That Milka is violet, Coca-Cola red or Maggi yellow is not news to anybody.
However, colours in marketing don’t have to only be a so-called distinctive brand asset. They can have many more roles. Martin Vlk, Fiala & Šebek’s strategy specialist, covers this topic in an interview for Svět obchodu magazine.

Colour is the first attribute the customer mentions when describing a brand. It is of utmost importance for its memorability. A strong brand is able to get hold of a certain colour communication-wise mainly in the segment where it belongs or, as in the case of Milka, across all categories. Another area covers the perception of the product itself, its characteristics, taste, etc. This is affected by the way we perceive particular colours, their tones or richness. Regarding food, the richness of the used colours is very often connected with the perception of taste, its fullness or even spiciness. It can also be a means of how we perceive the product value. Nespresso with its wide scale of rich, metallic tones matched with black is a perfect example of how to create the premium brand world with the use of colours.

The colour is then a significant factor wherever the visual inputs influence our choice, even indirectly as colours subconsciously convey our emotions. And it is emotions that make the majority of our decisions. For instance, in the car industry, silver or another metallic shade of darker colours was for a long time the most-sold colour. White was perceived as the most ordinary and was very often associated with the basic, cheapest model. There was no additional price and white cars didn’t sell very well. Nowadays, the situation has changed. Thanks to Apple, white is a cool symbol of style and you have to pay extra for a white car.

Does a suitable colour combination influence the increase in sales?

We don’t have any hard data. It may be available with some producers, sellers or research agencies. However, it is true that certain colours or their combinations have this effect in the strong fmcg competition. A typical example is a contrasting combination of yellow and red or yellow and black, which attracts attention when communicating different promo and sales offers.

Are there any examples when the colour change actually impaired the impact of package?

We can all remember when diet products only used very light colours to be easy to distinguish and differentiate from the standard, richer or sweeter ones. However, as many researches have confirmed, these colours also carry the information about a faint and flat taste irrespective of the actual situation, where it doesn’t necessarily apply. That’s why nowadays the majority of diet products take advantage of rich colours and the low fat or sugar content is communicated otherwise.