How Colors Affect Your Spending

As I examine my addiction to shopping and the materialisticness of our culture, I’m finding interesting things about the media and advertising.

In the March 2013 issue of RealSimple Magazine, they had a one page blurb thing on ‘How color affects your spending”. They had a list of 12 people slated as experts in various fields, so I think it’s pretty legit.

I’ll break it down a little, their explanations are more extensive but you can read their article if you want that.

BLack: Makes anything seem more expensive, upscale, sophisticated. Especially used in makeup industry.

Blue: connotes trust and dependability, used especially in banks and finance business. It also improves customer loyalty by 15% (hence why I constantly spend money at OldNavy?).

Burgundy: rich and refined (like red wine), so thing in this color tend to be more expensive. Brown (as in chocolate) also has commutations with luxury.

Green: All they could come up with for green was that it’s over used to mean “eco friendly”. But to be careful because sometimes it just ain’t so.

Orange: is apparently associated with fairness and affordability, stores such as Home Depot and Payless use it. But I thought they used it as the prison color because prisoners couldn’t stand it.

Pink: (in the shade closest to bubblegum) has calming effects. Seeing pink slows people’s endocrine systems and tranquilizes tense muscles… their thought is that you will feel less pain when the money is separated from your wallet. (cough*victoriassecret*cough) I guess it must be true.

Red: Experts warn shops that, like a stop sign, this color can make consumers hit the breaks (on spending). In nature this color is used as a warning, so in stores we are more careful with spending.

Violet: This royal hue makes people think of, well, royalty. So it makes you feel like what you are spending is worth the costly price.

White: Suggests simplicity and purity (75% of top skin-care brands are packaged in white) and it also stands for modernity and honesty, which is probably why iApple is addicted to the non color.

Yellow: Evokes energy and increased appetite, which is what makes it a popular choice with fast-food restaurants.

Applying this to me seems accurate, I shop the most at OldNavy (blue and white) and Victorias Secret brand Pink (pink on pink). So that means I buy from places that have a perceived loyalty and simplicity, and that make me relax and feel less pain.