing omission considering the sky is such an overarching element of civilization and mythology. Orange is a color that suggests value and discounts. Online bank ING has branded itself as orange,

no doubt in part to remind you of their promise of reduced banking fees. Green represents freshness. Think the Jolly Green Giant and Subway. Green is also about revitalization and is one reason why the Starbucks logo is this color. It wants to be the place where you can renew yourself. Green is the color of choice for companies associated with health and wellness

and eco-friendly products. For centuries, purple symbolized nobility and wealth. In Elizabethan times, it was an offense to wear it if your address didn't have a moat around it. Its attachment to luxury can also be traced back to the fact purple dye was very costly to manufacture back then. It allegedly took over 10,000 mollusks to make one gram. Cadbury chocolate has also been associated with purple for over 100 years.

It was Queen Victoria's favorite color, and it's believed the Cadbury brothers chose it as a tribute to her. Recently, Cadbury won a fight against Nestle to trademark purple in the UK, which, if you're keeping score, is Pantone color number 2685C. The color brown is earthy and contains feelings of honesty and dependability.

UPS began using brown in 1916 because in the world of package delivery, the name of the game is dependability. Yellow stands for sunny warmth, cheeriness, fun, and optimism. Black is really the absence of all color, but it's the color of authority, power, and luxury. Which brings us to the color white. It represents cleanliness and innovation.

Two reasons why Apple loves the color so much. White always needs another color to accompany it because it can't be seen otherwise. It has a feeling of lightness and is the reason why most planes are painted this color. It soothes the concern we all secretly harbor that a machine that size can't possibly become airborne. White is the number one color in automobiles this year.

Pearl white is number two. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest.

And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Many companies combine colors to provoke responses. Red and orange are colors that boost appetite, so that's why you see red in so many fast food restaurants. The McDonald's logo is red and yellow. Red stimulates appetite, yellow means fun. Blue, by the way, is thought to suppress appetite

because there are so very few blue foods, which is why so many restaurants avoid the color. Weight loss plans even suggest painting your dining room blue or using blue plates so you'll eat less amazon.com has an interesting logo the word Amazon is in black suggesting Authority and a yellow arrow goes from the a in Amazon and points to the Zed meaning you'll have fun finding everything from A to Z. The Google logo uses a combination of blue, red and yellow, symbolizing trust, adventure and fun. But it also has a lime green L, which

Google threw in there to suggest they break the rules. Colors have a remarkable influence on us physically as well. A green color scheme in a workplace has shown evidence that it results in less absenteeism due to illness. Workers at a certain factory complained that the black boxes they had to lift were too heavy, so the boxes were repainted mint green. The load didn't change, but the workers were happier. At another

company, people working in a blue room complained the office was too cold. When the walls were painted a warm peach, sweaters came off, even though the temperature had not changed. People will gamble and make riskier decisions if surrounded by the color red.

Guess what the dominant color of Las Vegas is? In one of the more interesting uses of color psychology, the football coach at the University of Iowa had the visitor's locker room painted pink. Why? To reduce their aggression. Research has also proven that so much of our response to color is not conditioned. For example, the color red is inherently exciting to the human brain.

It automatically increases blood pressure and heart rates. In many non-human species, including baboons and chimpanzees, a female displaying red on her body increases mating behavior in males. An experiment was done recently to determine if a color can make a woman seem more attractive. In the test,

a woman wore three different colored shirts. Researchers wanted to know which color would provoke men to ask more intimate questions of her and which color would persuade men to sit closer. One shirt was red, one was green, the other was blue. Without a doubt, men were overwhelmingly drawn to the woman in red. It was the same for women. The Journal of Experimental Psychology

discovered that women find men photographed in red shirts or against a red background were more attractive and desirable. Interesting. The reason stop signs and warning lights are red is that we physically respond faster to colors than to symbols.

Our hand speed is actually greater under red conditions. It should come as no surprise that color affects purchasing decisions. A hot dog restaurant chain with 350 locations in the U.S. added orange to their stores to convey the idea of inexpensive food

and sales increased 7% immediately. A consultant changed the color of Tidy Bowl's toilet cleanser bottle from light blue and green to stark white letters on a dark background. The modification was meant to give it more power and an enhanced image of cleanliness. In an 18-month period following the change, sales jumped 40%. Xerox changed their logo from a stately blue to red recently for a very strategic reason. They wanted to signal to people that they weren't just a traditional copier company

anymore, but are in fact a diversified technology company that offers printers, scanners, faxes, and imaging equipment. Red suggested action. Raymond Lowy was one of the world's greatest designers. He created the famous Shell and Exxon logos, designed the Greyhound bus brand, and gave Air Force One its presidential look. In 1940, the president of American Tobacco, George Washington Hill, burst into his office one day and threw a package of Lucky Strikes Down on Lowy's desk. He said to Lowy, Someone said you could design a better pack, but I don't believe it.

Lowy said, I bet I can. George Washington Hill said, How much? So they bet $50,000 that Lowy couldn't improve the Lucky Strike package. One month later, Lowy returned with a completely new color scheme. He changed the old green pack to a shiny white color. That one change alone did two things.

It made the pack instantly more attractive to women and it was cheaper to print. Lowy also made another ingenious decision. On the original pack, the red logo only appeared on one side. Lowy put it on both, so the brand name would be seen twice as often. Sales of Lucky Strike surged. That design would remain for the next 40 years, and George Washington Hill happily wrote a check to Raymond Lowy for $50,000.

Color is a silent salesperson. While I maintain there is no such thing as subliminal advertising, no secret messages hidden in the ice cubes, color does work at a subliminal level. They are symbols that evoke powerful human emotions. Sometimes those emotions are primal. The parallels between the way men and their fellow primates

respond to the color red in females are undeniably striking. On the other hand, we've had to learn that Pantone color number 1837 means someone is getting expensive jewelry. That's why context is everything,

and marketing exists to provide that very thing. When you see colors in a sign, or a logo, or in a store's color theme, it's not just a designer's whim. The colors are carefully chosen to underscore a company's image or to stimulate positive feelings that can lead to a purchase. It is the main reason why companies trademark colors, although the ability to do that is currently balancing on a red stiletto. Colors have a secret language.

That's why it doesn't matter, nor should it matter, if a marketer personally likes a color or not. That's not the point in the higher realm of marketing. The question isn't what shade of turquoise looks best, or is the white album white enough? The real question is, what is the color of money? When you're under the influence? I'm Terry O'Reilly. Hi, Terry.

It's the Men's Den Fashion Store calling. The six red shirts you ordered are in. Drop by any time. Thank you. Under the Influence was produced by Pirate Toronto and New York. Research for this episode was done by Courtney Pitcher. See you next week.